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Exactly what is Kejriwal's AAP up to?

The once great hope of the Delhi citizenry seems to be picking a fight a day with the Centre. Meanwhile, his party apparently plans an electoral coup in Punjab. Are they losing it or know something we don't?

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses a meeting in Jalandhar on July 4
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal addresses a meeting in Jalandhar on July 4
Aditi Phadnis New Delhi
Last Updated : Jul 18 2016 | 1:16 PM IST
It was a blazing hot day in May. The Punjab unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) resolved to gherao the residence of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on the issue of farmer suicides and an alleged Rs 12,000-crore wheat scam.

As many as 50,000 AAP volunteers were to reach Badal's residence in Chandigarh's Sector 2 for a sit-in. Massive arrangements were done, with the police out in full riot gear.

The crowds reached his home. Badal had cancelled all engagements for the day and was waiting for the procession, which stopped at the barrier. A delegation led by AAP leaders, including Sanjay Singh and Bhagwant Maan, MP, advanced to meet Badal in a vehicle provided by the state government. Badal stepped out of his home, folded his hands and said it was lunch time. If his guests would not eat lunch, he could not eat either: Why not come inside, away from the hot sun, and discuss everything peacefully over roti? A group of AAP volunteeres made as if to go inside with him. If the police had any ideas about a lathicharge or arrest, they abandoned those. The AAP was expecting to be bundled into buses and put in jail. This did not happen.

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The overall judgment was that victimhood had again eluded the AAP. A day later, Badal roared: ''AAP's politics is betrayal of the people of Punjab on river waters. They follow politics of fraud, deception and cheap stunts.''

In the past few weeks, the AAP has been buffeted by a series of setbacks even as the party looks for new frontiers to conquer, like Goa and Gujarat which will go for elections early next year and later next year, respectively. The Supreme Court has, in an order two weeks ago, left no room for negotiation on the elected city government's powers.

A few months earlier, Kejriwal hosted a group of journalists to lunch. He was asked what the party was thinking about in Punjab. He spoke without emphasis, almost nonchalantly, about the party's growth there. "I can predict that what we did in Delhi, we are going to do in Punjab. We are working quietly, almost silently. People who are fed up of the compromises and the corruption of established parties are flocking to us. Soon, even before the Akali Dal and the Congress realise it, we will have dug out their roots, hollowing them from the inside. Nothing will be left, except the superstructure. And, that will crumble because the people at the booth level who belonged to them once will be working for us," he said.

While that might be true of Punjab, in Delhi, the Narendra Modi-led central government is adopting the tactics of a jujitsu warrior: Topple your opponent by using his own weight. While Kejriwal continues to tangle with the lieutenant governor (L-G), the Centre is using its powers with intelligence and shrewdness, hitting the AAP where it hurts most.

AAP CONTROVERSIES
  • It started in February 2015 with the appointment of acting chief secretary Shakuntala Gamlin. The chief minister wanted her out, alleging she was the eyes and ears of the Union home ministry. Kejriwal even locked the offices of 2 senior bureaucrats, asking them to go back to the home ministry. The post remained vacant for several months.
  • In March, 2015, a turf war broke out over the control of the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). Kejriwal wanted his man to head it. Instead, M K Meena was appointed to the post. Thwarted, the AAP government tried to set up an independent Commission of Enquiry to investigate the CNG fitness scam (in which a 2002 decision taken by the Sheila Dikshit government to give the job of certifying fitness of commercial vehicles for CNG conversion to a firm involved alleged bribery). This was shot down by the L-G in August.
  • In June, 2015, Delhi Law Minister Jitendra Tomar was sent to jail for having forged his law degree.
  • In June, 2015, AAP appointed 21 parliamentary secretaries. It sought to pass a law exempting the post of Parliamentary Secretary from the definition of Office of Profit. The legislation went up to the President who withheld assent. The issue is pending with the Election Commission. If the legislators are disqualified, it will mean 21 by elections and that could be a test for AAP.
  • In July, 2015, the AAP MLA from Kondli, Manoj Kumar, was arrested for using forged papers to sell a plot of land that did not belong to him.
  • In August, 2015, MCA Surinder Kumar was arrested for assaulting a New Delhi Municipal Council employee. He had also allegedly made casteist remarks against the government employee.
  • In September, 2015, Law Minister Somnath Bharti was arrested on a charge of domestic violence after his estranged wife filed a case against him.
  • In December, 2015, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the office of the principal secretary to the Chief Minister, Rajendra Kumar, and the CM’s office as well, on the basis of an anonymous letter by a whistleblower that charged Rajendra Kumar with giving contracts for software development to companies owned by his family and friends. The charges dated back to 2005. Kejriwal turned the issue into a political clash with the Centre. Kumar was arrested last week. So far, Kejriwal has not come out in support of the man who was his closest bureaucratic confidant in both the first and second term of AAP rule.
  • In June, 2016, Aap MLA from Sangam Vihar, Dinesh Mohaniya, was arrested for allegedly slapping a senior citizen and misbehaving with a woman. He was arrested from a press conference.

Half a dozen scams have broken out in Delhi over the past six months, involving AAP ministers and MLAs in charges of bribery, corruption and misuse of power. This has made AAP stagger and struggle to recover momentum. Instead of launching administrative innovations and new ideas, on which hope it was elected, the party has gone into defensive dharna and demonstrations. This kind of politics has its place but is deeply frustrating for Delhi's middle classes, which wanted order to return to Delhi's administration

"I, for one, am much disappointed in Kejriwal. He fooled me for sure. I was a strong supporter and I contributed to his campaign from my hard-earned pension money. However, he has proved to be like any other self-seeking politician. His basic obsession is to be seen on the same level as Modiji. Although he does not even remotely come anywhere near the PM in any facet of personality or performance. I will certainly NOT VOTE for him any more. People with similar views are increasing daily," wrote Sqn Ldr (retd) S N Dutt in an e-mail.

On the other hand, in the recent by-elections for the city's three municipal corporations, the AAP won five seats out of 13 on turf that has been the borough of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Sceptics do ask why AAP won only five, as nine of these 13 seats were held were vacated by those who are now AAP MLAs. And, there is the issue of declining vote percentage.

Yet, there is no doubt that because of schemes like local health clinics, water availability and lower power costs, the underclass in Delhi is still a major votary of AAP. What is confusing are the scams, of which there are many.

Does that mean the government in Delhi is only fire-fighting? No. The cabinet meets regularly and decisions get to be taken. The odd-even vehicle plying decision was one such and it served the auto-driver constituency of AAP perfectly.

The problem is, there is a ruling structure that permits the government in Delhi to take decisions and actually implement these at a pace three times slower than state governments. Kejriwal has tried to circumvent that by bypassing procedures and passing resolutions in the legislative assembly, where he has 67 MLAs out of 70. However, the law recognises a different route: By which a cabinet decision needs to first be cleared by the L-G, then by the Union home ministry if it has financial ramifications, and then be rolled out before the assembly. The law is on the side of the L-G and the Union ministry.

As the government's efficacy is being questioned continually, there is a political twist to everything Kejriwal does. The proposal to hold a referendum a la Brexit was one such. It is an utterly impractical solution, with no legal backing - Britain had something to exit. What can Delhi exit? But, it could work politically.

AAP desperately needs another state where, unfettered by the Centre, it can fly its flag. After 18 months in power in Delhi, it needs to show it is a party of many fine and creative minds, dedicated to improving the quality of life, not only another agitationist gang of rabble-rousers.

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First Published: Jul 18 2016 | 12:40 AM IST

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