RIGHT ANGLE – Kejriwal no longer an Aam Aadmi; he is Special
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, now in jail, is naturally in national headlines. Whether he would be under prolonged judicial custody remains to be seen as one has to keep one’s fingers crossed as our Supreme Court at present is perceived by many to be the real poll- rival of the Modi regime in the on-going electioneering for a new Lok Sabha.
I am not going to enter the debates over the wisdom of our apex court in deciding to declare the electoral bonds illegal with retrospective effect (a rarest of rare judicial pronouncement anywhere in the world), in suspending the conviction of Rahul Gandhi that would have denied him to contest elections (though poor Lalu Prasad Yadav was denied this privilege and he spent more than half a decade in jails, apart from being denied any political office) and in suggesting in many a case that the “executive” (meaning the Modi government) is either not doing enough for the people or is doing things against the spirit of the constitution (exactly the same that almost all the opposition parties are saying).
In fact, Kejriwal’s biggest defence is that some of the witnesses against him in his alleged involvement in liquor scam had bought electoral bonds for the BJP, though the then prevailing law had guaranteed the donors’ privacy. Therefore, I will not be surprised if the Supreme Court sets Kejriwal free tomorrow, though going by the established legal norms, many lawyer friends of mine consider that possibility highly unlikely. Imagine, if Kejriwal is set free by the apex court, tremendous impact it will have in favour of the opposition parties in this election-season. Kejriwal will turn out to be the real big hero, courtesy our Supreme Court, and he may revive his long-cherished dream of replacing Modi as the country’s next Prime Minister.
Kejriwal is too talented a person not to understand that Delhi is not a full-fledged State and that it remains essentially a Union Territory, despite having an elected Chief Minister, a la, Pondicherry. For him, the issue is not simply bureaucratic or legalistic. It has serious political dimensions. In fact, it is essentially political. Therefore, one sees a discernible pattern in what Kejriwal has been focussing on, ever since he became the Chief Minister. He is simply not interested in his job as the Chief Minister; he wants to use his present position in such a way that the country starts looking at him as India’s next Prime Minister. His ultimate aim is to rule over Delhi, not as the Chief Minister but as the Prime Minister.
Kejriwal says that it is important that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) loses every election and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is demonised on every possible opportunity. Kejriwal tries to reach every trouble-spot in the country to carry out his “hate politics” against Modi.
Kejriwal is far ahead of others in mastering the art of remaining in the limelight through the help of the media. I do not think that there has been any one in independent India’s mainstream politics who can come anywhere nearer to Kejriwal in the game of abuses and character assassinations of the rivals.
Few can match Kejriwal today in the art of hugging the limelight – portray yourself as a victim and target your rivals on the basis of unproven and unprovable charges. Credibility for Kejriwal is not at all a virtue. He may be a Chief Minister, but Kejriwal is always in the mode of agitation. And effortlessly he changes his ideals and political agendas if that ensures him good media coverage and takes him to nearer his ultimate goal.
Few people remember that in his NGO-days, in an interview to a leading business daily, he had said that “India’s ablest Prime Minister so far has been Rajiv Gandhi”, who, in his opinion, understood India the best. That he respected the Gandhi family became all the more evident from the revelation by the Congress leader Digvijay Singh subsequently that Kejriwal once had written a letter to Sonia Gandhi, requesting her to make him a member of her National Advisory Board during the UPA regime. That Sonia could not accommodate him was a different matter. In any case, it is an open secret in Delhi that Kejriwal was one of the best friends of Sandeep Dikshit, the son of former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit. But see the way he ditched the Congress and Dixit family; in fact, he replaced Sheila as the Chief Minister.
It is often not realised that the AAP became a phenomenon in Delhi only because people rebelled against the established political parties making politics the family fiefdoms or exclusivist dens where money, muscle and passions for community (be it religion and caste) play a huge role. In fact, the most positive features of the AAP’s victory in 2013 was that its candidates proved that one could win elections without money, muscle, caste and religion. That trust of the people in the AAP has been belied by the AAP over the last 11 years.
In fact, one may argue that people of Delhi did not vote for the AAP to necessarily form a government. What the people of Delhi did was that by giving AAP respectability and the hype, they gave a notice to the established political parties that they were not happy with them. They warned the established political parties that they may no longer be allowed to continue with business as usual by their usual politics based on money, muscle, caste and religion.
Ironically, however, the AAP, now that it has become a ruling party in Delhi and Punjab, has failed to live up to expectations. And that is precisely because, AAP is neither a coherent party; nor does it have a reasoned vision for India. Just look at the persons who are today leading AAP and supporting it.
Today, the APP can hardly be distinguished from any other political party. It has resorted to the age-old practice of identity politics on the basis of caste, community and religion. Like any political party, the AAP is no longer a party of a common man; all of its leaders have become too fond of luxuries, palatial houses ( see how Kejriwal has spent nearly 100 crores in refurbishing his official bungalow) , foreign trips and mind- boggling perks. In fact, a senior IAS officer, who was in Delhi government , told me the other day as the health Minister Jain ( he is in jail too now ) used more than 25 official cars( both at home and office) in sharp contrast to his predecessor Kiran Walia(health minister under Sheila Dixit) who used only two official cars. Kejriwal has also made the MLAs of Delhi highest-paid elected representatives – drawing a salary of Rs. 3.2 lakh plus various allowances. There have been plenty of instances of the AAP ministers, including Kejriwal, employing irregularly their relatives and followers in the Delhi government.
Importantly, Kejriwal hardly talks of the evils of corruption these days, even though his entry into politics was via the movement called India Against Corruption (IAC). In this task, he attracted not only veteran social activist and crusader Anna Hazare but also some of the brightest young men and women of India. However, against the wishes of Anna, he formed a political party. But here too, soon after capturing power, he threw out all other famous co-founders like Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav.
A self-proclaimed crusader against corruption, he has campaigned in Bihar for the party of Lalu Yadav, India’s first major politician to have been convicted of corruption and ineligible to fight election for six years. A politician who claimed to be fighting the evil influences of caste and religion in politics, these days Kejriwal only talks in casteist or communal terms as “a secularist” – see his support for caste-based reservations in government jobs and his total silence on ethnic tensions initiated by extremists among Muslims.
How many of us have tried to bother over the implementation of Kejriwal’s 70-point agenda that was promised when he became the Chief Minister? What has been the progress in the fields of health, transport, roads and sanitation, the areas which clearly are under the jurisdiction of the Delhi government? Is there free Wi-Fi in market places? He has kept, of course, his words on the subsidies on electricity and water, arguably cheapest in the whole country.
But then, as we have seen, Kejriwal is no longer an “Aam Admi”. He claims himself to be special. He must have special privileges. He must have a special residence, better than that of even the Prime Minister. For him laws of the land must be special. Because, getting special treatment is his special right.
