Ajay Bhardwaj
Three quick apologies by AAP”s national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in three defamation cases have once again exposed the political antics that the AAP had been resorting to in order to gain electoral mileage in the run-up to elections. It brought out a stark contrast in the rhetoric and the performance, the Kejriwal brand of politics with a wide gap between what the AAP had drummed about to woo the voters and its practical performance in the post-electoral times.
Following the Assembly elections in Punjab and Delhi and the last Lok Sabha elections Kejriwal found himself in the dock with as many as 33 defamation cases. With already three apologies down, many more might as well be on the way.
The veneer of a so-called crusader lies torn to shreds with the conciliatory posture taken by Kejriwal and if
anything it has plunged the Punjab unit of AAP in an unprecedented crisis, which many leaders have termed as a grave identity crisis.
The unconditional apology that Kejriwal tendered to former Punjab Cabinet Minister Bikram Majithia, who is the son-in-law of Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Badal, came as a thunderbolt to the state party leaders. One, because they were not taken into confidence at all about the impending move, and two, because it has crippled the entire agenda of anti-drug trafficking that has been the core strength of the party.
“In his apology, Kejriwal has jokingly pulled the rug from our feet and has subjected us to serious political humiliation”, said Bhagwant Mann, MP, who took no time to quit as the party”s state president as soon as Kejriwal made the announcement. Quick on the heels co-president of the state AAP unit Aman Arora also resigned from his office demonstrating the party leaders” anguish and fury.
He said the entire apology is so abjectly worded that “we have nothing but an egg on our faces”, and reaffirmed to take up the cause of drug trafficking in the state after Kejriwal”s apology which said “Because of my allegations made against you at various political rallies, public meetings, TV programmes, print, electronic and social media, you filed a defamation case against us… I
hereby withdraw all my statements and allegations and apologise for the same. The damage caused to your esteem, the hurt caused to your family, friends, well-wishers, followers and the loss caused to you is regretted.”
During the Lok Sabha campaign, Kejriwal had personally named Majithia for his alleged involvement in a drug racket and had subsequently issued a series of defamatory statements against him and other Akali leaders.
Incidentally while drawing a blank in the rest of the country, AAP had managed to capture four of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab heralding its first electoral victory. It was followed by a thumping victory in Delhi and an impressive performance, once again, in the Punjab Assembly elections.
“The hoax of his brand of politics stands blatantly exposed after the apologies that Kejriwal has tendered in three cases”, said Sucha Singh Chotepur, who broke away from the AAP after he was removed as its state president in the run-up to the last Assembly elections in Punjab.
A serious political fall-out of it has been that the Lok Insaf Party broke its alliance with the AAP, while a large number of AAP leaders led by HS Phoolka mooted an idea of making Punjab AAP an “autonomous” unit. “The unravelling over a single point shows how little there is to the party-history, ideology, issues at stake, resilience”, observed Kuljit Bains, a columnist.
Within a couple of days of tendering an apology to Majithia, the Delhi Chief Minister trotted out two more apologies. This time, one to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and the second one to former Union Minister Kapil Sibal and his son Amit Sibal.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign, Kejriwal had called Gadkari “one of the country”s most corrupt politicians” following which a defamation case was slapped on him. In a note to Gadkari this time Kejriwal admitted to “making unverified allegations”, and added “I have nothing personal against you. I regret the same. Let us put the incident behind us and bring the court proceedings to a closure”.
In a similar letter to Amit Sibal and Kapil Sibal, simultaneously Kejriwal said that “the allegations made against you and your father were unfounded for which I seek your apology”. Kejriwal had alleged conflict of interest over Amit Sibal appearing in the Supreme Court for Vodafone when his father was the Union Communications Minister.
While the Delhi unit of the party has not seen the revolt in the manner Punjab did, there is a palpable sense of discomfort among the AAP leaders as they find the main plank of corruption, on which they had fought the election, slipping out of their hands.
“The party had come to power in Delhi by painting every other political leader black, which, to a large extent made a substantial dent in the vote-bank of the Congress and the BJP to help AAP grab power. But now it all seems to be falling like a house of cards triggering a serious political crisis for the party”, said Dr Dinesh Mukhey of the Punjab University.
It demonstrated that the party never had any ideology or a set of principles for governance which could make it stand out in the long run. It never had any clear-cut economic agenda either which could make it a party with a difference. The party in a way emerged only like a bubble which may not burst immediately, but surely stands adrift.
Unless the unrest in the Punjab unit of AAP is put to rest there are chances that the party may hit the ground zero and look for a churning within. It may lead to issues of leadership, something that the party had weathered in its infancy when many senior leaders fell apart. In the process, the party would need to formulate its political philosophy instead of just depending on knee-jerk political idioms which might give it electoral gains but leave it politically shallow.
Is it Arun Jaitley next?
There have been reports that Kejriwal recently sent an emissary to Jaitley to discuss the possibility of an apology. Jaitley is believed to have cold-shouldered the move for the time being.
The Union Finance Minister had filed a Rs 10 crore defamation suit against Kejriwal and five other AAP leaders, Sanjay Singh, Kumar Vishvas, Ashutosh, Raghav Chadha and Deepak Bajpai.
A civil defamation case was filed in Delhi High Court and a criminal defamation suit was filed in lower court in Delhi. Besides, a separate defamation case was filed against Kejriwal after certain remarks were made by his lawyer Ram Jethmalani during the trial.
Kejriwal wanted to take the apology route with Jaitley as the next hearings in the high court and lower court are respectively on April 3 and April 8.
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