MV Kamath
The Aam Aadmi Party is now out of power. It will do good to the country if it stays out of power for years to come. It has cheated the country and it has shown total irresponsibility during the 49 days it was in power. Arvind Kejriwal himself showed he was not fit to govern since he is an anarchist.
This country – and certainly New Delhi – does not need an anarchist to rule it. It needs a party that is clean, that is thoughtful of the needs of the people and is overall above corruption. The AAP was not elected to power. The Delhi citizens merely indicated that it doesn’t appreciate scam-mongers. Let it be remembered that the AAP did not win a majority. The BJP won 32 of the total of 70 seats, just four short of an absolute majority. The AAP won seven short of the half-way mark. If it had any sense, the AAP should have supported the BJP in forming a Government. On the contrary it did something disgraceful: it decided to depend upon the Congress, a party that has lost all sense of shame; that alone shows up how the AAP is an unprincipled party that will go to any length to get into power.
Whatever one might say of the BJP, nowhere in the county—and certainly not in Gujarat – has it been accused of corruption on the scale the Congress-led UP has muddied its face. In the circumstances, Kejriwal should have refused to accept the support of the Congress and on the contrary should have asked for fresh elections. But it was so desperate to enjoy power that it did not hesitate to accept the support of the most corrupt party the country has ever seen since independence. That by itself speaks for Kejriwal’s character.
Hopefully in the election to come the people of Delhi will throw out the AAP, lock, stock and barrel. Consider why the AAP should be given the go-by. Firstly, Kejriwal showed that when he came to power he was no better than any other politician. Instead of staying in his own home, he sought two 5-bedroom bungalows for his own personal use. He wanted two bungalows? What on earth for?
Anna Hazare at a press conference he gave in Delhi, spoke highly of Mamata Bannerjee praising her for her saadgi (simplicity), sachchai (truthfulness) and imandari (honesty). “See her simplicity, she lives in a single room while, as Chief Minister she could have had a lavish life” he said.
Kerjriwal’s Ministers could have used taxis or rickshaws or buses to go to work but they waited for brand new vehicles to move into Ministerial homes. Then there was the questionable case of a Minister leading a noisy midnight raid against some Ugandan nationals in a South Delhi colony, accusing them of running a drug and sex racket. That is not the task of a Minister. What are police for? Besides, are we to believe that only African nationals are indulging in such fanciful pursuits and not fellow Indians? Later, according to the media, the same Minister has been charged with involvement in a spamming and pornographic racket.
Kejriwal came to power on the strength of character building: One the scam-ridden Congress had to be thrown out; two, the media support had to be justified and three, the support of the Gen-Next had to be proved right. In the weeks to come will AAP be able to satisfy its earlier supporters? After what happened in the Lok Sabha can it again expect Congress support? As for support from GenNext, one can only guess whether it will be retained or whether a disillusioned youth will stay away. What this indicates is that the voter will now have two options: one, give up AAP and instead vote for the BJP to give it the required majority. Ex-supporters of both the Congress and AAP might indicate that they don’t want to be fooled any longer. But the larger question is: what if the fresh elections return the same results?
The AAP has, in the last two months, shown itself as a cruel joke. Run by amateurs, supported by a naïve youth and a rudderless media, it has shown its weakness in no uncertain measure. In just 49 days it has shown no sense of responsibility. Conceded that the AAP was a necessary intervention in the nation’s politics insofar as it jolted the established parties out of complacency. The Delhi Assembly cannot be used as a school for newcomers in politics. But now we learn that the AAP has been seeking seniors to help it out, men like Rajiv Bajaj, the Bajaj Auto MD, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson and writer Rajmohan Gandhi and former Prime Minister’s grandson, Adarsh Shastri, names that carry weight. It clearly shows that the AAP is now in a desperate situation. But will the Bajajs and the Gandhis’ be doing service to the nation by listening to the whims and ways of an anarchist?
To run the AAP, the Kejriwals must be sidelined. But who has the will – and the power – to do so? We need an AAP but not a Kejriwal kind.
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