Amit Kushari IAS retd
India’s 16th Prime Minister, the very popular leader, Narendra Modi, took oath of office amidst celebrations. In all this pomp and show, have we forgot another leader who had also aspired to become the Prime Minister by fighting against corruption? Yes, he is Arvind Kejriwal who is passing through difficult days in the Tihar jail of Delhi, silently suffering in the cruel heat of May without even a ceiling fan. I hope the jail authorities have provided him with a table fan at least considering that he was the Chief Minister of Delhi for 49 days. Mr. Kejriwal has committed so many blunders in a series that one suspects that he has very little political acumen. There can be no doubt that he is a very intelligent man— since he always came first from school to university and also cleared the Civil Service examination to become an income tax commissioner. But he was very impatient and started taking part in NGOs even when he was in active service. He left his service in a hurry to join Anna Hazare’s agitation. Even after becoming Chief Minister of Delhi he showed impatience for passing the Jan Lok Pal bill in the Delhi Assembly and when he was confronted by his political adversaries he submitted his resignation and ran away from the political scene of Delhi to take a plunge in the Lok Sabha polls. His opponents mocked at him and called him a ‘bhagora’. During his 49 days rule in Delhi he indulged in cheap theatrics, which he thought would boost his popularity but which actually lowered his image and prestige in society. He slept on a road in a Dharna because he was frustrated that he could not get a few police officers transferred since they were enjoying the patronage of the Home Ministry.
He made a real mockery of himself.
Arvind Kejriwal took incredibly wrong decisions by fielding 430 candidates for Lok Sabha polls without building up any proper cadre in any state. Lok Sabha constituencies are very big in size having 16 to 20 lakh voters. Usually political parties take a minimum of 4 or 5 years to gear up for a Lok Sabha poll. How did he take the plunge at 430 places with only 3 months preparation? Naturally he succeeded in only 4 constituencies(that too only in Punjab) and failed in all the 426 constituencies. In Punjab he succeeded only because of a peculiar scenario prevailing there. The state government of Akali/BJP was very unpopular there and the people wanted a change. The Punjabis obviously could not vote for Congress because of bad governance by Central Govt. and the anti-Sikh image.Therefore they gave AAP the mandate in four constituencies. No where else in India such conditions prevailed and so there was no question of AAP winning. AAP could have tried in some Muslim dominated areas of Kerala and Assam where people could not vote for BJP but were tired of the Congress because of the mis-rule of the State Govt.
Kejriwal should have been aware of his limitations and should have tried his luck, selectively in only 20 constituencies making a concerted effort to win. He should not have sent Kumar Vishwas to Amethi in a hurry to defeat Rahul Gandhi, nor should he have contested from Varanasi against Narendra Modi, where there was a zero chance for victory. It is not so easy to defeat a people like Rahul in his own pocket borough and trying to defeat Narendra Modi is like banging your head against an iron wall. He went on saying ” Narendra Modi haar rahe hain” and “There is no Modi wave any where”, when everyone was amused at his immaturity.
His latest ‘nautanki’ by not giving in bail bond in court in the Gadkari defamation case landed him in Tihar jail. His colleague, Shazia Ilmi, and Capt. Gopinath left AAP in disgust saying that such dramatics won’t fetch him any votes, rather people would ridicule him for his theatrics. The BJP leader Mr. Venkaiah Naidu commented,”Yeh aadmi Kejriwal hai ya crazywaal hai?”He has indeed thrown his own reputation into the dustbin. After the Delhi Assembly elections in August/ September, probably there will be no Aam Aadmi Party left.
(The author is former Financial Commissioner J&K Feedback to the author at 09748635185 or amitkus@hotmail.com)
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