New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal have a lot in common. Both are self-made mass leaders and powerful orators. Both know how to use media and social media to create a huge hype over anything and everything. They are also good at playing victim when faced with harsh realities of Indian politics. They represent north pole and south pole in politics. Always at loggerheads with each other. In the last 18 months since he took charge as the Prime Minister, Modi has announced several programmes with a big hype and unprecedented media support. Kejriwal has also done exactly the same.
On October 2, 2014 Gandhi Jayanthi Day, PM Modi launched the so-called game changer “Swach Bharat or Clean India” campaign by sweeping the pavement outside a police station in New Delhi. Almost everybody in the country did the same on that day. It was dubbed as the biggest initiative to keep India clean. Media and Social Media went to town with all kinds of stories hyping the programme calling it a national ‘movement’. Fourteen months after the launch of “Swach Bharat”, India still remains dirty. As some people say it has got more dirtier.
The PM’s ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’ or bank account for all has also met with same fate. No real change is visible or being felt on the ground.
Taking or not taking a cue from PM Modi’s high profile initiatives, Arvind Kejriwal has also launched a very high profile, very ambitious “Odd and Even” formula to reduce the air pollution and decongest Delhi’s choked roads. It is a fact that Delhi is the most polluted city in the World and something needs to be done immediately to save the people from dying due to respiratory problems. There is nothing wrong with Kejriwal’s “Odd & Even” initiative. The problem is with the hype and euphoria.
Within three hours of “Odd & Even” formula coming into effect in the National Capital, a euphoric Kejriwal declared that Delhi has accepted it and it has now become a “movement”. That is the whole issue. Not even 25% of Delhi’s commuters are on the road on the first day of the New Year 2016. It is a long weekend. Many people have gone out of Delhi to celebrate the New Year. There will be thin traffic on the roads till Monday. The real test would be on Monday, when millions of Delhiites hit the roads.
It is also a fact that Delhi has the least respect for the law and rules. Majority have no civic sense. It would be an impossible job to enforce something like “Odd & Even” which affects everybody in the city state. People may not follow the government orders after a few days. Their reluctance might even force the Delhi government not to enforce it properly. Worse, the Kejriwal government might drop the whole idea of “Odd and Even” altogether describing it not feasible.
A good initiative like “Odd & Even” needs a measured response and cool handling. Hype and euphoria won’t last long. The shining example is PM Modi’s “Swach Bharat or Clean India”, which remains on the paper with no visible impact.
Kejriwal who always attacks PM Modi for everything should realise that after euphoria and hype, reality will bite.
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