Establishment of Arvind Kejriwal: The Harry Potter of Delhi with a brandish broom

Arvind Kejriwal, the former bureaucrat-turned activist-turned politician who projected himself as the face of anti corruption activism, lands in a Gordian knot when his cloak of falsehood gets obliterated.

Arvind Kejriwal, the prominent figure who led the ‘India Against Corruption’ movement and served as Delhi’s chief minister three times consecutively, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday, 21 March.

This development marks a significant chapter in the career of the ambivalent chameleon of Indian politics.

Kejriwal’s arrest coincides with a crucial period for AAP as most of the key heads of his party have already been indulged in the rows of scams and the arrest of Kejriwal sparks the notion of distrust among the voters who were hallucinated by his schemes and policies.

His arrest also casts a shadow of uncertainty over the party's electoral prospects as it is actively collaborating in the India block for the upcoming loksabha election in Delhi , Haryana and Gujarat.

Tracing Arvind Kejriwal’s journey in politics, take us towards his political opportunism which is highly complex , as its free from the accountabilities of ideology morals and ethics

Early Life of Arvind Kejriwal

Born in Agarwal community in Haryana — Arvind Kejriwal was an excellent academician he was a graduate in mechanical engineering from IIT Kharagpur and served in Tata Steel Jamshedpur from 1989 to 1992.

It could be breakdown from here onwards, that IIT graduate was getting amazed by his newly harvested political ambitions. But to fulfill his ambitions he did not have the necessary resources, people closely associated to him believe that in the search of these resources his eyes were fixed on the flourishing business of the NGO.

But before jumping into this business it was obviously important for him to understand the working style of the NGO and the mathematics of its funding.

Probably under the influence of his ambitious mission he resigned from his job and spent some time in Kolkata where he met Mother Teresa and volunteered with The Mission of Charity a Catholic centralised religious institution founded by Mother Teresa and at Ramkrishna Mission in North East India and Nehru Yuva Kendra.

Frequently in 1995 Arvind Kejriwal qualified the civil services exam and joined the Indian Revenue Service as an assistant commissioner of income tax. His service was riddled with controversy, while in service in December 1999 Arvind Kejriwal , Manish Sisodia and others founded 'Parivartan’ -change, a NON registered NGO based in Delhi.

Kejriwal as a juggler in NGO world

His NGO ‘Parivartan’ Addressed citizens grievances related to public distribution system (PDS) public works, social welfare schemes, income tax and electricity it ran on individual donations. Parivartan used to help people get their work done in government department without paying a bribe.

The organization worked as an upper hand against the corruption in government department of which Congress was accountable and the machinery of Congress was termed guilty in the court of their voters.

People associated with Kejriwal in ‘Parivartan’ claim that there were various conflicts among the other members and Kejriwal regarding the donations, Kejriwal wanted donations from foreign players meanwhile his colleagues opposed it and considered it unethical for the obvious reasons of falling under the influence of foreign institutions.

Next in 2005 Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia launched ‘Kabir' which was a registered NGO and unlike Parivartan, Kabir accepted institutional donations.

Finally in February, 2006, Kejriwal left his government job to consign full time to Parivartan, in the same year he received the Magsaysay award as an emerging leader. This award was started in 2000 with the help of Ford foundation an American agency under CIA.

In December 2006, AK established the Public Cause Research Foundation together with Manish Sisodia and Abhinandan Sekhri. He donated his Ramon Magsaysay Award prize money as seed fund. Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi served as the Foundation’s trustees.

In 2010, AK protested against corruption in the Commonwealth Games. He argued that the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) did not have any powers to take any action against the guilty, while CBI was incapable of launching an unbiased investigation against the Ministers. He advocated appointment of public ombudsman Lokpal at Centre and Lokayuktas in States. These protests were lead under the Public Cause Research Foundation.

Jan Lokpal Movement

The year 2011, when Arvind Kejriwal joined several activists including Anna Hazare and Kiran Bedi, to form India Against Corruption Group (IAC) , that evolved in the 2011 movement, demanding enactment of Jan Lokpal Bill. Arvind Kejriwal was also one of the representative of civil society, who was part of the draft committee of NAC bill.

Kejriwal alleged that the civil society representatives didn’t had their say in the formation of policies ; Which led to the intensification of protest by IAC activists , and in response to government’s ignorance Anna Hazare organised a hunger strike. The power hungry Arvind Kejriwal saw his way here, and recognised it as the time of marking a parivartan in his life.

By January 2012, the Government backtracked on its promise to implement a strong Jan Lokpal, resulting in another series of protests from AK and his fellow activists. One of the major criticisms directed at the Jan Lokpal activists was that they had no right to dictate terms to the elected representatives.

However, activist Arundhati Roy claimed that the IAC movement was not a people’s movement; instead, it was funded by foreigners to influence policymaking in India.

She pointed out that the Ford Foundation had funded the Emergent Leadership category of the Ramon Magsaysay Award, and also donated $397,000 to AK’s NGO Kabir. AK denied the allegations that the movement was a plot against the ruling Congress by the RSS, or that it was an upper-caste conspiracy against the Dalits.

Replacement of Anna Hazare and formation of AAP

Arvind Kejriwal and his fellow mates started stepping over the stones of politics they have created till then, they officially announced joining politics and replaced Anna Hazare from the face of protest. The formation of AAP even embarked conflict of interest between Kejriwal and Anna Hazare. Anna Hazare was staunchly against making their protest for political gains.

In November 2012, Kejriwal, formally launched the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP); Kejriwal was elected as the party’s National Convener. The AAP was launched at Bangalore in July 2013. After joining politics, AK claimed that he had chosen public service over earning crores as an Income Tax Commissioner.

Kejriwal as Chief Minister

In the 2013 Delhi Legislative Assembly elections, AK contested against the incumbent Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit defeating the incumbent CM, in New Delhi by a margin of 25,864 votes. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 31 seats, followed by AAP with 28 seats. However, AK formed a minority government in the hung Assembly, with outside support from the eight INC MLAs, one Janata Dal MLA and one independent MLA.

On February 14, 2014, AK resigned as Chief Minister after failing to table the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly. He recommended the dissolution of the Assembly. AK blamed the Congress and the BJP for stalling the anti-corruption legislation.

In April 2014, he said that he had made a mistake by resigning without publicly explaining the rationale. In 2015 during the second term of the AAP Government, the Jan Lokpal Bill was passed. Cosmetic passage of Jan Lok Pal Bill may not have the deterrence effect as puritans would like to believe.

A consequential fact that can’t go without notice that Arvind Kejriwal, who insisted on bringing the government and all its institutions under the ambit of Janlokpal, was adamant on keeping NGOs out of it. Does Arvind Kejriwal think that there is no corruption in NGOs? Or they were afraid of their NGO’s corruption being exposed.

Article by


Kewali Kabir
Younginker
Guna, Madhyapradesh