(Rana Ayyub is an award-winning investigative journalist and political writer. She is working on a book on Prime Minister Narendra Modi which will be published later this year.)
To understand the battle at the heart of the Delhi election - and lead opponents Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi - it is extremely relevant to revisit the events of 2010 and 2011, the age of the India Against Corruption campaign. In an election in which both the leaders are now almost neck-and-neck, if polls are to be believed, one cannot overlook the uncanny similarity between the two leaders, both prodigals of the Anna Hazare-led anti-graft movement.
A point to be noted here that is now pretty much in the public domain and reported extensively is that the cadres for the IAC movement were mostly imported from the RSS, the ideological mentor of the BJP, and the ABVP, which is the student wing of the BJP. The agenda was simple - the nepotism and malpractices in the UPA government mainly on issues like black money needed to be exposed
Anna Hazare, the activist who was sold as the new-age version of Mahatma Gandhi with volunteers sporting "Main Hoon Anna (I Am Anna)" caps captured the imagination of a nation that was getting extremely restless with the incumbent UPA and its seemingly limitless arrogance.
Anna's career in political activism spans decades, yet he displayed a naive that made him the object of easy manipulation. Many close to him would tell stories of how politicians in Maharashtra treated him as a handy tool to settle personal scores (there are stories of how the late Vilasrao Deshmukh used Anna to target Sharad Pawar). Having said that, there has been little substance to allegations made against Anna's personal ambition. When Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray called him a 'Vaakda Tondacha Gandhi' (Gandhi with a crooked face), he was offering begrudging praise.
As the India Against Corruption movement gained momentum, along with Anna, two faces were conferred with extreme media: Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi. One came from the IRS, the other from the IPS. Both had eccentric personalities, an inherent trait of anarchy and a love for power. Both sought to use the media to further their achievements of the past and the present. Both were terrific orators with a significant body of work to their past, and the camera seemed to love them. While Bedi was hailed as the torchbearer of police and jail reforms, Kejriwal was the face behind the Right to Information Act. Both had a secret ambition that would lead to the splintering of Anna's movement. And that ambition was Delhi.
Kejriwal was flanked by alleged left-leaning liberals like Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan; Bedi took pride in a phone call from L.K. Advani praising her courage and determination to fight corruption.
Let's be clear. The Delhi results will be the culmination of the very political India Against Corruption movement.
While Kejriwal does have an edge over Bedi who has discovered a newfound messiah in Narendra Modi, both will have battles to fight post the Delhi election, irrespective of the result.
It was no surprise that the BJP and RSS had to cajole warring factions in the Delhi branch of the BJP to present the Vision Document this afternoon. From V.K. Malhotra to Dr. Harsh Vardhan to the Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay, the cracks appeared to have been papered over, and they were all there for the photo-op with Bedi. After all, she had united them by becoming their common enemy.
Harsh Vardhan was the de-facto Chief Ministerial candidate before the Delhi elections last year. Those close to him insist that it was he who had led the voters in Delhi to buy the BJP's agenda of good governance - and that resulted in the party winning the most seats in 2013, but not a majority. Sources suggest that the internal battle between the good doctor and Satish Upadhyay, president of the Delhi BJP, had become so pronounced that documents alleging corruption against the latter were supplied to AAP by those close to the former.
It was at this time that the party leadership, which had been calling Modi the face of Delhi, brought in Bedi as a 'neutral' face.
But this was not without repercussions. In an internal meeting, Harsh Vardhan sought to remind BJP president Amit Shah of Bedi's comments against Modi on 2002 riots. Shah, whose masterstroke was crafting Lok Sabha's victory, knew however that besides the ambitious and pliant ex-cop, it did not have much to offer to the public, which seemed to want bigger results after eight months of the BJP in power.
A high-level meeting was held in Delhi between senior RSS members, Shah, Modi and other leaders in the BJP, and Bedi was made the consensus candidate. "I will need your support whole-heartedly, Sir" Bedi is alleged to have told a senior RSS member who will soon be the new man to watch out for in the organization.
But Bedi, whose fairytales and stories of unquestionable ethical probity have been successfully sold in the past will have to prove that the 'utmost transparency, unimpeachable integrity, fullest accountability" that she promises in the manifesto is not overshadowed by the radical elements in her party. The pride that she takes as an officer who brought in major reforms will have to be on display when she takes on police officers who appear to diminish the vandalism on churches in Delhi as an act of 'robbery'. The Christian community might not be a big vote bank but five successive attacks on churches will indeed need to be dealt with 'unimpeachable integrity' as promised; so also an assurance that another Trilokpuri which was seared by communal riots is not forced upon Delhi for electoral gains.
On the other hand, Kejriwal, a leader who has been the product of dexterous media management, will have to contain the rebellion in his party which stems out of a deep -rooted anarchist streak. Senior leaders in the party like Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan have in private conversations spoken of this anarchism which has seen many shift sides. If Kejriwal put up a brave effort in naming the country's leading business houses for alleged corruption, then much like Caesar's wife, he will have to be answerable on the question of dubious funds accepted by his own party.
The Congress is almost a non-entity in this election, but the politically-bankrupt party has made a wise decision by projecting Ajay Maken as a candidate against Bedi and Kejriwal who thrive on the cult of personality and do not differ much when it comes to ideology. For when it comes to wooing the economically disadvantaged who have traditionally voted Congress, Maken is much more savvy and shrewd at addressing the crowds than any of his party members
In the next one week, Delhi will not pick an ideology but a personality that might best suit its temperament - possibly, for the next five years.
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