It is surprising that suspended AAP member Kapil Mishra alleged that party leaders close to chief Arvind Kejriwal concealed donations from the public, lied to the Election Commission (EC) and laundered money using 16 shell companies.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is a man of clean character who is committed to moral values in politics. He’s known to be a demanding man to work with, more respected than feared. He has always projected himself against the might of the establishment to give his message a rallying edginess. He did so as an activist of the Right to Information campaign and subsequently against corruption — and unexpectedly, a year into his second stint as chief minister of Delhi, the old against-all-odds, anti-establishment manner continues to inform his style of governance. His populist policies seems to have struck the chord of the people as he has been adjudged the most popular CM of the country. Currently, there’s no one in the country who has an image of being against corruption as much as Kejriwal has; though he has tried his best to destroy that image. It is undoubtedly a refreshing change that Kejriwal was so eager to establish a direct connection with the people he was going to serve.
But it now seems that AAP’s promises have been no different from any other political parties. Its promise of clean governance etc also stand tarnished on multiple fronts.The internal disputes between the AAP members shows that the party is now losing its power. The fact that AAP’s strategies of connecting with citizens, particularly in the slums of Delhi did not work. AAP became disconnected with the ground-level workers. The response of the young party and Kejriwal to the voters’ verdict has been even more disappointing. Though AAP had alleged that corruption in the civic bodies, rising cases of dengue and malaria, lack of proper garbage collection, overflowing sewerage, filthy streets, and other sanitation problems that Delhi was facing was all because of the ruling BJP’s incompetence, the BJP increased its tally from 138 seats in 2012 to 181 in 2017. AAP has only shown arrogance and a politics of confrontation since assuming power.
People want a corruption-free and bribery-free Delhi. Prices have gone up, water and electricity are becoming costlier. Citizens need a government that brings some relief to the poor people. Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare has rightly questioned Kejriwal’s leadership, saying the party has lost credibility among people in a short span of time. It is clear that India only gets what it deserves and what majority of population perceives. Congress has lost very heavily as every gain of AAP was at the party’s expense. Delhi needs an administrator and not an anarchist. Don’t we think every step taken by the PM and his schemes for poor, women, soldiers, farmers and workers, went in BJP favour.
It is really sad that AAP is now trying to copy everything that other big parties were doing and trying to defend themselves by quoting that. It shows people will not let the party to remain in power for a moment after these details are divulged. AAP has always been accusing others so why don’t they come out clean. In other words, the truth comes out through them and AAP has a big heart to accept what Kapil Mishra claims. If AAP is clean, then the party should come out with answers to his questions and prove their innocence.
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
