A Nameless Indian Speaks : Sting Operations, Boomerang!
| Our nameless Indian is back from a sabbatical. During the period, he went around the country to know the ground realities, the problems and the political conditions. Meanwhile our readers too have been impatiently enquiring about the column, which they had missed for some time. So, now you have your interaction with our faceless, nameless Indian, who wants to share his observations through this incisive column – “A Nameless Indian Speaks” by remaining an unknown Indian as ever. —Editor |
Intro : Kejriwal in his winning pride forgot that one day his own trick would get boomeranged and he himself would get stung by his own people.
The Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during his swearing-in ceremonies – once in 2014 and the other in 2015, played the same tape that exhorted the people of Delhi to do sting operations on all those who tried to bribe them, and taught them the basics of doing such an operation. He had advised a large gathering at Ramlila Maidan to conduct sting operations “by recording any wrong-doing and clicking photos on their mobile phone handsets”.
This vital tool of investigative journalism, which Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has since raised to a political pedestal, has now become so internalised in their system that AAP ended up carrying out a series of stings: A sting was conducted on a journalist in order to amass evidence against one of its most important leaders, Yogendra Yadav, to its own party colleagues.
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The Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) split is out in the open. First Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan held an explosive press conference where they called Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a dictator surrounded by yes men. And then later the Kejriwal camp hit back saying AAP had agreed to all of Bhushan and Yadav’s demands but the two rebels backed out at the last minute.But, Kejriwal in his winning pride forgot that one day his own trick would get boomeranged and he himself would get stung by his own people, who he had once trusted.
The AAP seems to have been built on the foundation of ‘Dirty tricks department’ and right from its formation, there have been several cases of sting operations conducted by AAP members and volunteers either on their own colleagues or on opponents.
A few examples will make it clear how sting operation is not a new game for these people.
In November 2013, Nutan Thakur, an AAP member from Lucknow resigned from the party expressing unhappiness over the alleged involvement of party members in a sting operation.
Again in the same month, prior to Delhi Assembly poll, AAP had filed a criminal defamation against a Hindi news portal Media Sarkar over the sting operation which allegedly showed some party leaders agreeing to help push property deals and resolve financial disputes in return for cash donations to the party.
In August 2014, AAP allegedly conducted stings on AVAM (AAP Volunteers’ Action Manch)—the group formed after a split, allegedly to malign the latter in public.
The worst happened in March 2015, when Kejriwal’s personal aide Bibhav Kumar recorded a telephonic conversation with a journalist—without her knowledge, to build a case against Yogendra Yadav and made it public. An unprecedented incident, where a political party revealed its source in the media. The party seems to have given up all its ethics, which it had vouched for in the past.
But, now it was the turn of the opponents. An allegation levelled against Kejriwal by an ex-MLA of AAP from Rohini, Rajesh Garg has opened a can of worms. An audio tape of purported conversation between Kejriwal and Garg has revealed how the AAP leader was heard talking about splitting the Congress.
Then there was a tape that came up on how Kejriwal asking another leader to woo Muslim voters. That particular taped conversation exposed that Kejriwal had the least respect for the Muslims. His only objective was to win Muslim votes.
Now, it has become a routine affair. Someday or the other, either an audio or video tape recording comes up revealing the true face of Kejriwal and his team. The filth has begun to flow and in no time it would pollute the national capital and Yamuna.
Former TV journalist and former AAP leader Shazia Ilmi, who at present is a BJP member, on many occasions had told news channels “AAP has a strong fascination for conducting stings and it’s a standard procedure within the party. They secretively record communication of their own leaders and volunteers. They have a dirty tricks department that does all these.”
The party that brought freshness and novelty in Indian politics in the beginning, in no time it has led to rampant violation of mutual trust, privacy and confidentiality. The voters of Delhi, who gave AAP such a historical mandate, have already begun repenting on their decision.
Arvind Kejriwal forgot an old saying: “Those who live in glass houses never throw stones on others.”
(The opinion expressed in this column is solely that of the writer—Nameless Indian)
