With ACB lodging FIR against Arvind Kejriwal for failing to
act on water tanker scam making the news, the pinnacle of political
unrighteousness proclaimed by Arvind Kejriwal seems to be buried under the
weight of obfuscation. Kejriwal who began his career as Indian Revenue Service
(IRS) officer actively involved in resolving public grievances. Shot into fame
for championing the use of state-level Right to Information (RTI) to address
the woes of Delhi public through Parivartan movement he exposed PDS scam and
was recognized as social activist. For his pivotal role of empowering the poor
citizens and crusade against corruption, he was conferred the Ramon Magsaysay
award in 2006. Cherishing the credentials of anti-corruption crusader, he rose
to instant fame by joining India Against Corruption (IAC) movement led by Anna
Hazare and Kiran Bedi. By aggressively advocating enactment of Jan Lokpal Bill,
he slowly sidelined other activists and took complete charge of the movement.
By mid-2012, he deftly replaced Anna Hazare from the evocative Jan Lokpal
Movement. Firmly seeding his political ambitions on these fertile grounds,
Kejriwal created a political outfit Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). At a time when
ordinary men and women refrained from wadding through the muddled waters of
Politics, Kejriwal displayed a rare conviction to steer clear of corruption,
cronyism, communalism, casteism and promised to revive the public delivery
systems. He offered hope to the Indian public seething with anger and felt
cheated by the rampant corruption.
With nine months of political history, riding on his grassroots
connect in New Delhi, Kejriwal startled everyone with his stellar debut
political performance in Delhi Assembly elections 2013 by clinching 28 seats.
He not only defeated three-time Congress Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in her
own bastion but audaciously sought external support of Congress Party and
formed minority government. Through a
rather politically smart stratagem of seeking public opinion before formation
of government, he awed the Delhi public. This unprecedented move coupled with
the flutter of doing away with red beacons, attending the swearing-in ceremony
by traveling in metro, Kejriwal earned unstinted public applause and faith.
Subsequently, by inducting a cabinet with an average age of 40 he made
exquisite political beginning. Aside this political makeover, AAP redefined
politics through a unique, thrifty and reliable campaigning mode. AAP
volunteers, the party workers embarked on the time tested campaigning mode of
door to door visits. Consequently, AAP managed to successfully topple the
richly funded campaigns of the national parties with modest funds. Kejriwal
thus created a history in Indian politics by becoming chief minister of the
capital state with absolutely no prior political connections and affiliations. Above
all, the fledging political party quickly learned to stay in limelight by
aggressively attacking governments and politicians. Ironically, this trend of
mudslinging and trading charges without any probity significantly emerged as
its lone survival mantra.
Reverberating performance of AAP literally changed the
political scenario of the country at the fag-end of 2013 when the country was
gearing for crucial general elections. With a political novice emerging
victorious, major political parties were forced to change their strategies.
Kejriwal was immediately catapulted to national stage. He figured in all
opinion poll charts as prime ministerial candidate too.
Assuming charge amidst
tremendous fanfare and public support, Kejriwal after an initial stint of 49
days resigned as Chief Minister after
failing to pass Jan Lok Pal Bill as per mandated constitutional guidelines. During
the short regime, Kejriwal and his adventurous cabinet had several tiffs with
the Delhi Police and the Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung. With an eye on establishing
long term political career, Kejriwal lost no time in rolling out election
freebies of 10 month waiver of electric bills, 20 kilolitres of free water
every month and retracted the approval of FDI in retail. In the meanwhile, AAP
managed pretty hard to gain political mileage through a manufactured attack on convoy
of Rakhi Birla but failed. Soon news of expulsion of newly elected MLA Vinod
Binny from the party raised doubts about the internal democracy of AAP. Shortly
party was muddled by charges of racial abuse with Law Minister Somnath Bharati
carrying out a brusque and humiliating raid on Ugandan women at mid night on charges
of prostitution on charges of prostitution and drug peddling. Subjugated by old
habits, AAP resorted to dharna politics and protested in front of Rail Bhavan
demanding suspension of four policemen, days before Republic Day Celebrations
(despite concerns of security threats). Calling himself an anarchist, Kejriwal
slept on the roads demanding immediate action & reiterated AAP’s demands of
Delhi statehood and control over Delhi police. Though crisis was averted owing to swift
intervention of Lt. Governor who proposed a compromise formula, this fete badly
tarnished party’s reputation among the middle-class. Political parties and
media lambasted AAP for remaining in the default protest mode and remaining
rudderless in governance aspects. Further, notwithstanding the recommendations
made by Lt.Governor, Kejriwal went ahead with tabulation of the bill resulting
in the blockade of the same by BJP and Congress. As a result, the much touted
jubilant political fanfare of Kejriwal’s first term came to a close.
Unfazed by his debut political debacle, like a doughty
fighter, Kejriwal aspired to remain in limelight. Hence he contested against
Narendra Modi in Varansi but lost bitterly. Though he ruefully denied the
charges of making AAP a pan-Indian party, putting up candidates in 432
constituencies’ testimonies national ambitions of Kejriwal. Owing to ground
swell of AAP in Delhi, exit polls made marginally high prediction but AAP
managed to clinch four Lok Sabha seats from Punjab. BJP won all 7 seats from
Delhi handsomely raising doubts about AAP’s popularity. Undeterred by the
electoral losses, Kejriwal regrouped his team, cheered volunteers and
strategized new game plan. He made a sensational comeback scripting stupendous
victory in the Delhi assembly elections held in Feb 2015. Winning 67 of 70
seats he decimated Congress and plundered BJP’s electoral hubris. Gradual erosion
of Congress bastions, weakening of leadership have reduced the oldest national
party to quandary. AAP began to slowly fill in the vacuum. Buoyed by the
overwhelming electoral mandate Kejriwal began to pitch himself against Modi. He
began envisaging that no party other than AAP can challenge BJP. In short, a
resplendent majority has emboldened Kejriwal imbuing him with “a holier than
thou” authoritarianism.
II Innings
Flagging off, new populist policies like 50% subsidy on power
bills for those consuming up to 400 units and free medicines to patients,
Kejriwal began his second innings. But major poll promises like free wi-fi
zones, recruitment of 55,000 government posts, installation of 10-15 lakh CCTV
cameras, legislation of Swaraj bill and building of 500 new schools and 20 new
colleges failed to see light of the day. Being adept in propaganda and
self-promotion AAP left no stone unturned to promote itself. Abdicating himself
of all portfolios, he inducted 7 ministers and appointed his long term
associate Manish Sisodia as Deputy Chief Minister. Post elections, dissidence
within the party cadres reached a crescendo. Senior leaders like Prashant
Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav started publicly flaying party for undemocratic
functioning. Consequently, both were unceremoniously ousted for conspiring
against the party and were manhandled at the national council meeting. (No
wonder why credible leaders are slowly retracing their steps). Even before the
furor of internal dissidence could subside, farmer’s suicide at AAP’s public
rally earned it severe indignation of media and other political parties for
gross insensitivity. Just few months into power several AAP legislators were
charged with civil and criminal charge for violation of law.
After quelling the internal dissidence and shunting out
voices that questioned his authoritarianism, Kejriwal aspired to have complete
control and started pushing hard for complete statehood of Delhi. While he is
aware that it is impossible for the Centre to function as subordinate to state
but Kejriwal was persistent and began squabbling with the Lt. Governor on
various issues. He launched severe attacks on Najeeb Jung calling him a stooge
of Central government and created unnecessary ruckus over issues like
appointment of Chief Secretary to Delhi for a short period of 15 days etc. Perpetual
spats with the Delhi police, which works under ministry of home affairs has
become a routine affair. His derogatory remarks of “tullu” in reference to
Police earned him a defamation suit. Constant insinuations against the central
government and questioning their constitutional authority has become order of
the day.
It might be interesting at this juncture to recall that while
in his first innings Kejriwal publicly shunned privileges, AAP is now found incentivizing
its spokesperson, with facilities on par with Cabinet ministers of state. The
AAP which launched scathing attacks on paid media now seems to religiously
follow the same path by accommodating MSM journals on the boards of Delhi
universities. Realizing the need for an effective communication media in this
modern era, Kejriwal has announced plans of starting a news Channel to
broadcast the proceedings of Delhi Assembly. But in the hindsight, it is a ruse
to popularize Delhi government’s initiatives and governance policies. The party
is in headlines now more often for the wrong reasons than the right. Punching
above the waist, positioning himself against Modi, AAP wants to elevate itself
to a national party status. But it awfully fails to have an independent stance
on crucial national and international aspects including the Kashmir issue.
In December, the center-state spat turned really ugly when
CBI conducted raids on the offices of Kejriwal’s Chief Secretary Rajendra
Kumar. Enraged Kejriwal defying all the boundaries of civility hurled back
calling Modi a coward and psychopath. Betrayed Kejriwal announced that raids
were aimed to confiscate files pertaining to corruption allegations against
DDCA (Delhi District Cricket Association) during Arun Jaitley’s tenure. He
immediately ordered a probe to investigate DDCA scam and sought help of NSA,
CBI and IB too. Subsequently AAP leaders too stepped up allegations of
corruption against Jaitely. Irked by the wild allegations, Jaitley dragged
Kejriwal to court and lodged defamation case against him and other AAP leaders.
It must be recalled that Kejriwal levelled similar charges against Nitin
Gadkari in 2013 and had to spend few days in jail for failing to prove the
allegations in May 2014. However the case was closed with Kejriwal withdrawing
the charges. Similarly during his first innings, he ordered Delhi government to
file FIR against Mukesh Ambani, Union Law Minister Veerapa Moily and Murali
Deora and DG hydrocarbons knowing pretty well that the case doesn’t fall in
Delhi’s jurisdiction.
Kejriwal had his water
shed movement during implementation of odd-even car scheme when he portrayed
himself as a savior. Though the claims of successful implementation of odd-even
scheme and its effectiveness in checking pollution levels or decongestion are
still contested, AAP continues to trumpet it as a major accomplishment. The blown out success of odd-even formula
augured AAP to hinge onto it as an effective pollution control measure.
Ironically second phase was out rightly derided by citizens of Delhi and
consequently Kejriwal government was forced to scrap this scheme. (To be continued...)
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