Arvind Kejriwal, Caught Red-Handed

(Pawan Khera is a political analyst with the Congress party.)

Arvind Kejriwal is a desperate man.

He has always been a desperate man. A man who will stop virtually at nothing - not even his destination.

With his lean, mean, 'no-frills' 'no-etiquette' 'culture-neutral' communication and amoral politics, he exhibits an acquired bare-minimumness which initially attracted people.

He brought to Indian politics dimensions that were never seen before. He used emotions used never before by any vote- seeker in India. Emotions of pity, guilt, sulk.

From his muffler to his floaters via a loose hanging shirt, he tries to be a 100 people at the same time but ends up being a make-up artist masquerading as a politician.

By uploading details of every penny his party receives as donation, it now appears as though he is using transparency as a cover. One can only hope it is not a cover for something sinister.

The linear nature of his political narrative makes him look like a man who has sneaked a peak at the answers at the end of a Sudoku book and is now confidently solving the riddle. Like an assembled piece of Ikea furniture, he deconstructs politics to dangerously misleading simplifications. In doing so, he of course makes politics comprehensible for those who have neither the patience nor the time to delve into the deeper nuances and purposes of politics.

Arvind Kejriwal deideologised politics. Visibility and audibility have been the end-all and be-all of his politics. Devoid of any vision or program, he stoked the cynicism of the middle class and invoked pulp welfarism for poorer sections.

He got desperate when he realized that unlike sensational politics, governance does not attract cameras. His desperation reached its pinnacle when he saw OB vans grumbling against his style of politics and governance. He decided to quit governance and get back to doing that which attracts cameras - politics of, by and for TRPs.

Arvind Kejriwal realized, and so did Delhi, that he was a misfit to be in the secretariat. The street beckoned him. His ambition took him to the highway to Varanasi. The gamble was simple to decipher. If he won, he would be a giant killer and hence acceptable to secular forces as the prime ministerial face. If he lost, he would still have had his moment under the sun.

The underlying strategy of Arvind Kejriwal to increase his own stature has always been to either piggyback on borrowed stature, or attack men and women of high stature. When his desperate attempts to be a part of the high-profile National Advisory Council failed, and the credit for RTI rightly went to Aruna Roy, he chose Anna Hazare. During the Jan Lokpal agitation, when Anna sat on an indefinite fast, Arvind Kejriwal tried his desperate best to sabotage the negotiations between IAC and the government (the author played a small role in these negotiations).

When the negotiations succeeded, Arvind again got desperate with the limitations of a spotlight which was reflected and shared. Breaking free from his peer group, Arvind was on his own. He chose to attack the most powerful and popular leader of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit. That meant high TRPs for the media and instant spotlight for him. On the campaign material of AAP, there would be large pictures of Sheila Dikshit along with his own. That was to become his style and raison de'etre of his politics. His press conferences became a celebrated sleaze-fest. He would level unsubstantiated allegations against powerful politicians and corporates, sinking their reputations to stay afloat.

The recent advertisement of AAP, where Arvind Kejriwal is shown with Prime Minister Modi and a slogan 'Modi for PM and Arvind for CM' clearly reinforces the amoral character of his politics. When this video came under fire, on predictable lines, AAP quickly distanced itself from it and suspended some lower-level party workers.

Will any political party, especially one which claims it has no resources to contest an election, release an advertisement without first clearing it at the highest level? Advertisements are not just expensive, they are also extremely crucial and unlikely to be left at the mercy of lower-level party functionaries.

This cheap skullduggery can attract lumpens and upstarts but cannot be identified with a man who wants to be the Chief Minister of Delhi.

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