Then your father comes to live with you. Adjustments have to be made. He has his own way of doing things. He's made you what you are, watched you grow, instilled values in you: some, like caste, that you may consider irrelevant in your current circumstances. But a little of the power has to be yielded out of respect. Space has to be made for the ideas he believes in. After all, he may be old-fashioned but that doesn't mean he's diluted his values.
Suddenly you find a child doesn't agree with you and sides with him.
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Your father wants to be accepted in your family. He is hurt: till yesterday, he was the boss, he spoke up for you. Now you want to cast him aside and do things the way you think they should be done. You are terrified power will slip out of your hands. You are afraid your children will be out of sync with the reality today if you let your father influence them too much. If the pond is dirty, the fish will be dirty too. But that is the pond, that is society and you can only hope that if you protect your children against evil influences, they will still shine like beacons of purity and light because of what you've taught them, that the influence of your father or anyone else will not be regressive.
That is the politics of leadership and power.
The person who understood this best was Mahatma Gandhi. If he cooperated with India's oppressors, the British at one stage, it was because at that time, that was the right thing to do, bargaining for a better deal for his supporters and his people, while constantly striving to be one of them, from the frugal diet to the loincloth, a lifestyle that everyone identified with. There was no one who was more conscious of the power he had than Gandhi. But he had a Plan about what to do with it.
Isn't politics about when to give up power and when to use it ? Arvind Kejriwal has abdicated power – either he wants absolute power or he wants none of it. He says everyone is corrupt and till the jhadu is allowed to clean, he will not side with anyone. At the same time, there is talk of contesting 70 Lok Sabha seats.
What happens then? If the BJP or the Congress suggest something sensible in the Lok Sabha, will the AAP suppport it or oppose it ? What will they support and what will they oppose ? Or will they just stay out of Parliament until they have the numbers to do what they think is right – whatever that might be ?
It is all very confusing. You can see what AAP doesn't want – but you are not clear what it is they want and how they're going to go about achieving it.