Kejriwal turns dictatorial

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The trio

There is something unstable in Kejriwal’s persona that makes him behave in the way he mostly does. He has that penchant for ‘self-destruct’ and, in the process, he betrays the faith reposed in him by hundreds and thousands of common, educated and well-meaning people as also civil society organizations. One wonders whether he has that inscrutable split personality like that of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as it seems there has been a sea change in his personality and conduct since the days of the movement appropriately known as India Against Corruption (IAC).

A man who joined the modern-day Gandhian Anna Hazare in 2011 to campaign for enactment of an anti-corruption law instituting an office of Lokpal (ombudsman) has moved on incredibly fast, so much that he has now taken recourse to political sleight of hand, sought help from goons or more precisely “bouncers” and tried to garner support from corrupt politicians just to gain power – all examples of political corruption. This was not what he created his Aam Admi Party (AAP) for. In 2011 means ostensibly were important to him to get to the end that was combating corruption but in 2014 & 2015 they ceased to be so. A man who campaigned for days in not too distant past against corrupt in the government has himself become as corrupt with the sole aim of grabbing power. His is a personality that effectively masked the sinister and the devious that lurked within him that even Anna could not detect, much less his supporters.

If one harks back to Anna’s movement in 2011 and recalls the massive civil society support that it elicited one would be frustrated by its eventual denouement. The IAC campaigns of April and August 2011 had a singular aim, that of eradication of corruption in the government through the instrumentality of a law for creation of an independent and powerful Lokpal. In the backdrop of massive corruption in the 2010 Commonwealth Games and allotment of 2G spectrum, it caught the imagination of the people, especially of the youth and the rising numbers of middle classes. As the movement gathered strength in August 2011 the media, too, got into the act and gave extensive round-the-clock coverage. And, the tech-savvy members of the IAC made deft use of the social media making the movement somewhat akin to the then ongoing campaigns in North Africa and West Asia for regime-change, eventually coming to be known collectively as “Arab Spring”.

The government at the Centre got flustered and indulged in nervous acts. Having been outmanoeuvred, parliamentarians quickly rustled up a “sense of the house” resolution unanimously passed by its both houses agreeing to action on all sticking points to pacify Anna. Acquiring a larger than life image, Anna broke his 11-day fast. Standing as a colossus, he and the IAC activists mobilised public opinion charging up the whole nation against political and bureaucratic corruption.  A patently middle class movement, IAC’s offshoots cropped up virtually in every nook and corner of the country. Young and old joined it putting the government on the back foot. A bill for creation of Lokpal (ombudsman) that was said to be in cold storage for forty years amply displaying aversion of politicians to curb corruption in public life was expected to see the light of the day.

But that was not to be. Even in 2015 the bill continues to be in the cold storage, for soon after came Kejriwal’s first betrayal of Anna’s movement that brought the government to its knees. Reasons were many including Anna’s failing health and an unwise and ineffective sit-in in Mumbai later that year that was largely ignored by people. What sounded the death knell of IAC was Kejriwal’s uncalled for untimely 9-day fast in July 2012 that gained nothing except ill-health for him and a decision to move away from the politically unaligned agitational approach of Anna. That is when he decided to give up the movement and politicise it by creating AAP (Common Man’s Party), disappointing thousands of the IAC supporters, workers and volunteers who had made enormous sacrifices for the success of the movement. All of them felt terribly let down and betrayed as it proved to be curtains for an unprecedented civil society upheaval like of which was never seen in the country before. It was Anna’s persona and his perceived uncompromisingly honest attitude and those of his close supporters that brought people in droves to join the movement. Splitting the IAC was Kejriwal’s first insidious act.

The political outfit that he created met with unexpected success in the Delhi state Assembly elections of 2013. In the 70-member assembly AAP got as many as 28 seats with the Hindu right Bharatiya Janata Party getting 31. The Indian National Congress that had an unbroken rule of 15 years was reduced to 8 seats. Nonetheless, it was a hung assembly – where the party with largest number of seats refused to form the government, leaving the field open for AAP to run it with outside unsolicited support offered by Congress. Ironically, AAP accepted support of the same party against which it had campaigned for corruption. Fully aware that he had no majority in the house, Kejriwal wanted to introduce an anti-corruption law which expectedly the Opposition did not allow. Kejriwal promptly resigned after ruling for only 49 days fetching the sobriquet “bhagora” (quitter). In view of his earlier threats of resignation, perhaps, this was only a ploy to get out of a hung situation or, maybe, he was aiming to become prime minister as the Parliamentary elections were in the offing, the response of voters having buoyed his hopes.

What has happened in his second avatar is, of course, far more serious and reprehensible. Having been decimated in the parliamentary polls Kejriwal was reported to be frustrated and felt that his Party faced an existential crisis. Unless it did well in the then oncoming Delhi elections, he thought, AAP would have no future. That is when he gave up all his put-on idealism or pretences thereof, bringing to fore his undemocratic, ambitious and authoritarian traits, Late last year many well-known stalwarts including Sahzia Ilmi, one-time face of AAP, left the party feeling suffocated.

 Later his unethical ways were made public when an audio clip of a sting operation on him was released indicating that he was prepared to accept support of proven corrupt Congressmen. Then, after an extraordinary electoral win with not-so-clean means, his feud with the ideologues – legal activist Prashant Bhushan and intellectual-cum-psephologist Yogendra Yadav, both straight players, - made headlines. The stunning electoral win seemingly had got to his head. Not only they were abused in the sting, they were undemocratically expelled from the Party’s Executive Council and have now also been unceremoniously expelled from the party in a high-handed manner. Anybody opposed to his inner party moves is considered undesirable and is promptly axed. Obviously, his true self has taken over and he is now strutting around AAP as a “Hitler” with lies, subterfuge and the like for props. “Clean” and “new” politics has been given a summary burial.

A setback to his ambitions at the parliamentary polls brought the true Kejriwal to the fore revealing a political fiend – self-serving and aggrandizing.

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Photo: from the Internet

"New politics" of Aam Aadmi Party

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Shiv Vishwanathan seems to have got it right. For those who do not know him, he is a social scientist and an intellectual of repute, who generally comments on matters of random interest, politics and society. Writing in The Hindu a few days before the Delhi Election results came out, he could see the “Return of the AAP” – AAP standing for the AAM Admi Party, the party of the common man. Despite the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) having become that “majoritarian phenomenon”, Vishwanathan saw the AAP becoming a formidable prospect for the Delhi elections. In the current environment, it was courageous of him to go on record about it. He saw even BJP’s electoral super-strategist Amit Shah being outplayed by AAP despite the several electoral victories that the former notched up for the BJP. Shah wanted as many as 60 seats out of 70 for the BJP. In a dramatic reversal, however, his party won only measly 3 in one of the worst performances of his Party. While Viswanathan was spot-on, the joke on Twitter was “Nano had more seats than the BJP in the Delhi Assembly”.

Apparently, it was not Modi’s controversial narcissistic buttoned-up suit or  or former Commisioner of Police Kiran Bedi’s induction or arrogance and over-confidence of the two BJP biggies Modi and Shah alone that caused the Party’s decimation. If all this were to be conceded it would be unfair to the “muffler-man” Kejriwal, who was quite a contrast to the immaculately attired Narendra Modi. For all one knows, Kejriwal, chief of the AAP, sartorially tweaked his “aam aadmi” (common man) appearance adding a tinge of rusticity only to make the contrast more apparent. A tenacious man, as he is, nothing could perhaps distract him from his objective. Even after the hammering his outfit got at the Parliamentary elections nine months ago he just did not give up. He was committed to his cause and he went about consolidating his vote bank. Even after being called a “bhagoda” – a deserter – by all and sundry, including those who gave him a substantial mandate in the Delhi elections in 2013, he did not get frustrated or indulged in self-recrimination. Instead, he used the gap between the two (Delhi) elections, inexplicably extended by the BJP at the Centre, to rebuild his organisation. After all, he nursed within him that unflinching commitment to his ideal of a corruption-free India. He had the comfort of a large number of dedicated supporters, volunteers and admirers of his unpretentious interfaces with them. They probably gave him the strength to take on the mighty BJP that denied him all the seats his Party contested in the Lok Sabha (Parliamentary) polls only nine months ago.

He regrouped and his outfit came up so strongly that Shiv Vishwanathan saw it as good enough for giving BJP a run for its money. It is a matter of surprise that if Vishwanathan could gauge the rebuilding of AAP how the hard-boiled politicians in BJP and Congress couldn’t see it – especially Prime Minister Modi, who not only won for the BJP four elections within nine months and claims to have never ever lost his own. Perhaps, it was sheer over-confidence and even Amit Shah, the BJP President and playing Sancho Panza for Modi, could not dream of the upset that was lurking around in the city state. They were sure of a win in, what they thought, was a conventional political battle but, as Shiv Vishwanathan saw it, it was not conventional politics but a new politics – a kind of politics devoid of any ideology and in which citizens occupied the centre stage.

AAP was not preparing for a conventional electoral campaign – a campaign of public rallies and meetings. Its campaign comprised the volunteers going to the people door-to-door seeking out their problems and working out resultant issues and answering the accusations of AAP’s adversaries from detailed answers put down in notebooks. The committed volunteers were so thorough that they spared enormous amount of their time for ‘home work’ as well outdoor campaigns. It was a self-less and self-effacing campaign by unpaid volunteers – common men and women – for which numerous of them left for the duration of the campaign whatever they were occupied with in eking out a living. Scarcity of financial resources prevented media ads, whether electronic or print. It was only banners and posters – sometimes even volunteers acting as ‘human’ posters. It was, kind of, shades of India Against Corruption led by Anna Hazare in 2011 – a fantastic civil society movement that was wrecked by – of all the people – Kejriwal by his untimely and uncalled for 9-day fast in 2012 and later by ditching Anna and forming the AAP.

With their sincerity and commitment they steadily chipped away at voters’ resistance that was generated for AAP’s indiscretion in pre- maturely giving up its rule in 2013. Not only they, even Kejriwal himself begged voters to excuse him. He erred, he said, and that to err was human and then went on to say that after all he and his colleagues did not indulge in corruption and did not loot and plunder the nation’s resources – but only made a silly mistake.

Ideology did not figure in the campaign. The Party was neither leftist nor rightist or what is now fashionable “left of the centre” or “right of the centre” or, for that matter, it was not even centrist. The words secularism and communalism were not bandied about. Repeatedly asked by a prominent TV news channel interviewer about the AAP’s ideology, one of its important and vocal leaders said that they had none and, if at all, they had one, it was “Bharat” (India) – and saving its people from the stranglehold of corruption. The commitment to nothing other than the country and its people and the overwhelming desire of the AAP leaders to rid the country of the scourge of rampant corruption, offering a hassle-free life attracted the voters towards it. The clean-looking campaigners seemingly appeared convincing and were able to change the voters’ inclinations and turn the tide in AAP’s favour.

The unreserved commitment to people – regardless of caste, creed, religion, etc – made Muslims desert their supposedly traditional protector, the Congress and Dalits their party of the Dalit Czar Mayawati. The long-suffering petty traders and businessmen seeking freedom from the haftas of policemen and municipal officials, of course, voted for AAP as they were aware of its effective control over petty corruption during its 49-day run in the government in 2013. While a sizable bloc of government servants adversely reacted against Indian Premier Modi’s tough administration, the internal dissensions within BJP transferred some of its votes to AAP. No wonder, the Party ended up with a strike rate, as the television channels reported, of 95.5%, recording wins in as many as 67 out of 70 seats.

While Modi’s “juggernaut” has been halted (perhaps for the good of him and the people) and the Congress has been sent back to the drawing board, the AAP has the task cut out for it – and that is nothing but to deliver on its promises in Delhi before looking for extended new pastures. Having hit the ground running Kejriwal, probably, is already at it. One cannot but wish him Godspeed.

Photo: from the Internet

AAP's game-changing victory

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The stunning victory at the Delhi Assembly elections of a motley group of hitherto mostly unknown people getting together to form the Aam Aadmi Party, the common man’s party, (AAP) has shaken the very foundations of Indian politics. With the basic manifesto of a fight against pervasive corruption and political chicanery it emerged as the second largest party spectacularly demolishing the ruling Indian National Congress. Having ruled over Delhi for 15 long years the Congress took power for granted and had become arrogant and supercilious. All that was crushed by the unexpected rout at the hustings

Barging into the political arena with a bang the AAP shook the established political class out of its wits. Going to the people from door to door and mohalla to mohalla (neighbourhood to neighbourhood) it set up a new standard of operating procedure that even the established mainstream parties have noticed and admired. The party brought into play the people’s choices in the democratic process. Shunning power, it even went to the people for advice whether it should govern with support from outside of Congressmen whom it called corrupt. With total disenchantment with the established political set up, people opted for AAP even if with the outside support of the corrupt.

Hitherto, the people were in a democracy but were practically out of it. They  went through the motions of electing their representatives to the legislatures for making laws and enforce them with equity but the elected assumed the roles of the feudal lords of yore – becoming in effect ‘rulers’ and not people’s representatives. Over time they became a set of powerful and influential few who appropriated for themselves perks and privileges of office at the cost of people’s welfare. Pervasive poverty and illiteracy accompanied by the “mai-baap” (paternalistic) syndrome helped in perpetuating the iniquitous order. No wonder, today the elected political class has become one of the richest segments which uses power and influence for its own advantage occasionally doling out sops to the masses.

Comfortably ensconced in their cocoon the leaders became unaware of the ground realities. Keeping themselves away from the masses they lost touch with the people so much so that when Rahul Gandhi, the Congress Vice President, happened to say after the severe reverses at the hands of the “new-kid-on-the-block” that he desired to emulate the AAP model and to “engage with the people” it was taken as a profound statement – so profound that sycophantic noises were made in the Party to suck up to him. The “dynastic” party leaders, in their persistent efforts to take care of themselves, had clean forgotten that a political party in a democracy is a mouthpiece of its supportive people and has, therefore, to always remain “engaged” with them. In their wheeling and dealing for power and pelf the party leaders had overlooked the fact that they were where they were because of the people. Democracy, plainly, had been made to stand on its head.

There is a flip side of it too. Even the people had got used to the feudal ways of the ruling parties. Common man would never see ministers from close quarters unless it was for a sham “mass contact” mission the eventual result of which would be mostly a cipher. So, when Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the third-time chief minister of the state of Madhya Pradesh, passed by in his car with windows rolled down after his recent victory at the hustings it became news. A photograph appeared of Chauhan peeping out of his car window and waving at people. Today “news” is something which surprises people, being something out of the ordinary.

It was, obviously, an extraordinary sight as even ministers, leave alone chief ministers, of the various states in the country are hardly ever seen with the glasses, generally heavily tinted, of their car windows rolled down. They, especially chief ministers, travel in that Indian symbol of power, the traditional Ambassador manufactured by Hindustan Motors and made bullet-proof for them, accompanied by a cavalcade of several vehicles, mostly of the SUV-type, and zip through the city streets that are blocked to all other traffic – vehicular or pedestrian – for their quick, uninterrupted and safe passage. People hardly ever see their faces as they keep a safe distance from the common man.

That, after the swearing-in ceremony, Shivraj Singh Chauhan waded into the assembled crowd in Bhopal’s Jamboree Maidan too made the news. The newspapers duly reported the very unusual event. It is another matter that a few decades ago on being elected the leader of the legislative assembly the chief ministers used to be sworn-in in the hallowed precincts of the governor’s house. Apparently, that was not felt to be democratic enough.

The whole thing has now been taken outdoors to grounds like the Jamboree Maidan where special arrangements are made over a period of a week or so to provide a garishly decorated podium at considerable costs to the public. All this is done not only for the main protagonists like the governor and the chief minister and his ministers to be sworn-in but also for the party bigwigs and sundry chiefs of various political parties that are considered friendly or are potential allies in forming governments in this era of coalitions. Several kinds of arrangements, from public address systems, marquees to tentage, transport, refreshments and drinking water, are also made for the foot-soldiers of the party and the people. It is apparently, a massive public function where the main actors are confined to the podium and the people are kept at bay, amply and securely barricaded. But, Shivraj broke that all and hence the news item.

Sourcing of funds for this massive show of popularity as also political strength is somewhat blurred as much

of it is covered under the head of “security” for the governor and other political biggies. The buck, therefore, necessarily has to stop at the public treasury.

There is an element of hypocrisy in the entire exercise. While for most of the term the chief minister or his ministers are hardly ever visible to the people or are hardly ever available to them, the swearing-in to hold the public office and to uphold the Constitution is conducted in their (people’s) rather distant presence. For most of the five-year term they behave like maharajas of yore, keeping shut in their bungalows or offices or bullet-proof vehicles, guarded 24-hours by Kalashnikov-wielding commandoes and yet they try, at great public cost, to flaunt their democratic pretensions.

The advent of the AAP is likely to change that all and people may, henceforth, get their due importance since the raw politicos have proved that “engaging with people” has its own dividends. Under their substantial presence in Delhi no attempt at the usual horse-trading was made by the BJP which missed being in power by the skin of its teeth.

AAP’s victory, therefore, is a game-changer. Indian democracy now appears to be on the mend. Not only the hitherto apolitical common man has participated in the political process in a big way its representatives, the AAP, seemingly, have ushered in a new political paradigm – an era of cleaner and people-centric politics in the country.

Photos: from the Internet

The end of "Indian Spring"

http://bagchiblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-end-of-indian-spring.html 

Arvind Kejriwal, of the erstwhile NGO India Against Corruption, has made quite a splash since he went political. Even before he named his outfit as “Aam Aadmi Party” (AAP) he had commenced his campaign against the entrenched political establishment. His exposes, virtually like serial ‘bombs’, have already scorched Robert Vadra, the son in-law of Sonia Gandhi,  Chairperson of the ruling formation United Progressive Alliance, Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid, the suave but loyal to the point of being a sycophant of Sonia Gandhi, Nitin Gadkari, the reigning president of the principal Opposition,  the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Reliance Chief and the richest Indian Mukesh Ambani, and, lately, sugar mill owners of Western Maharashtra, presumably targeting the Maharashtra strongman Sharad Pawar, currently Agriculture Minister at the Centre. The Ambanis came in for further treatment in Kejriwal’s accusations regarding their alleged unaccounted wealth in foreign banks details of which, though suppressed, were allegedly available with the government. 

Jantar Mantar, New Delhi, Aug 2011

Widely reported, discussed and debated in the print and electronic media, Kejriwal’s accusations need no repetition here. Suffice to say that most of his allegations, like those against Vadra, Khurshid, Gadkari etc., were on the basis of documentary evidences either ferreted out by him/his colleagues or given to him by people who got adversely impacted by the wrong-doings of the accused. By administering practically a weekly dose of accusations against some politician or the other or people of substance, he literally put fear of God in the corrupt among them. Setting a veritable cat among the pigeons, he made many politicians anxious making them wonder whether they would be next in line for the crucifixion.

Predictably, the social activist-turned politician came in for choicest of abuses from politicians, especially those of the Congress. While Khurshid called him a guttersnipe, others  felt their prognostications about Kejriwal’s political ambitions had come true. But they were not quite prepared for his, what they called, “hit and run” tactics – throwing allegations at the chosen target and then moving on. His singular crime, however, was that he exposed the machinations of Robert Vadra in his new-found business of real estate that helped him in accumulating, what people claimed, the fastest billions. Congressmen, displaying classical sycophancy, came out in droves to defend Vadra although they confessed that he was not a Congressman.  Yet, instead of asking the government to investigate the allegations, they hurled invectives at Kejriwal.

Probably for the first time ever somebody had the gall, the insolence and the chutzpah to make accusations against a ‘personage’ belonging to the (Gandhi) “Dynasty”. Associating Kejriwal with the BJP and accusing him of impropriety, Digvijay Singh, Congress General Secretary, revealed that his party knew about all along the wheeling and dealing of the son in-law of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee but always acted “appropriately”, never breathing a word about it – a confessional as queer as one could be.

Going political for Kejriwal was, apparently, a necessity. His 9-day fast in July earlier this year failed to achieve any result. The political class just ignored it and the government did not yield to his demand of creation of a special investigation team for investigating the 15 Central ministers who were alleged to have had cases of corruption against them. Perhaps, it was ill-timed, too, as Parliament was not in session. Realising that the government was intractable and that it was best to fight the politicians politically and beat them in their own game he decided to create an apolitical party to fight elections. 

 That, however, meant severance of the ties with the Gandhian, Anna Hazare, who has always been averse to politics and politicking. Parting ways with Anna, while Kejriwal got busy in his weekly exposes Anna was trying to collect like-minded people around him for his own brand of anti-corruption movement. Sadly, in the process the movement that mobilised the middle classes for the first time ever in 2011 got not only divided losing its innate strength but also lost its focus.

 The IAC movement of April and August 2011 led by Anna had a singular aim, that of eradication of corruption through the instrumentality of enactment of a law for creation of an independent and powerful Lokpal (ombudsman). In the backdrop of reports of massive corruption in conducting the Commonwealth Games and allocation of 2G spectrum it caught the imagination of the people, firing the youth and the rising numbers of middle classes. As the movement gathered strength the media, too, got into the act and gave extensive 24-hour coverage. The tech-savvy members of the IAC made deft use of the social media making the movement somewhat akin to the campaigns in North Africa and West Asia for regime change that eventually came to be known collectively as “Arab Spring”. The government at the Centre was flustered and indulged in nervous acts exemplified, inter alia, by the attempt to wean away from the movement yoga-guru Ramdev who too had muscled in into it. The attempt boomeranged and the political class was virtually brought to its knees. A “sense of the House” resolution was quickly rustled up and unanimously passed agreeing action by the government on some sticking points and communicated to Anna.

 Acquiring a larger than life image, Anna broke his 11-day fast and retired to fight for the cause another day. Standing as a colossus, he along with his IAC activists had mobilised public opinion charging up the whole nation against political and bureaucratic corruption.  A patently middle class movement, IAC’s offshoots cropped up virtually in every nook and urban corner of the country. Young and old joined it putting the government on the back foot.  

Journals abroad connected it with other such movements of the middle classes in emerging markets. From Chile to China to North Africa and Middle East to India middle classes rose against the established systems for reasons as varied as environmental degradation (in China), overbearing role of public sector in the field of education (in Chile), against autocratic dictatorships in “Arab Spring” countries and rampant political and bureaucratic corruption in India. The rise of middle classes, especially in developing Asia, has given them a new-found power to swing changes in their respective polities. The most rapid rise has been in India and China they and the political class, unlike in the past, is now compelled to pay greater attention to their views as the same is backed up by significant strength.

From the run-away success of the movement one had hoped that the IAC would eventually emerge somewhat like The Tea Party in the US – minus its ideology – playing a significant role in choosing and canvassing for clean and incorruptible candidates and try and have those who were suspect defeated at the hustings. By itself the IAC clearly had no way of getting round the prevailing electoral system. For it the best option, therefore, seemed to have been to bring as many clean candidates from the existing political parties into the parliament as possible to get rid of the scourge of corruption.   

Alas, that was not to be. A set of circumstances, from Anna’s failing health to alleged manipulation of the media by the government against the IAC to an ill-timed campaign in July 2012 and eventually its coming apart ensured the death of the movement that had raised such hopes. The dramatis personae of the movement are all intelligent and committed people and yet they somehow could not see eye to eye about its progression. With two branches of it going their separate ways their respective strengths got mitigated and, so has been their impact. Losing steam, the ‘Indian Spring’ came to an end.

With the formation the AAP the last nail in the coffin of the IAC (as people knew it) has been hammered in. The 2014 elections not being far away, Kejriwal has given himself a daunting task to organise his outfit well enough to enter the money-centric Indian electoral process. Only time will tell how he fares in his enterprise.

The IAC split, however, was a big let-down for the people, a severe jolt to the civil society which had rallied round in strength and gave it its unstinted support. It is highly unlikely that such massive support would ever be conjured up for an anti-corruption movement in the foreseeable future.