(Nalin S Kohli is spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Director of the party's Public Policy Research Centre. He is also a lawyer and has extensive experience in media and education.)The latest article by Mr Ashutosh of AAP on NDTV.com on how many people thronged to lunch with his party chief Arvind Kejriwal is evangelical in tenor. It seeks to adopt a moral high ground, where none exists, by playing the political underdog. It conveniently ignores every aspect of the AAP's monumental omissions and commissions from the debut to end of a disastrous 49-day misrule that the citizens of Delhi may find difficult to forget or forgive.
What, how, when, why and where the AAP collects funds for its unfinished political agenda is really their own concern. As a political entity, they can pursue the path they desire. But when weakness is packaged as virtuousness and that too at the cost of the BJP, a counter comment becomes appropriate.
Mr Ashutosh chooses to celebrate the presence of curious media persons simply doing their job at an AAP fund collection as a victory of sorts. Crowds throng venues to see clowns and superstars alike. It's the voter who finally decides who emerges as a democratic superstar or a jester. But for the AAP, a truly aggressive, media-driven group of individuals, the very presence of a large contingent of media persons and equipment is an achievement! In the absence of a cohesive ideology, it is this maniacal commitment to be relevant in the media space at any cost that apparently keeps the flock together.
Additionally, AAP has a strange way of appropriating what doesn't belong to it. A groundswell against the scams of the UPA and in favour of Team Anna was appropriated by Mr Kejriwal. Anna, the ideological guru, as well as meritorious fellow co-travellers in the movement, were quickly dispensed with after the political outfit came into being. To the voter, they promised the moon, and eager citizens thronged to election booths to deliver almost a full verdict to a political green horn.
That the AAP went back on its promise to remain equidistant from both the BJP and Congress was overlooked and forgiven in the public mood.
But the middle class is unified in expecting good governance. Citizens were rudely shocked to discover that in a mere 49 days, Mr Kejriwal had not a modicum of an idea of how to govern. Mr Kejriwal touched a pinnacle of lawlessness when, as a sitting Chief Minister, he sat on dharna or protest against his own government and took pride in his proclamation of being an "anarchist"! He sought to reward those who had, on his electioneering call, boycotted paying their electricity bills, and penalise those who honestly paid their bills. He proved he was an anarchist.
Interestingly, in Mr Ashutosh's article, why is the name of Mr Somnath Bharti missing from the worthy list of those who brought down stalwarts, in his case a sitting minister of the erstwhile regime? Is the party finally embarrassed by him? At the time, Mr Bharti was appointed the Law Minister of Delhi.
Within weeks, however, he earned the unique distinction of perhaps being the only lawyer and Law Minister who displayed a liberal disposition for breaking the law, repeatedly. In supporting Mr Bharti's misdemeanours, Mr Kejriwal as Chief Minister displayed a clear bias, rather than reigning in the errant.
Their short stint at governance, or rather non-governance, exposed the underbelly of AAP and the hollowness of its lofty pronouncements. Mr Kejriwal, despite being a gifted orator, painted himself as a veritable bundle of contradictions. The only consistency he displayed was the complete lack of it.
Inadequacies, inaccuracies and lofty pronouncements continue to dominate AAP's agenda. Citizens can hardly be expected to seek to suffer an inimitable model of democratically-elected anarchy. While fund-raising events may serve a lavish spread of food, voters finally expect to see the complete truth dished out on their plates.
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