Between Delhi Polls, Lokpal, Kejriwal Is Politically Disaster

By Kajol Singh | INN Live

He may call it a Jokepal and insist that Anna Hazare is being misled, but as things stand now, Arvind Kejriwal has been in no uncertain terms, unceremoniously dumped from the movement he helped to start. A shock press conference by Congress vice President Rahul Gandhi in which he vowed to get the 'important' bill passed this winter session of Parliament, and appealed to all political parties to put aside "little differences" to ensure its smooth passage before 20 December, seemed to be the last nail in the coffin of Kejriwal's involvement in the movement. 
Following the press conference Anna Hazare professed himself happy with the draft of the bill. "I would be sending the wrong message to the people of the country if I continue to insist that the government agrees with me 100 percent. Parliament and the government are the highest decision making bodies and if there are some issues where I have to make adjustments, I have no problems. I full agree with the draft tabled in the Rajya Sabha as it serves the cause we were fighting for", he said. 

A clearly furious Kejriwal on the other hand, took to Twitter, calling the draft bill a 'Jokepal' and demanding that Anna had been misled. He also vowed to fight for the Janlokpal bill "till our dying breath", regardless of what Anna said.

Anna for his part, clearly signalled that any semblance of an alliance with Kejriwal was now over. "We have separated now and are walking our separate ways. If he and his party are unhappy with the draft, they can start a new agitation. I am not with them", he said. Although Kejriwal for all practical purposes does not need Anna (as the Delhi poll results showed all too clearly) the fact remains that it was the Lokpal movement that catapulted him into the national spotlight and gave him the moral ground on which to form a political party.

Although he has come a long way since then, being seen as a 'traitor' to Anna's cause and an 'opportunist' who only used the Gandhian to get into politics, will be damaging to Kejriwal's image. And if Delhi is indeed headed to a repoll, both Congress and BJP, who are suddenly rushing to portray themselves as the true guardians of the Lokpal, will suddenly go to the polls with the moral high ground, as well as a potentially lethal weapon against Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party. Because now they can accuse him of being nothing but a troublemaker who has not only betrayed Anna, but also a cowardly politician who does not want to actually govern. 

The signs of this are already in the air. Consider the rare show of unity by both Congress and BJP, slamming his 'arrogance' in sending a questionnaire to both parties asking them for their stand on 18 issues relating to the national capital, including possible cases of corruption against their leaders. BJP leader Balbir Punj said, "What is this height of arrogance? Instead of thinking of how to form the government, the leaders from the party (AAP) are busy making baseless allegations against other parties. 

They only have 28 seats and they are questioning the Congress and BJP. If they have the mandate, let them form the government. If not, then sit in the opposition" Two senior Delhi Congress leaders, Arvinder Singh Lovely and Haroon Yusuf, also accused the AAP of shirking its responsibility in forming the government. "The 18-point programme can be implemented through administrative process. The AAP is misleading the people of Delhi," Lovely said. Film director Shekhar Kapur may well have been spot on when he tweeted, "Here comes politics of divisiveness .. how 2 bring @AamAadmiParty down? Drive a wedge between Guru and the Shishya. And then let media loose". 

But AAP frankly, is making this quite easy. It cannot be denied that the Congress decision to send a letter of 'unconditional support' for AAP to the Lt governor, after AAP had insisted that it would never ally with either the Congress or BJP, was a political masterstroke. It was quite possibly aimed at showing the people who voted for AAP that here was a party who was asking for votes and making rash promises of change, but did not have the guts to actually go ahead and govern, or implement those changes. 

As INN Live pointed out, the "lurking apprehension gets sharper the more you watch the intemperate exuberance and the swagger in people like Kumar Viswas after the AAP’s spectacular electoral debut. There’s a thick line between confidence and cockiness. Many of its members appear to have stopped being mindful about it after the party’s performance in Delhi. 

Because like in cricket, there is nothing certain about Indian politics. AAP may be confident that they will win a larger mandate in case of a repoll, but there is nothing to suggest that this is a certainty. And while Kejriwal may have made the right decision in not aligning with either Congress or BJP, his manner of refusing may have also been a mistake. 

It was not Kejriwal’s aversion to forming a government with Congress support that was the problem, but the way he chose to speak his opposition and presenting himself as the sole conscience keeper of the nation. He spoke of investigating 15 years of Congress rule in Delhi and the BJP’s seven-year rule in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, and even talked of putting some of the leaders of these parties and bureaucrats and businessmen in jail. 

One wonders how the idea of sending all and sundry to jail becomes part of the agenda for governance. Kejriwal needs to be a little more savvy now. With a repoll in Delhi looking like a foregone conclusion, he will not be able to hit the campaign trail with the squeaky clean slate that he had even a week ago. 

Earlier all that the BJP and Congress could do to counter Kejriwal, was to call him a non-entity who could not possibly hope to play with the big boys. But now they can call him an arrogant coward who does nothing more than shoot his mouth off. And with Anna Hazare writing him off, he doesn't even have the Lokpal movement to turn to.