Why Kejriwal is Right about Being Scared

Amid the ton-loads of news and analysis and comments and congratulations and long faces is one from Arvind Kejriwal that says, “I’m scared” of the thumping victory he and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have got in Delhi’s assembly elections today.

Kejriwal has urged his party-workers not to be arrogant. If anyone, it’s he who knows very well that all the tall promises made by AAP to the people of Delhi to come to power are only too difficult to fulfill.

Not that other parties don’t make tall promises or fail in making good on them. But being the poster boy of anti-corruption and cleanliness, Kejriwal and, by extension, AAP will be under intense scrutiny more than any leader or party has ever been.

Today morning, before the results (and congrats and insults) started pouring in, when I asked a fruit seller as to whom did he vote for, his answer was as cryptic as it was practical: “Whoever wins in the election, I have voted for them!”

There is no doubt that Kejriwal and AAP have wised up in a similar fashion since last year’s short-lived fling with power when he was CM for 49 days (though it is rather strange that a so-called rationalist party wants to wait for 4 days to anoint him CM again so it could coincide with Valentine’s Day, the very day last year when Kejriwal relinquished the CM’s post so famously or infamously).

This year they left no stone unturned, to use a stoned-to-death cliché, to make sure more people wear AAP caps and hit the voting machine on the broom button (broom being their election symbol).

That’s why even as the victory bugles are being sounded, the really observant people will be wary of Kejriwal’s and his wide swath of supporters and think: “Kahin phir se topi to nahi pehnai?” (He hasn’t defrauded us of our trust again, has he?)

But there is a strange disconnect I’m feeling this time. While last time, the play was completely on rooting out corruption (with the help of Lokpal Bill, among other vigilant measures)—and there was a visible effect in terms of the average government Joe refraining from asking for bribes or even refusing when voluntarily offered—this time it’s largely been the largesse: “Bijli haaf, paani maaf” (electricity for half the rate, water for free). And then throw in 15 lakh CCTVs for security and widely available Wi-Fi.

As I write these lines, there are blazing horns and hoots of victory by unemployed youth (most likely uneducated, too) parading in cars outside. In all probability, they could do with education and jobs more than being the proud recipients of a freeloader economy (which doesn’t and cannot work anywhere in the world).

What’s more, whether the new victory will result in the same impact of people being fearful of indulging in corruption will soon become clear.

For their part, Narendra Modi and his chief aide Amit Shah were not only arrogant but messed up anything they possibly could. That an I-me-myself Modi strutted around on Rajpath in an offensively expensive suit embroidered with his name this 26 January and whose noises and travels far outweighed his previously expressed intentions or work of nation-building—that, and more, certainly did not help.

Personally, if you ask me, I would have liked both Narendra Modi and Kejriwal to team up against the scam-ridden era of Congress and work together for a truly clean, pro-development India. 

Don’t laugh, if Kiran Bedi, who stood with Kejriwal alongside Anna Hazare’s India Against Corruption/Jan Lokpal movement could turn around and join BJP as its CM-candidate, and if Kejriwal, who launched himself into the political sphere by directing his “cough” stance against Sheila Dikshit, could look the other way and set Modi in his sights instead—then, well, then, anything can happen.

Like Kejriwal, I’m scared too—and I have my own reasons. I just hope Kejriwal rises up to the occasion and make a positive difference to all Delhiites.

Here’s my suggested to-do list:

- Quickly launch an investigation into the funding of ALL political parties (including the mysterious donations received by AAP and the cash but undisclosed funds of BJP and Congress).

- Start work on recovering the scam money from the hugely bloated budget of Commonwealth Games.

- Install correct-reading meters (this he will do for sure, I think).

- Put a final stop to the flip-flop on which colonies to authorize and which to raze (so that other political parties cannot offer them authorization next time).

- Put a stop to the practice of paving, re-paving and re-re-paving the already well-paved roads in and around VIP areas; instead try and correctly fill the large potholes on roads in non-VIP areas that are mysteriously stubborn to be repaired.

- Put a stop to the RO water supply mafia that’s not only a nuisance but a bane to the environment—and provide clean water (c’mon, he can charge a bit, okay).

- Focus on solar energy, as Delhi gets abundant sun and the cost of solar is coming down.

- And last but not least, if he really believes most industrialists are corrupt and in cahoots with existing political parties (which most people know is true), put them in jail; and now that AAP is the political party in power in Delhi, stop being in cahoots with *other industrialists* who manage to stay out of jail under his investigative watch.