Looking back at anger

As Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP government completes one year in office in Delhi tomorrow, one credit no one would deny the king of disruptive politics is his ability to hold centre stage, next perhaps only to Prime Minister Modi himself. That immediately also makes the two each other's sworn adversaries, so much so that the Chief Minister of a half-state is perhaps the strongest voice of opposition to the NDA government today, even outside Delhi. Any politician would give his right arm for such limelight.

Kejriwal is celebrating the completion of his first year in power by lighting the odd-even candle on his anniversary cake. That is a smart move, for it diverts attention towards governance and away from the battles he has been fighting all around. The gravest charge against him is that he is confrontationist and lacks the skills to extract cooperation from other stakeholders. The fights with the Delhi LG, the police chief, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, are all in a day's work. In this also accrues an advantage. Governance failure in Delhi has not made it to the headlines. Kejriwal has made a string of claims on his government's achievements — power, water, schools, health, infrastructure, budget — none of which have been refuted even by the Opposition. The heaps of garbage in the streets of Delhi tell a different story. But then the BJP-run civic bodies are equal parties to the feud and the verdict on that is not yet out.

The Kejriwal show in Delhi is doubly important right now because it is what the AAP is going to sell in Punjab, where the party kicks off a ‘dialogue’ on February 20. It is attracting masses as well as fringe elements of all hue, Left and Right. That could be treacherous for a party that is yet to decide where it stands ideologically. Just being “anti-corruption” won’t do, because that slogan is liable to be hijacked by any extreme group, depending on the demographics of a territory. The AAP movement has not yet lost its spirit, but it is yet to find a centre and a purpose.