Chidambaram’s victory

The latest salvos between Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and bureaucrats merely a day after the Supreme Court order on the limits of a Lt Governor’s powers suggest that the controversy may not blow away soon. Kejriwal will once again be forced to bank on the same battery of lawyers that has politically resuscitated his cornered and embattled government. And one of those is former Union Minister P Chidambaram whom the Delhi CM had zeroed in on as an attractive target in his politics of accusation and calumny. Both the Congress and the BJP had mocked Kejriwal when he had signed on Chidamabaram to argue before the Supreme Court. Few were taken in by the AAP’s attempt to draw a fine distinction between Chidambaram  as a lawyer and him as a leading light of the Congress party. AAP had then loftily declared: “It (the appointment) has nothing to do with politics.”

Kejriwal’s reliance on Chidambaram and other leading lawyers from the liberal stable — Gopal  Subramanium, Indira Jaising and Rajeev Dhavan — provides a curious twist to his standard political ploy of damning each and every political player. None from this galaxy who had batted successfully for Kejriwal in court are remotely sympathetic to his political positioning. It is no wonder that despite fielding Chidambaram as his main lawyer, Kejriwal faced brickbats from the Congress’ Delhi unit, including his predecessor for 15 years, Sheila Dixit and the self-assumed CM-in-waiting Ajay Maken.

That Kejriwal finds himself alone and friendless, in Delhi as well as in Punjab, could be put down to the missing element of trust that became a victim in the bruising take-no-prisoners attitude of both him and PM Modi’s appointees in the Delhi Raj Bhavan. However, a new conflict has arisen after bureaucrats refused to comply with the Delhi Government’s new system for transfer and postings with Kejriwal as the approving authority. AAP has to be very naïve to think that the BJP will let its government work. But it will now have to determine where professional engagement with Congress leaders ends and where political engagement might begin. Kejriwal cannot have it both ways.