These could have been three different people, three Union ministers, three chief ministers, three MLAs. But that is unheard of, and in terms of access "" except for a chief minister who is known to cycle his way to office and another whose family is reported to be still commuting on cycle-rickshaws "" power usually means a distancing from the people. |
The kings and queens of yore mingled with the ordinary mortals when forced into oblivion. There are stories of Rana Pratap sharing a coarse millet-bread made by a Bhil woman while wandering in jungles/deserts of Mewar, or of legendary kings walking around in cognito.
Closer to here and now, Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad keeps an open house in Krishi Bhawan, which houses his ministry. Anyone can just walk in after making an entry at the reception. Human Resources Minister Arjun Singh, last heard endorsing Rahul Gandhi as possible prime minister, lives in a fortress guarded by several tiers of staff whom even journalists find it difficult to penetrate. He is minister of education.
Health Minister A Ramdoss is all ears once he gives time, which is next to impossible given a tight schedule which rarely includes visits to rural health centres, not to speak of a march to anybody's office in Varanasi to say that most women haven't got the allowance given on child birth under the Janani Suraksha Yojana.
In fact, this is true of most people in power. It must be double so with the Gandhi family given their special security needs, their near-royal status.
The more the pity. For there is little use launching sundry development programmes without having an interest in getting them implemented.
If all elected chieftans of modern times were to take ownership of each of the programmes, these would not remain just pieces of paper.
If some of them visited anganwadis, primary health centres, primary schools, spent some nights with tribals in the forests in Naxal-hit villages in Chhattisgarh, the Forest Rights Act would have new meaning, schools would work better and schemes would be altered based on inputs from the people.
In a century where politics is about grabbing power and then cocooning oneself away from the realities of the country, it is an interesting development that Rahul Gandhi, who has grown up in a cocoon of protection, is today being sought after by activists and civil society groups who want to get themselves heard.
The long-suffering citizens of Bhopal who are yet to get justice, not to speak of any sort of rehabilitation, turned to Rahul Gandhi as someone who could make corridors of power turn an ear to them a quarter century after the worst industrial disaster in the country.
Farmers of Vidarbha who were left out of the Rs 60,000-crore loan waiver found a spokesman in Gandhi and NREGP activists have been finding it easy to reach him on issues related to the scheme.
Rahul Gandhi's trysts with tribals, Dalits and farmers could be just a political strategy to attract votes in an election year or a genuine attempt to understand people and their problems.
In either case, it is a lesson for many of his own partymen and rivals, not to speak of the bureaucrats who draft policies based on their notions of what is good for the people but keep their doors closed to them.
