Anil Anand
With the sword of Damocles hanging over the head of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the form of Enforcement Directorate (ED) knocking at his doors and the fear of his threat looming large, the party is faced with a dilemma. Who will govern Delhi in his absence and who will lord over the affairs of the AAP which also has a government in Punjab?
Should Mr Kejriwal govern from the jail precincts or should he resign? Can he trust anyone else to run the Government and the party in his absence. The politically savvy Delhi Chief Minister is getting ready to lob this question in the public domain to ascertain the public view and in turn generate sympathy.
Question arises whether the law permits a chief minister to govern his state, in this case, Delhi, from behind the bars? Whether the Constitution permits holding a referendum on what course Mr Kejriwal should adopt next.
The answer to both the questions is no. There is no precedent till date that a chief minister ran his or her state while being in the jail. Constitution of India does not provide for a referendum. How could a political party with just regional presence by now hold public referendum?
It is a very tricky question for a personality-based party with a monolithic structure to address. If the APP’s top leadership is to be trusted it will like Mr Kejriwal to continue governing from inside the jail, in case of arrest, and not take the risk of leaving it to someone else. No surprises, such political parties with powers vested in a single person are faced with such a situation as and when it occurs and it is difficult for their leader to trust anyone. Mr Kejriwal is no exception.
The dilemma is more profound both on moral and political grounds though politics, as ever, knows no scruples. It becomes more profound in the case of Mr Kejriwal who had entered politics riding on a high tide of morality with commitment to fight corruption of all kinds.
Notwithstanding the merits or demerits of the Delhi Excise Policy case which has cast its shadow on him after the arrest of his close aides, which will be determined by the court of law, Mr Kejriwal like a seasoned politician is seeking to generate a narrative out of this sordid episode. That is why the talk of either governing Delhi from the jail or reaching out to public nationwide, as his supporters stated, to create a political buzz. Certainly, with an eye on the coming Lok Sabha elections.
In a bid to ward off any trouble on the legal front AAP’s Delhi top brass decided, after a huddle, to seek legal ways to see their leader running the Government from the portals of jail if he was arrested by the ED. Ostensibly, following a written script the leaders “advised” him that he should maintain his role in the government even if taken into custody.
It will be interesting to see what legal opinions holds on this front. In either case, it will set a precedence for future. And a rule to. However, such an eventuality, Mr Kejriwal getting arrested, will certainly plunge the AAP into a leadership crisis of unimaginable dimension.
The National convenor of AAP and its Delhi CM Mr Kejriwal and is party has been in the news for quite some time now, particularly after the ED summoned him on October 30. He was supposed to appear on November 2, for questioning him in connection with its ongoing probe into the Delhi Excise Policy case. It is another matter that Mr Kejriwal managed to ward it off by challenging the legality of the summon and terming it as politically motivated. Instead, he straightway headed for poll campaigning in Madhya Pradesh.
After his skipping the summon, the AAP is now preparing for a fight in the face of a hypothetical situation where it fears Mr Kejriwal could be arrested. Govern the party and Delhi Government from behind the bars or in some manner make it a public issue. The efforts to portray him as a victim of vendetta politics have already started.
Who does not know that AAP took birth out of a resolve to fight against corruption more so at political levels. Sooner, it under the leadership of Mr Kejriwal trudged on the same beaten political track, following the same model of politics and governance as done by other parties. The controversy over Delhi Excise Policy has further deluged its claim of providing a clean governance model, different from what others have done during the last seven decades.
It is another matter that Arvind Kejriwal has for the time being warded off the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) summons with counter-questions. In turn he has tried to set a counter-narrative by rushing to campaign for AAP candidates in Madhya Pradesh rather than the ED headquarters.
Why did Mr Kejriwal headed to Madhya Pradesh to campaign for his party rather than appearing before the ED? Though he is a new player on the country’s political firmament, he is as or more astute than any of the established political leaders in the country. If the events in his decade long innings as politicians are an indication, he has adopted politics like the proverbial fish in the water.
Thwarting the ED summons and subsequently using the electoral forum in Madhya Pradesh to give vent to his feelings was clearly a ploy to create a political halo around himself in preparation for the ultimate fight. Incidentally, both he and his party had launched a direct attack against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP for sending the ED after him sensing political defeat at his (Kejriwal’s) hands in the poll-bound states.
With the ignominy of arrest looming large over Kejriwal, the leadership crisis in AAP has assumed another serious magnitude. At least half a dozen of its senior leaders including Delhi deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, health minister (since resigned) Satyendra Jain and Kejriwal’s trusted aide and Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Singh are already behind the bars.
What if Mr Kejriwal is also arrested by the ED as he cannot ignore appearing before it for long? With most of his trusted aides already behind the bars it will be a Hobson’s choice for him on whom to trust or govern from behind the bars if the law permitted.
In the absence of Kejriwal it will be a daunting task for his colleagues to sustain AAP as an organization and ensure stability of Governments in Punjab and more importantly in Delhi. Being foundation of the AAP’s politics, Delhi is much more crucial for him and his party. Any instability in Delhi will directly affect Punjab where a novice and inexperienced Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is in the saddle. The only saving grace is the overwhelming majority the party has in the two assemblies but a formidable challenge to ensure unity and cohesiveness.
Trickier for Kejriwal will be to chose his successor in Delhi. Most of the prospective candidates, with some being his cabinet colleagues, even being bright were forced to bask under his shadow as is the wont in political parties born out of personality cult. Will it be Ms Atishi, the brightest face of AAP in Delhi with a good track-record as a minister and Kejriwal’s most trusted one, or her cabinet colleague Gopal Rai, with a trade union background and known to be intemperate, or someone from the organisation with a low profile so as not to pose any danger to his leadership?
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