FRAGRANCE OF IDEAS
The results of the Delhi Assembly are finally out, so are the AAP government and the de facto and de jure rule of Arvind Kejriwal. Delhi voters whom AAP and Kejriwal took so casually all these years charge-sheeted both of them ruthlessly. Karma after all plays a vital part, sooner or later, and one has to be prepared for the fall-out. AAP is done and dusted; dishonesty and crass callousness have been punished hands down.
Arvind Kejriwal under the overall moral leadership of Anna Hazare launched a movement against corruption called ‘India against corruption’ in 2011. Huge crowds got attracted to this non-political agitation in the Ramlila grounds in Delhi. There were allegations of large-scale corruption charges against the then Manmohan Singh government and Arvind Kejriwal took a very high moral ground against the corrupt leaders and the corrupt system in the country. Young and old, men and women, common people and the people of repute got attracted to ‘India against corruption’. It became a mass-movement against corruption at an all-India level.
The movement got support from the people across ideological barriers. However, taking advantage of the leadership of Anna Hazare and the mass movement, Arvind Kejriwal converted the platform of the big agitation into a new political party called Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Anna Hazare was ditched by his own so-called disciple and he went into oblivion consequent upon the launch of the political party by Kejriwal against Anna’s wishes. Kejriwal on the platform of the mass movement had promised publicly not to join politics and contest elections. Then he broke his promises and joined active politics. AAP contested the Delhi state elections in 2013 and won a good number of seats but fell short of the majority. Then it handshaked with the same Congress against which it fought an agitation for one year and formed the government with its support in Delhi. But the government lasted for a small period only.
AAP made history by contesting elections again in 2015 for the Delhi State Assembly and swept the elections by winning 67 out of 70 seats and formed the government. It repeated the miracle in 2020 by winning 62 out of the 70 seats and formed the government for the third time in Delhi. During the period from 2013 to 2020, it got three chances to form the government in Delhi on the basis of the preferential voting in its favour by the people especially for the Assembly of Delhi. But it couldn’t make any impact in the elections held for the Lok Sabha and kept on losing all the seven seats in Delhi all the three times in 2014, 2019 and 2024. The message was clear that the people of Delhi desired AAP under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal to rule in the UT of Delhi specifically. It was during the third term that Arvind Kejriwal and AAP both made a complete mess of the things and earned a very bad name due to enormous corruption charges against them.
Kejriwal and his other AAP colleagues in the government and party have been involved in highly objectionable corruption cases including the liquor scam and most of them went to jail and are presently on bail. They have huge allegations of corruption, misuse of official power and position and exploitation of their own comrades against them which are pending in the courts of law. Even the icon of their movement against corruption, Anna Hazare, is feeling extremely sorry about their conduct and work and had openly asked the voters in Delhi to think decisively before they vote. They exhibited their work and conduct all this decade extremely contrary to the principles of their movement led by Anna & Kejriwal himself.
Next, the government led by Kejriwal helped the anti-national elements in Delhi and was a party to the attacks on Hindus during the anti-Hindu riots. Prominent members of AAP were involved in the violence against the Hindu community and were also booked by the police. The leaders of AAP colluded with foreign anti-India powers to create anarchy in India and Kejriwal publicly admitted that he was an anarchist. His government’s failure on all fronts was visible and his role particularly during the Covid epidemic period was not only condemnable but also aimed at harming the society at large.
The AAP government in Delhi over the last one decade has also brought the prestige of the national capital, Delhi, down by its gross failure to upgrade the infrastructure in the UT. The way the whole nation and other state capitals are making progress in all fields, Delhi has not been able to match up with them. As an important capital city in the world, Delhi has failed to come up to the international level as was promised by Arvind Kejriwal ten years ago. Pollution in the river Yamuna in Delhi is a disaster of the AAP government. These are major failures of the AAP government in Delhi besides the other big failures that have a telling effect on the health of the people in the capital of the country.
Arvind Kejriwal and his other colleagues by their obnoxious and egoistic statements annoyed a number of communities living in Delhi. He and the other MLAs of AAP in the Delhi State Assembly in the year 2022 earned the wrath of the displaced Kashmiri Pandit community too by mocking their plight on the floor of the House. This time just before the elections, some important prominent members of the displaced community issued a public appeal against him. It said the following:
“Elections are going to be held in Delhi on 5th February, 2025, Wednesday, for the State Assembly of Delhi. Voters in Delhi would cast their valuable votes very diligently this time. The members of the displaced Kashmiri Pandit community living in the Union Territory of Delhi, who are registered as voters therein, are also expected to vote on 5th February 2025. This is a humble appeal to all of them to come out in full numbers and cast their votes positively on the Election Day. Every voter is reminded about the humiliating and embarrassing statements of Arvind Kejriwal, the then Chief Minister of Delhi, who made jokes in the Delhi Assembly about the tragic genocide of the Kashmiri Pandit community in Kashmir. It was he and his other AAP MLAs who opposed the film ‘The Kashmir Files’ and made objectionable and disparaging comments about the human rights violations perpetrated on the displaced community by the Islamic fundamentalist and terrorist elements in Kashmir.
The AAP MLAs, sitting in the Assembly Hall, sarcastically laughed and made jokes on this sensitive issue in a full public gaze without keeping in view the sensitivities of the matter. It is high time to make them realise their blunders and huge mistakes which they committed to the detriment of public welfare and thus vote them out of power. All voters in Delhi and especially the members of the displaced Kashmiri Hindu community are once again appealed to vote in favour of the BJP in these elections to pave the way for a double-engine government in Delhi under an overall stewardship of PM Narendra Modi. This is a golden opportunity to change the future of Delhi when a number of decades have already been wasted in trusting the untrustworthy figures till date”.
The landslide two-third majority win of the BJP and the miserable defeat of AAP in the elections is a case-study for the political activists and analysts to learn great lessons in public life. During the campaigning this time and also on the floor of the House in the Assembly, Kejriwal declared that ‘it was impossible for PM Modi to win in the Delhi state elections and to do so he had to take another birth’. This statement exhibits the amour propre and the fake self-esteem of a politician who is power-drunk and who has lost the balance of his mind. All prominent leaders of AAP including its Convener Kejriwal, the prime accused in the liquor case Manish Sisodiya, Somnath Bharti, Gopal Rai and the Muslim face Adil Ahmed Khan in the riot epicentre Mustafabad constituency lost the elections. However, the Chief Minister Atishi Marlena somehow managed her victory. The vote share of AAP has also come down by almost a whooping 10%.
Congress has experienced a complete rout for the third time in a row. Same is the story for the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections as well. Its vote share has also come down very badly i.e. 6%. It is quite clear that the Congress has lost its connect with the people. Unfortunately for the Congress, this is their 90th defeat in the elections since 2014. However, it seems to have taken a vow not to introspect and review its position. The grand old party is content with the leadership of the dynastic feudal system and a borrowed ideology waiting for further disasters.
The BJP this time increased its vote share in the state elections from 39% to 47% while in the Lok Sabha elections it already secured a stupendous 52% votes in 2024. It is now upon the leadership of the BJP with such overwhelming support, after a gap of 27 years, to prove itself equal to the task while securing the control of the government in Delhi. People have high expectations from the new government, and the leadership of the party has also made a variety of promises to be fulfilled within the next five years.
Cleansing of Yamuna, announced welfare measures for the people, expediting the corruption cases against the accused who are currently on bail, transforming Delhi into a livable capital with smart infrastructure and pollution control and providing a clean and people friendly government are on the agenda of the new dispensation. With the inspiring leadership of PM Narendra Modi, Delhi and the whole country await the new government to deliver positively and successfully without any excuse. The biggest lesson of these elections is, “Don’t take the voters casually”.
(The author is a senior BJP & KP leader, human rights defender, author & columnist and can be reached at: [email protected])
