Why I am not a 'Chowkidar'

When I was yet to touch the 5-year age mark, I wanted to be a cop. A swashbuckling, bad-guys-beating, brave police officer. Yes, yes, those were the days of Kiran Bedi-inspired 'Udaan' being aired on the only television channel of our times, Doordarshan. From those pre-'Dabangg' cop dreams to wanting to act to becoming a journalist and then running my own startups…my professional aspirations metamorphosed many times. I dreamed dreams of unmatchable ambition.

But through all my professional ups and downs, as I often oscillated between disillusionment and carving my own identity, I always found myself eventually aspiring for bigger, better things. From a better quality of life to greater work-life balance, from increasing stable incomes to adding appreciating assets, as with any other normal individual, I too aspired to be better tomorrow than I am today, and achieve that happiness that we all continuously pursue and try to hold on to. Happiness may mean different things to different people but the pursuit of it is real. Economic happiness, emotional bliss, or spiritual contentment — all of us on this planet are chasing some form of happiness at varying stages of our lives. Even the monk or the ascetic is chasing something – greater peace, more spirituality, etc. All of us are constantly chasing, aspiring, dreaming.

In this land of more than a billion dreams, where hopes die deaths of poverty and malnutrition every day, we all saw a collective dream. In 2014, shaking the corridors of power, a chaiwallah had become Prime Minister! What a dream it was to show the billion plus people. What fantastic ambition! It is possible to get past an unprivileged past and on the basis of hard work and merit, reach the echelons of the nation. It is not impossible; a chaiwallah became Prime Minister; so, what stops any of us from imagining a life better than what fate had bestowed?

Narendra Modi's chaiwallah campaign struck a chord with many. Even dissenters felt such an incredulous journey deserved credit and respect. Fast forward to 2019, we have yet another Lok Sabha polls knocking on our door, and PM Modi has released his latest campaign, 'Main Bhi Chowkidar'. Consider what is wrong with this campaign; there are many.

Instead of the chaiwallah story that gave the Indian voter lessons on tenacity and hard work, the chowkidar campaign does quite the opposite. It seems to be encouraging a vigilante mindset among people. If we need vigilantes to uphold the law or clean up corruption, then the government must accept failure of governance. It is urging people to take law into their own hands. Do remember here how cow lynchings are a danger and a menace in today's India. There are laws in some states to prevent cow slaughter but the goons who beat up and kill people suspected of killing or transporting cows for slaughter, pay scant heed to the law. A campaign like the chowkidar one gives these thugs all around the country licence to attack and assault people believing in some misguided chowkidar ideal.

No, I am not a chowkidar. No, I don't look down upon the profession but I am not a chowkidar because I think even chowkidars do not want to remain just that. I don't think they want their children to give up on brighter career prospects to become security guards. The chowkidar campaign is not an aspirational one for the new India that BJP trumpets about. The chowkidar campaign is just a clever political drive to stymie the effects of Congress' 'Chowkidar Chor Hain' campaign.

As a political ruse, the chowkidar campaign is cunning but as a goal for a new India, it is a poor one reflecting ever so badly on where this country is headed. So much so that even alleged corrupt politicians and sexual predators, are also using the prefix against their Twitter handles with alacrity. In the new India of 2019, we aren't aspiring to be doctors, scientists, social workers, sportspersons, businessmen…we are being shown the dream to be a chowkidar, a vigilante, and most importantly, to forget asking the only question worth asking in Lok Sabha 2019 — where are the jobs?

(The writer is a journalist and media entrepreneur. The views expressed are strictly personal)