I never thought I would spend anytime trying to describe the personality of Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, as I was never impressed by him and the Jan Lokpal (People's Ombudsman) movement that gave birth to his brand of politics. However, he has clearly won the hearts of many Indians including my close friends and family members and now I am concerned enough about the implications of his rising popularity on upcoming national elections that I feel compelled to articulate my fears arising from his Naxalite attitude, socialist ideas, and dubious under cover Congress and left leaning media backing.
I will briefly explain why I was not so impressed by the Jan Lokpal movement. First and foremost people across the country were led to believe that a people's ombudsman bill will be the panacea for curing the cancer of corruption, which is apparently not true. Without a strong leader of high moral character the bill will end up being a verbiage not worth the paper it would be printed on. Despite a Right To Information act (RTI) that came out of another agitation that Kejriwal participated in, even 68 years later the government of India refuses to release the facts from investigations into mysterious disappearance of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on grounds of national security. They even deny access to the death certificate of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru the first Prime Minister of India. Secondly, despite the impeccable character of Sri Anna Hazare and Ms Kiran Bedi the movement was hijacked by Naxalites and dubious characters like Swami Agnivesh, Manish Sisodia, Prashant Bhushan, Gopal Rai etc. I am not implying that an independent ombudsman is a bad idea we must have it, in fact we now have the bill passed by parliament but that is not going to solve anything unless we have decisive, visionary, and morally upright leaders. This last statement of mine provides justification to the idea of forming a political party to fight corruption, which is precisely what Mr. Kejriwal did so let's examine his vision, morality, and decisiveness and implications of his success on upcoming 2014 general elections.
The Kejrivision
There is precious little uttered or written by Sri Arvind Kejriwal that can qualify as a vision, we all know what all he is against but know close to nothing of what he stands for in terms of governance other than the fact that he will not make any decisions himself, will let people make the decisions. Therefore, I will have to use his Delhi election manifesto to make conjectures about his vision. Refer here
https://m.app.box.com/view_shared/k6zzgdgv0tepbzkfo3bd
AAP's two main poll planks of cheap electricity and free water to Delhites smack of Nehruvian socialist ideas that have failed world over and brought Bharat to the brink of bankruptcy in 1990 that forced the country to mortgage it's gold abroad. Delhi does not produce power on its own, it buys it from NTPC, and Delhi govt does not even have the authority to set electricity rates so how can they bring the prices down? It's the "S" word! Subsidies!!! In fact they use the "S" word in the manifesto for setting up solar power plants in households. While he wants to supply cheap power in Delhi, he went on to protest against the operations of nuclear power plant all the way in Kudankulam in Tamilnadu on grounds of public safety, which was eventually cleared by the Supreme Court against the petition of his partner in crime Mr Prashant Bhushan. Anyway, how does Delhi Govt raise money for subsidies? Taxes! Government can raise taxes and here you have a socialistic miracle, egalitarian distribution of resources. Same methodology can be applied for free water.
Mr. Kejriwal per his manifesto wants to get the control of Delhi Police in the hands of state government but is absolutely not willing to come out with a position on dealing with terror suspects or terrorists, in fact he shies away from those questions on the grounds that Delhi Police does not report into the Delhi state government. Why on earth does he then want to control Delhi police when he does not even consider talking about terrorist attacks in scope for Delhi elections? Watch this hilarious YouTube clipping where Mr Kejriwal leaves the interview midway: http://youtu.be/Rbam0bT7Jas . Surprisingly in their manifesto they promise to free Muslim youth from "false" police cases, how can they do that when they do not control the police or have no vision on fighting terrorism?
The Kejriorality
The biggest question of morality that I am sure must rend Mr Kejriwal's soul to pieces (if he has one) is, Did he back stab Anna Hazare in en cashing the popularity he earned by standing behind him in the form of chief ministership of Delhi? Kejriwal was one of the many unknown activists funded by Ford Foundation until the unsuspecting Gandhian Kisan Baburao "Anna" Hazare reposed his faith in him. Beyond this I would leave this as a personal matter between Anna Ji and Mr Kejriwal, and focus on the lies Mr. Kejriwal has been peddling in broad "media" light.
1. We will pass "Anna's" Lokpal bill on Dec 29th in Ram Lila grounds if we come to power: This is a constitutional impossibility because Anna Ji was fighting for an ombudsman with national jurisdiction and Delhi state government does not have jurisdiction outside Delhi. When Anna Hazare himself slapped him with this reality, he said he meant it to be the Lokayukta that various states can have independent of the central Lokpal. Then after election he was told that Delhi government cannot even introduce a Lokayukta Bill without central government's permission. Kejriwal in his characteristic style calls this reality "unfortunate", admits ignorance, feigns honesty, and moves on. Today is Dec 29th 2013 and as of my writing this blog there is not even a plan on how he will introduce and pass this bill.
2. We have exposed BJP and Congress corruption: In his shoot and scoot drive that surprisingly received such a huge mainstream media coverage day in and day out, Mr. Kejriwal merely read out facts previously provided by other anti corruption crusaders or media agencies, in fact the only one not heard of before was the so called expose of Mr Nitin Gadkari of BJP. Let's take the top 3 exposes that he did prior to launching his political party in the order he did those.
a. Robert Vadra DLF nexus: This came out in a news paper a year before Kejriwal was even known to people but no mainstream media picked it up. In fact Dr Subramanian Swamy has been calling the whole family out in all his speeches easily found on YouTube. Why then such a coverage for Kejriwal? Moreover Mr. Kejriwal was quick to point out in this expose that he has no evidence of corruption against Mrs. Sonia Gandhi. The whole world knows of her close relations with Ottavio Quattrochi the notorious Italian arms dealer of Boforce fame, her false affidavit about her education, her illegal insurance agency running from Prime Minister's residence during Indira Gandhi's tenure etc. but not even one case could be caught by the scrupulous investigation of Mr Kejriwal. Why? Our mainstream media geniuses like Barkha Dutt, Sagarika Ghosh, Rajdeep Sardesai, Arnab Goswami never even bothered to pose that question.
b. Salman Khurshid's NGO scam of Rs 75 Crore: This was again a read out of investigation carried out and reported by AajTak TV news channel. Just because Mr. Kejriwal said the same thing in a press conference all the spin doctors in mainstream Indian media went all guns blazing after it.
c. Nitin Gadkari Farmers' Land grab: This was never heard before but the very same day turned out to be a complete lie. The land in question as opposed to being owned by Mr Gadkari (as alleged by Mr Kejriwal), was leased by Purti group from the Maharashtra govt for 11 years to grow saplings for farmers to plant in their own farms. The saplings were sold at a lower than market rate to farmers. Mr Kejriwal alleged that Mr. Gadkari was in collusion with Congress govt in the state of Maharashtra and grabbed a farming land for his personal gain. Interestingly the lady Anjali Damania who carried out this investigation for Mr. Kejriwal had grabbed a farming land pretending to be a farmer and her deal was cancelled by the government when she started constructing commercial housing on that land. Mr. Gadkari had refused to help her get out of this and another similar mess with the state government. (Read details here http://www.dnaindia.com/pune/report-activist-anjali-damania-a-land-shark-too-1746829 ) When confronted with this reality Mr. Kejriwal like he always does feigned ignorance in front of Kejri smitten media and promised an "internal Lokpal" enquiry against Ms Damania. I am still waiting to hear the outcome while the mainstream media has completely forgotten about it.
3. We have nothing to do with Congress (or BJP):
Leaving the decision to take outside Cong support to form government in Delhi aside, let's examine Mr. Kejriwal and his close associates' affiliations.
a. Arvind Kejriwal: A very morally corrupt leader from the Congress party Mr Digvijay Singh asked Mr. Kejriwal nine questions when the latter was part of Anna Hazare's anti corruption movement. Although, I never take Digvijay singh's questions seriously this time the answers opened up very serious doubts about Mr. Kejriwal's moral probity. India Against Corruption released the answers and in answers to questions 6,7, and 8 they said Ms. Sonia Gandhi as chairperson of the extra constitutional body National Advisory Council wrote recommendation letters for Mr Kejriwal to not transfer him out of Delhi and to let him proceed on a long leave normally not granted to servicemen. Read the full text here:
http://www.moneylife.in/article/kejriwal-wife-never-transferred-out-of-delhi-but-points-finger-at-pulok-chatterjee/29199.html
I would not have cared much for not being transferred out of Delhi but a letter from the virtual ruling queen of India for a small time officer in the revenue services does not seem like normal course of business.
b. Aruna Roy: She is Kejriwal's political mentor as admitted by Kejriwal himself. She is a known leftist and is a member of the National advisory council. Though Mr. Kejriwal and Ms Aruna Roy had differences over the Lokpal bill, she is the one who initiated him into political/social activism and hence I have reason to believe Mr. Kejriwal subscribes to leftist socialist ideology, more than that his political mentor is Ms. Sonia Gandhi's stooge as she served on both NAC I and NAC II formed by two consecutive UPA governments at the center.
c. Yogendra Yadav: He was the advisor to Congress Vice President Mr. Rahul Gandhi in 2009 general election and is now a close aide of Mr. Kejriwal. Post elections he was awarded a spot in the national advisory council in 2010 for implementation of right to education act. NAC members are not elected, they are hand picked by Ms Sonia Gandhi.
Aside from these lies some of the things that he did to attract muslim voters as part of his election campaign make me really concerned about his rising popularity. He symbolically added "I am a common man" text to his party hat in Arabic script and now realizing that this could tick off Hindu voters he has clandestinely taken it out but by this stunt he very smartly signaled the continuation of Muslim appeasement under his rule just as in Congress rule. Then he went on to talk to Muslims about how his friend Mr Prashant Bhushan is fighting to prove the Batla house terrorist encounter in the heart of Delhi fake. This was the encounter where Delhi Police sub inspector Mr. Mohan Chand Sharma laid his life fighting terrorists and the courts found all the terrorists arrested guilty of charges filed against them. Watch this very revealing video of Mr Kejriwal addressing a Muslim crowd http://youtu.be/FciNxghv_l0 . He then enlisted support of Maulana Taufeeq Raza Khan, known Congress supporter, accused of inciting communal riots in Bareily, and issued a Fatwa against the popular liberal Bangladeshi writer Ms Tasleema Nasreen. Later when confronted by this reality in a question from audience in a show on ABP Hindi news channel he once again feigned ignorance in his typical style about Taufeeq Raza Khan's communal record and moved on , watch here http://youtu.be/GrtppD3hPtU forward to 7:20 minute if you do not have the time to watch the 13 minute clip.
There are three big reasons for India's troubles since independence minority appeasement, socialist economic policies, and corruption. Though it remains to be seen how AAP government conducts itself but for now even if we trust they will be clean like they claim, they are clearly going to uphold the other two pillars of India's social, and economic decline.
The Kejricision
In terms of governance decisions Mr Kejriwal has absolutely no track record. His party and supporters claim that he has worked in the government as a revenue service officer and he knows how to run a government. The claim that he has worked in the government is true but how long is never effectively answered or even questioned. He joined service in 1995 and went for paid leave in 2000 until returning back in 2003, then worked for 18 months and took another 18 months of unpaid leave. Finally resigned in Feb 2006. Even if we assume he worked and governed wholeheartedly during the time he showed up at work his government work experience adds up to less than 7 years. If you take out first year for on the job training and 18 months of effective part time work due to his NGO involvement when he came back from the 2+ year long vacation his experience in government only adds up to less than 5 years. When it comes to making decisions Mr Kejriwal (at least publicly) says he will let people decide on key matters what they want and that's real swaraj (self rule). I see that as an attempt to evade responsibility. Imagine you visit a doctor and he/she says you have serious illness and you could take drug A or drug B, please decide which one you want and I will write that on the prescription. I am sure you will start looking for a new doctor. In fact his friend Mr Prashant Bhushan advocates a plebiscite to end Kashmir dispute which goes well with the definition of swaraj offered by Mr. Kejriwal.
A typical response to the arguments I made above would be what kind of experience did Rajiv Gandhi have when he became the prime minister. Well if the comparison Mr. Kejriwal seeks to make is as low as Rahul Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi then he definitely wins but the people of Bharat should have learned by now that they deserved better leadership then and should demand much more from their leaders today.
Why Should we care about AAP & Mr Kejriwal Beyond Delhi?
I was discussing AAP with a close friend of mine and this argument came up during the discussion that AAP deserves a chance since Congress and even BJP when it was in power in the state of Delhi has disappointed people, and Delhi state effectively being a glorified municipal corporation is the safest place to give this party a chance to prove itself and they can be no worse than Congress and BJP even if they fail while the damage will be limited to the city of Delhi. I wholeheartedly agree with this argument and could care less about Kejriwal's lack of vision, decision making ability, and immorality but for the fact that 2014 Lok Sabha elections are on the horizon and I can see Mr Kejriwal's ambitions for playing a king or king maker role in the new national government. I am not surprised that even before publicly announcing the decision to form government in Delhi they were courting candidates to fight parliamentary elections in states outside Delhi. It is for this reason we ought to be wary of Mr. Kejriwal and his brand of politics, Bharat today has been brought to a precarious state and I fear a serious economic collapse, internal security collapse and/or a serious external attack on the country in the event of a weak government taking power in 2014. Ten years of UPA rule has undone everything good that started in PV Narsimharao's time and culminated in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's time, 2014 is a do (vote for good governance) or die situation for the country and we need to see through the nefarious designs of Ms Sonia Gandhi and her coterie.
Delhi state win is significant in signaling the winability of AAP to many key stakeholders in the political arena that use it as a basis for aligning with a political party. First and foremost the young undecided educated voter that relates with Mr Kejriwal due to his excellent academic credentials and impressive oratory skills (though lacking sound basis for many claims) now can risk casting their vote for AAP as they know that there is some chance of their vote not getting wasted. Secondly, opportunistic disgruntled leaders in other political parties and budding local leaders nurturing political ambitions now see a potential political career in joining AAP and that gives AAP a fighting chance in some key constituencies outside Delhi. Thirdly, Muslim voter that is known to vote as a block and to vote for a "secular" winnable party now will see AAP as an alternative to Congress which will preserve their special status while offering better governance for the country. Last but most importantly Congress which is struggling to control the damage done by their own scion Mr. Rahul Gandhi's dumbness (popularly known as Pappu), has found an undeclared prime ministerial candidate that can at least not be a laughing stock when pitted against Mr Narendra Modi and can cut into the young educated voter base of BJP. Congress already knows it's going to lose in 2014 so their goal is not to win but to stop Modi because Mr Modi unlike Mr. Vajpayee genuinely hates congress and will not spare their corrupt leaders. Therefore they will lend all the support possible behind the scenes to make Mr Kejriwal look good in Delhi government and portray him as a victim by conducting never ending probes into his funding and anything else that meets media eyes, and make public allegations against him. The left leaning English medium mainstream media will now go one step further in drumming up Mr. Kejriwal's slightest of achievements taking a cue from Congress government at the center. This is already evident from the inordinate amount of air time being given for swearing in ceremony coverage of Mr Kejriwal while the three other chief ministers sworn in did not get as much air time put together.
In conclusion Mr Kejriwal while in no way can muster significant numbers in the Lok Sabha, can be a real spoiler for the BJP and will be a force to reckon with. He can help install a fickle pseudo secular non-congress government at the center and repeat the same failed policies of Pt Jawaharlal Nehru. Early voter awareness of his flawed policies and malicious intent is the only way out. We ought to know that while communist governments in West Bengal and Kerala were not the most corrupt, their leftist ideology has ruined the social and economic fabric of these states. Incorruptible execution of a bad idea is just as bad as corrupt execution of a good idea if not worse. I sincerely hope that Bharat gets a government in 2014 that offers good and decisive governance.
Vande Mataram.
