The Rise and fall of Kejriwal

Anna Hazare

Riding on Anna Hazard wave against corruption and passing a strong Lokpal Bill, Kejriwal, an anti corruption activist, jumped into political bandwagon by forming the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). He took the nation and particularly Delhi by storm and rose to power, first time for 49 days with the support of Congress against which he fought and put strong allegations of corruption (even promised Delhi to send Sheila Dixit to jail if he wins election) and later with a historical landslide victory pocketing 67 Delhi Assembly seats out of 70 in 2015.  Anna was against this political move and as a result, soon became redundant to Kejriwal and AAP. The AAP slogan "Paanch saal Kejriwal " appeared to work in favour of  Kejriwal and soon it has gone into his head. He forgot much promised principles of clean politics, transparency and accountability. Sooner, he started making all small & big compromises and became so intolerant to criticism that whosoever questioned him was violently shown out the door. The founder members of the party, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav were the first casualty of his ego and dictatorship style of functioning. His ambitions in his power hungry mind grew so large that he thought of becoming country’s prime minister and fought parliamentary election against Narendra Modi from Varanasi. Even after losing badly,  he continued his fight against Modi by accusing him of everything on the earth,  calling him names and joining hands with likes of Laloo, Nitish and company in Bihar elections. His ambitions never stopped and he dreamt to go national by fighting Haryana and later Punjab and Goa assembly elections. The saying came true that you can fool all the people sometimes but can't fool all the people all the times and Kejriwal lost all the states very badly. 

AAP' MLAs and many minister have been accused in the past with enough evidences of gross irregularities like fake degrees,  offering plumb postings to close associates, corruption, communal politics, questioning army on surgical strike,  nepotism etc.  The Shunglu committee report put the final nail in the coffin when it found AAP government involvemen in illegal allotment of land, charges of nepotism and unauthorized foreign trips by members of the Aam Aadmi Party government. The committee headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General V.K. Shunglu was set up by then Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung in August 2016 to look into the functioning of the AAP government, which went through 404 files of the government and had submitted its report to the Lieutenant Governor in November 2016. The veil of honest politician which Kejriwal was wearing has been stripped off totally and his double speaks got amply exposed. As usual, Kejriwal again accused the central government of leaking the report and politicizing it ahead of MCD elections  to divert the attention of the public from central government's failure on many fronts. 

The forthcoming  MCD elections are fast approaching where Kejriwal is expecting to ride the anti incumbency factor against BJP ruled corporations. This election will prove a litmus test for Kejriwal and will be certainly taken as a referendum on his two-years-old government in Delhi. The outcome of this election will also decide the fate of AAP whether it can remain a relevant force at least in Delhi. 

Arvind Kejriwal

The Ralegan Siddhi near Pune based social crusader, Anna Hazare was used by Kejriwal as a ladder to fulfill his hidden lust for power with a false robe of honest politics. It has come off badly this time after the expose of Shunglu committee report. Anna Hazare has said with a deep pain in his heart that Arvind Kejriwal has forgotten all principles in the pursuit of power. Strongly condemning him for violating laws and the Constitution, Hazare said he will never support what Kejriwal has done and he has dashed all his hopes. He added; "I am pained by the Shunglu committee report because Arvind was with me in the fight against corruption. I had great hopes from the young and educated Kejriwal and felt that young people like him will create a corruption-free nation. But he has dashed all my hopes".  Hazare further said that he will never ever support the way the Delhi government broke all rules and laws and said such behavior will weaken the country and society.  Anna, who will celebrate his eightieth birthday on 15^th June, 2017, is so disillusioned with Kejriwal that he said; "I am grateful to God that he made me stay away from Kejriwal when he floated his political party. I never had the desire to go and meet him after he became the chief minister". Hazare said during the days when Kejriwal was with him, he always told him that a leader must maintain purity of though and action, lead an unblemished life and make sacrifices for the betterment of the country and society. "But the Shunglu committee report shows that Kejriwal has forgotten everything in the pursuit of power".

When a Gandhian like Anna Hazare can say such strong  words against the politician Kejriwal, who claimed at one time to join the politics to change the way politics is done in the country, got changed himself in the process and damaged the very cause of honest politics, we may not be able to add much to what Anna has said.  However, it seems a reality that any near future honest attempts to clean Indian politics will be seen with suspicion for which Kejriwal is solely to be blamed.