Opinion: "Serial Killer" Remark Makes It Clear Kejriwal Will Bait Modi

Arvind Kejriwal has come up with a new term to describe the demolition drives of the Modi government against opposition governments. The term is 'serial killer'. While speaking in the special session of Delhi assembly, he said, "There is a new serial killer on the loose. Others form governments, but these people bring them down. They have trampled on democracy."

Taking potshots at the media, he had tweeted earlier in Hindi - "There is a serial killer. He committed six murders. Now, there is another murder attempt. Same pattern. But this time, he has failed. The victim is saying, I have seen him, it is the same killer. But the media is asking for proof."

It's a terribly catchy phrase, one that the average person has no trouble understanding. This is Arvind Kejriwal- his brilliance lies in his communication skill. His style is simple. His articulation is bereft of complicated sentences. As a matter of rule, he never uses complex intellectual jargon.

After conquering Delhi and Punjab, he is focusing on Gujarat and he knows that since the BJP has been in charge for three of the last 26 years, if he has to succeed in Gujarat, he has to constantly engage with Modi. In Gujarat, there is no BJP. It's only Modi. When Modi was appointed Chief Minister of the state, the BJP was in bad shape. Gujarat is considered to be the original laboratory of Hindutva, but also of 'Moditva'. The Congress has failed to break the political hegemony of Moditva in Gujarat. The BJP under Modi has been consistently getting more than 48 per cent votes there . The Congress has failed to produce a single leader in the state who can take Modi head on. Rahul Gandhi has been viciously attacking Modi nationally, but he does not possess the communication skills needed to connect with the masses.

Kejriwal knows that it is the opportune moment to create space for his party in Gujarat, especially after the results of the municipal elections in 2021. No wonder, he attacks Modi upfront; the CBI inquiry against his party over Delhi's liquor policy has made him more aggressive. During his speech in the Assembly yesterday, he said, "Yeh kisi ek admi ki satta ki havas ko pura karne ke like kiya ja raha hai (this is being done to satisfy one man's lust for power). While ridiculing Modi's assertion that he is fighting against corruption, he further says, "This is one man's fight of selfishness." He does not stop there. To buttress his earlier claim that the BJP was willing to spend 800 crores to buy 40 AAP MLAs, he says that so far, the BJP has bought 277 MLAs from other parties with more than 5,500 crores. Then he tells people that this money was tax payers' money, public money. GST, he said, is being used to buy MLAs.

Since Modi became central point of the BJP, the party has taken a sharp turn towards nationalism and Hindutva. Modi tried to marry this with his "Gujarat model of development". And in this exercise, with the help of his friends in the media, he has been successful in portraying India has having taken giant steps to become a global leader. Kejriwal not only lampoons his claims but presents himself as an alternative. Like the "Gujarat model", he sells the "Delhi model of governance " and speaks highly about his initiatives in health and education. He promises that this is the way to make India a global leader.

But like Modi, he does not explain if his brand of nationalism has any place for Muslims. Under Modi's regime, the BJP has successfully marginalised Muslims. Their electoral value has been reduced to almost zero, and their civil rights are willfully curtailed. This is the main reason that no Opposition party wants to openly side with them, but AAP, in its pursuit for power, has emerged as the most stark in this regard.

Therefore, in his campaign for Gujarat, he has been intriguingly keeping quiet on the issue of Bilkis Bano. His party has not uttered a word on the remission and release of 11 convicts by the Gujarat government. The Delhi Assembly session was a golden opportunity for him to raise the issue, but it wasn't. Nothing could be more tragic than this because this is the party which, at the time of its inception, fought a pitched battle with the Delhi Police over the rapes of a young girl called "Gudiya", and of Nirbhaya.

This was the party which used to claim that AAP was born to change politics. I know that politics is no easy game, and it's tougher when the opponent is a super-power like Modi, but if Kejriwal forgets that there are certain universal values without which politics has no meaning, is he really a viable alternative to what already exists?

(Ashutosh is author of 'Hindu Rashtra' and Editor, satyahindi.com.)

Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.