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Why aam aadmi is throwing ink at Kejriwal

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Pankaj Molekhi
Pankaj MolekhiOct 07, 2016 | 09:20

Why aam aadmi is throwing ink at Kejriwal

During the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign in Varanasi, where AAP president Arvind Kejriwal was pitted against BJP's Narendra Modi, one would invariably hear a line or two in the former's praise: "Bande mein dum hai (This man has guts)." The electorate acknowledged Kejriwal as the David taking on Modi the Goliath.

Some even called him "Chhota Modi", for they felt Kejriwal was promising to deliver the same goods as Modi - an accountable governance shorn of corruption and dynastic servitude.

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So riled were some of the blind Modi followers that Kejriwal was attacked with ink instead of a valid charge to discredit his promises.

Thanks to the governance vacuum created by previous regimes, Modi took over New Delhi as prime minister in 2014 and as "Chhota Modi" Delhi chief minister the following year.

Much ink has flown in the air since. Kejriwal is no longer the challenger. Instead of filling in the vacuum of governance that he promised, he has added more vacuum by doing little else than finger-pointing.

The protest-and-hide guerrilla warfare is going a bit too far. The party leaders do not seem to realise that they are serving a polity wherein an honest leader is no good if he or she cannot deliver the promises made before elections. And the patience is running thin.

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Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. (Photo credit: PTI) 

Earlier too, the party has faced slap-fest and slipper hand-outs in public view but ink has remained its most loyal companion Varanasi onward.

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Pray, why would the AAP draw such a reaction repeatedly? Is it divisive or provocative?

Hardly. In fact, the party is a rare combination of left-right-centre elements with clean governance as its purported mainstay.

But if you hold it to its mainstay, it falls apart. Ask an AAP leader about one front that the party has delivered and he/she will hum and haw, before repeating ad lines on mohalla clinics, flyover projects' savings, and probably the odd-even experiment on city roads.

Social media, a variable reflection of the urban mindset, is rife with jokes about how Kejriwal's "sab miley-huye-hain-ji" (all of them are together in this racket) has been replaced by "sab-Modi-ne-karwaya-hai-ji" (Modi is behind all this).

And the double-edged coverage of this favourite resort - Modi - has helped making it sound like the proverbial cry-wolf.

Common man analogy was another field that was Kejriwal's forte once. He would use colloquial adages like raita-phail-gaya or thulla which had a ring of familiarity with the Delhi middle class.

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Kejriwal and his team were "people like us". No longer. The Delhi CM now makes news for attending meditational courses and his deputy for visiting abroad to learning educational system of the West.

Far from a common man's lifestyle. Whither governance, people are asking. But Kejriwal has little to show. The vanguard of change has turned out to be a workman fighting his tools.

The AAP government's report card becomes starker when one places Kejriwal against Modi, his imagined bête noire.

The Modi government may not have any earth-shaking achievement to its credit so far, but it seems to be functioning, and functioning well.

The Centre is seen moving decisively towards - albeit slowly, according to the critics - a robust foreign policy, economic reforms and better infrastructure.

The AAP leaders, meanwhile, are happy with the camera lights, even when they come at the cost of ink stains.

Many AAP supporters strongly feel and share their concerns with the media in private that the party needs to come out of its prototypical protest formula to salvage its sagging image.

The AAP suffers from the labour union mindset, they argue, where one gets things done through strikes.

The AAP leadership does not realise that it has moved into the management sphere now, where one has to get work done pragmatically.

But Team Kejriwal has decided to run with the management board and hunt with the labour union. No wonder it ends up with ink on its face - every now and then.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

Last updated: October 07, 2016 | 09:20
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