Delhi’s new dispensation should walk the talk

BJP’s handsome win in Delhi and the AAP keeping about a third of its seats in the outgoing Assembly is not the end of the political smear. The next few months will likely see election petitions citing the same issues AAP had pointed out about the conduct of elections.

It has happened in Maharashtra where some 100 petitions have been filed but it could be a grinding task. Courts don’t necessarily move at the speed expected of them as delays are not exceptions. Optimism on speed could be misplaced. But AAP may not be deterred.

One could also expect the Lieutenant Governor’s office to act promptly because it would be a double-engine Sarkar. What one could see is an approving, even an obliging L-G for a BJP government with no allies required to prop it up can do no wrong.

You would have got the picture by now, right?

Now comes the issue of what BJP christened the chief minister’s residence as the Sheesh Mahal. And of course the golden or gold-plated toilet. Would the incoming chief minister be provided a more becoming and modest home by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD)? It would be nice if it did.

After all, BJP would have to walk the talk because it had taken a high moral stand on the kind of toilet the bungalow had. It had spoken of a bar. Perhaps the next chief minister does not know swimming. Perhaps it would be used for poolside parties where only nimboo paani is served.

After the requisite chest-thumping post the victory, it would not be remiss of the party to prove every point it sought to make by a wide range of allegations. Papers and documents available in the files can be useful to impress us all that the BJP walks the talk. That the AAP was ill-suited to run Delhi.

Oh yes, there is this small thing about the liquor policy which had led a chief minister to jail. Perhaps this policy can do with some changes which do away with all the faults which had made it a ghotala. Since BJP declares that it is a non-corrupt party, this should be high on its agenda.

Let us not ask for the moon for it would be unrealistic. It would be simpler to just wait and see if the roads become smoother, the Yamuna is cleansed, the air that all Delhi’s residents breathe is scrubbed of pollutants, and mohalla clinics and schools get further upgrades.

All that the BJP has to do is merely walk the electoral talk. Nothing more, nothing less.