Kejriwal, Rahul should look within

There are two key takeaways from the Delhi Assembly poll outcome. The first is that Narendra Modi strides the political arena like a colossus in India, that is Bharat. His brand of politics and his hold on voters remains unchallenged. The second is that Rahul Gandhi is no match for Modi. He should stop aspiring for the leadership of the INDIA bloc. Had the Congress supported the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, the BJP might have finished second best and not the undisputed leader of all it surveys.

The Congress should democratise its leadership. It should not rely solely on the Nehru-Gandhi family. There are many in the country who adore the family, but Modi has reduced that base substantially through consistent, well-directed verbal assaults. Rahul is a good, likeable human being but not a good political animal. He spouts the wrong language too often, thus playing into the hands of the BJP’s well-oiled propaganda machine.

Rahul chose core concerns of the electorate in the run-up to the elections, but his rhetoric is nowhere as robust and hard-hitting as Modi’s. It makes a very tepid impression on the listeners. I do not blame him for his lack of eloquence. It is a God-given gift. Modi has it; Rahul, unfortunately does not.

Residents of Delhi will benefit initially from the double-engine government that will replace AAP. The party with a difference had made the AAP government irrelevant. It had appointed a Lt-Governor whose primary mandate was to scuttle the plans Arvind Kejriwal and his companions had made for the people of Delhi. The L-G succeeded in his mission of painting Kejriwal in a negative light.

The BJP has devised a strategy to install double-engine governments in every state of the Union. To consolidate its Hindutva ideology, it requires a centralised form of government, with the Centre calling the shots in the states as well. If it does not win elections in any state, it first attempts to buy over the required number of Opposition legislators — if the difference in numbers permits. It did this twice in Goa and once, in a big way, in Karnataka.

If engineering defections is not doable, it installs Governors or Lt-Governors — like it did in Delhi and Puducherry — to make the poll winners redundant. That experiment is going on in Tamil Nadu. So is the attempt to dislodge Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal. The task is proving very difficult in these two states, even as governance is being consigned to the boondocks. Consequently, the public is suffering.

The people of Delhi must have digested this reality. They realised that if there was a double-engine government, their lives would be better. Besides, Kejriwal, who was elected on the anti-corruption plank, had turned overtly rapacious. They realised this when they were told that he had fitted jacuzzi in his bath, a clear departure from the spartan life people thought he led.

It is not only residents of Delhi who were disappointed with Kejriwal. His mentor, Anna Hazare, who led the movement against corruption that grabbed headlines at home and abroad in 2011, expressed happiness at the fall of a ‘traitor’ to the cause. Hazare had expected Kejriwal to become an activist like him to keep the movement against corruption alive. But the latter had other ideas. He imagined himself as a future Prime Minister. He might have got there had he not been in such a hurry. But, like many of his ilk, he tripped, or rather, was felled by a more astute politician’s skills.

Nothing can be predicted with certainty in the realm of politics. Kejriwal may bounce back sometime. At this moment, he is licking his wounds. He would be well advised to reflect on his fate and the factors that militated against him. His runaway ambition for one, when patience and humility were needed.

There is one charge against him that I have not found credible. It is alleged that he has acquired wealth in the notorious excise policy scam. I have no doubt that the ‘scam’ did happen, but my gut feeling is that AAP required money to operate. All political parties do. If the BJP pretends that it does not, very few are going to accept its word. Even in the tiny state of Goa, the home of my ancestors, where corruption was never a factor, that evil has now gone through the roof! BJP leader Manohar Parrikar had kept corruption in check when he was the CM. There is no control now, probably because secretive funding through electoral bonds has been disallowed by the Supreme Court.

The Kejriwal government started its innings on a positive note. It began with paying attention to the top priorities of any government — education and health. Neither the Congress governments at the Central and state levels nor non-Congress dispensations in some states, like the Left in Bengal and Kerala, had thought of doing that.

Manish Sisodia, then Deputy Chief Minister, aided ably by Atishi, a Rhodes scholar, revolutionised the working of public schools. AAP also brought medical help to every locality by opening local clinics and manning them. The less affluent were hugely benefitted.

If the BJP wants to prove that it is a party of patriots, it should not dump the system introduced by AAP in the health and education sectors. Even if it is an initiative of an Opposition party, it is a pro-people initiative and needs to be institutionalised. China has stolen a march on us because it made universal education its first priority. The productivity of its workforce improved by leaps and bounds because every man and woman was literate. We have a lot to catch up.