Arvind Kejriwal may have created history by forming a Party which
gained national recognition comprising people from non-political backgrounds
but he also created what is largely perceived as a single-person Party.
Arvind Kejriwal may have given a thrashing to incumbent
Chief Minister Sheila Dixit of Indian National Congress in the Delhi Assembly
Elections but then he went a accepted the same Congress’ support to become the
Chief Minister of the one-city State.
Arvind Kejriwal may have created history by forming the
State government with a Party that was just about two years old unseating the
mammoth Congress from power in Delhi after 17 years of their rule; but he
proved that the responsibility was too much for him to handle by resigning in
just seven weeks.
Arvind Kejriwal may have turned from activist to politician
but he proved that the best intentions did not lead to a stable government. He
could not shed his activist skin during his 49-day tenure as Chief Minister.
However, his incredible win over Congress during the Delhi
State Elections created a false feeling of invincibility in him. So much so
that he decided to contest the General Elections across the country hammering
together a group of idealist with little or no political experience. (To his
credit, Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has attracted a lot of candidates who
are achievers of their own standing.) But alas! Kejriwal become a victim of
arrogance when he decided to contest against Narendra Modi from Varanasi.
But choosing to target Modi, Kejriwal also diluted the strong
anti-corruption message that he had wooed Delhi (and the rest of India) with.
During his brief tenure as Prime Minister, he did not start proceedings against
Dixit as he had promised the public. By keeping mute about Congress and
targeting Modi, who is known as being totally corruption-free, he made his own
anti-corruption stance questionable. (A question to Kejriwal: Why did you not
contest from Amethi against Rahul Gandhi or from Rae Bareilly against Sonia
Gandhi?)
In Kejriwal’s decision to take on Modi he did not factor in
two important facts: First that Modi represents a change for better to most
people and second that he lost a lot of ground when he reneged on the trust
that the people of Delhi had placed in him by his resignation. This impacted
not only the Delhi voters, but voters all across the country. And Kejriwal is paying dearly for his
short-sightedness.
When he went to file his candidature in Varanasi, the car
Kejriwal was travelling in was pelted with eggs outside the Kashi Vishwanath
temple by crowds chanting Modi’s name. About two and a half hours later, black
ink was thrown at Kejriwal by crowds who wanted to symbolically blacken his
face. While Kejriwal typically pinned blame
for the attacks on Modi, the demonstrators blocking his car said that they
wanted only Modi to contest from their city, (See http://www.hindustantimes.com/elections2014/the-big-story/kejriwal-arrives-in-varanasi-to-launch-epic-poll-battle/article1-1200060.aspx)
Despite trying to woo the Hindu and Muslim voters at the
same time in the holy city, even people who did not support Modi were heard to
say that if there was a crowd for Kejriwal, there would be a sailaab (flood) when Modi would be in
Varanasi the next day. The prediction was right.
Clearly despite his bravado and pompous posturing of a
possibility of winning in Kashi, Kejriwal surely sees the writing on the wall:
it is curtains for Kejriwal as the spotlight shines on Modi.
Tomorrow, May 10th is when the electorate will
make its selection and May 16th will tell the rest of the world what
the outcome of the selection has been and whether the phenomenal support has
turned into a landslide win for Modi..