KEJRIWAL
— A Freak Crusader Against Corrrupton
Addressing a meeting of his party's national executive on
January 31st the Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
convener Arvind Kejriwal released a list of 27 politicians belonging to different
political organisations whom he dubbed as "corrupt". The list does
not include any name from his own outfit because AAP leaders, in his view, are all
icons of honesty notwithstanding the fact that a number of allegations have
appeared in the media against one of his favourite minister. An AAP MLA has
also been accused of sexual molestation of a woman.
There is nothing new in Kejriwal's rhetoric. He is used to
this kind of language and conduct. During the last one year of his life as a
politician he has charged as "corrupt" numerous politicians spanning
almost every political hue. To him, it
looks, the only way to trumpet to the world that he — and his AAP — is the only
'honest' politician in the country is to drum up all others as 'corrupt'.
Against certain
politicians Kejriwal had been very specific and concrete in his accusations. He had levelled serious charges against his
predecessor Delhi chief minister Mrs. Sheila Dikshit and declared that within a
few days of his taking over, she and most of her ministers would be behind
bars. The Delhi people gave him the chance to come out true to his words but 45 days after his taking over, nothing seems
to have moved decisively in the right direction. So far, the only achievement is
having nabbed about three police constables and one junior official on charges
of graft. It is, as yet, too much to believe that Delhi administration stands sanitized
of corruption with Kejriwal taking over the reins of office.
Lacks the spark
It is now clear that Kejriwal lacks the spark and the spirit
of a genuine crusader against corruption. He seems to be failing in his
conviction and commitment to the pious cause of cleansing politics, public life
and governance. His verbiage is more directed to appeal to the gallery than doing
anything great when he himself is at the helm of affairs in Delhi
government. On the basis of documents
and evidence in his possession against his targets he would have, if he were
sincere to the cause, lost no time in knocking the door of courts to seek orders
for registration of criminal cases against those he accuses of graft. On the
contrary, he preferred to get fascinated only to the glamour of media glare.
His leaving the matter at that after his own media exposure shows he, like any
other politician, wanted just to reap a harvest of electoral gains for which he
had not undertaken the toil of sowing the seeds. During election campaign every
political party — Congress too did do that in 2004 and 2009 — promises a clean
government only to forget its words after mounting the high pedestal of power.
Lost opportunity
During elections to Delhi assembly in November last year, a
CD was released containing serious charges of corruption and misdoings against
persons contesting elections on his AAP's symbol. One of the CD showed Kejriwal
having himself sent an SMS to his party man saying that he had allegedly sold
his party's nomination to a person for ` 2 crores. After first denying
the allegations Kejriwal then constituted a committee composed of his own men
of confidence to look into the allegations. AAP absolved everybody of any
wrongdoing. He did lose the opportunity to rise morally high by failing to set
a model for others to follow by ordering a probe into the CD. He just treaded
on the path beaten by every other political party in such a situation in the
past — a conduct he had been criticizing with a sharp tongue. The ugly stains
of the kind of allegations contained in the CD cannot so easily be removed with
the detergent of an inner party investigation by interested individuals. It
cannot infuse confidence. The truth could only be known if there was a free,
fair and impartial inquiry.
What would be Kejriwal's reaction if following his example
every political party, like him, ordered an in-house inquiry by its own men into
allegations made by him and gave a certificate of innocence and honesty to
those he accuses them of having indulged in corruption? He has now lost his
moral authority to question their conduct and motives.
Double standards
If a political party or a leader receives funds from an
organization based within or outside the country, for people like Kejriwal it
is rank corruption. But if the latter
is/are the recipient(s), he/they claim it an innocent and honest donation for a
genuine aam aadmi cause. This hypocrisy needs to end.
A PIL had been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking
registration of a criminal case against AAP leaders for receiving foreign
funds. According a statement filed by Ministry of Home Affairs, the AAP has not
supplied information sought by the Ministry.
AAP claims transparency in all its functioning. Then why should it
prevaricate in supplying the information when its hands are clean?
The grandiloquence and conduct of Kejriwal party boils down
to a simple conclusion: His fight against graft is not aimed at eradicating
corruption but confined to earning political mileage and deriving electoral dividends,
nothing less than that. AAP suffers from the same fallings and failings every
other political party suffers from and he speaks against. By his words and
actions he has only exposed himself and failed to prove different from others
of his clan. ***
