Transition of Kejriwal into a seasoned pragmatic politician

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal speaking in monsoon session 2015 of Delhi assembly. Photo is inset is of Kejriwal from 2011-12

I have been watching Arvind Kejriwal's politics since the inception of his pet project Aam Aadmi Party. I have seen him struggling, I have seen him fighting, I have seen him taking battle to the opponents homeground, I have felt his emotional breakdown after people didn't choose his crystal clear non-corruptible politics, I have seen him rise again professionally and finally I have seen him compromising to the certain extent with the political reality of India and its people.

Now, he has secured a mandate and heading a majority government in Delhi. But, people often ignore the experiences this guy had gone through his journey from April-May 2014 until the formation of provincial government in Delhi. He probably seen the heart less nation who is not ready to stand with him firmly on anti corruption issue. So, here came a point when the man had to change his ways. He realised the necessity of some compromises needed to be done in politics. In the process some of the guys like Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav who were not willing to diverge even slightly from core issues were sidelined. Meanwhile Delhi govt's advertisement budget is being utilised to promote Kejriwal not just across Delhi but across the major Indian cities via Newspapers ad.

As per the statistics released, till June, 2015 end Kejriwal govt had spent Rs 526 crore which is larger amount than erstwhile Sheila Dixit lead Congress government. Also, one more compulsion in politics is that you fix your party office bearers or volunteers on some govt commissions or authorities. There are around 81 such cases where some posts with healthy emoluments were given to close people, one can cite an example of Delhi Jal Board authority. If you apply strictest rules of integrity and non corrupt behaviour then this behaviour too looks wrong.

Having said all this, one can't deny the fact that slowly but steadily he's fulfilling his promises. From electricity bills, water, expenditure on health, education, marshals for women security to Wifi facility the things are happening smoothly. After fulfilling these promises, Kejriwal has set the stage for one more confrontation with Centre over the Full Statehood to Delhi. Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and CPI(M) have come close to anti corruption crusader in the meantime. It is very likely that issue will be raised by CPI(M) and JDU's Sharad Yadav in Rajyasabha in upcoming monsoon session. The thing which JDU and CPI(M) getting in return is the technological, strategic knowledge share by Kejriwal and team which will tell it's future in Bihar elections to be help in September this year.

While Kejriwal is taking on centre and making it a Centre-State issue by creating a perception of attack on cooperative federalism Congress is not able to project opposition to union govt. Yes, Rahul Gandhi had shown some signs of revival but that is no match to expertise of an IITian. If things continue like this it is very likely that we will see a Neo front of AAP, JDU, CPM lead by Mr Kerjriwal going into 2019 battle which is very likely to open the gates of 7 RCR to this man.

Using casteist politics as per convenience

With the latest instance of IIT Madras a view has formed that those who speak against caste system can't belong to BJP and RSS. Though it is true to some extent but we can't paint everyone in BJP as casteist.

Let's look at composition among other political parties too. For example if we take a look at spectre of all political parties except BSP and Janta Parivar almost all parties have individuals who don't like reservation system including newly formed anti corruption AAP party. It is, I must say I sad thing in Indian political system that no party can claim to be non casteist. Each and every party at some or other time has used caste as per their convenience and accusing others of using caste politics. Let's look at some of the examples -

Indian National Congress - I will cite a recent example of Maratha reservation and Jat reservation given in Maharashtra and North India respectively in the hope to gather votes

BJP - In run upto last 2 phase of General elections 2014, Narendra Modi distorted Priyanka Gandhi's "Neech Rajniti" (Low level politics) statement to play the victim and portray himself as one of the backwards. Here, he said to electorates, they don't like me and call me a "Nichi Jatwala"(Lower caste guy).
A second example is a more recent one where Bihar BJP leaders participated in Kushwaha caste conference. They are trying to appropriate legacy of King Ashok of 3rd century BC as one from Kushwaha community.

AAP - Apart from saying that "I am a Baniya too" and "why are you attacking Agarwal community"(This one was an similar instance to what happened earlier in case of Narendra Modi and Priyanka Gandhi only difference being here Kejriwal played Modi a victim and BJP did a Priyanka by using controversial word like Gotra in their advertisement in newspapers), there is not any big example to cite in their case. It would be interesting to see how they keep themselves away from this phenomenon.

I think, I need not give any example of BSP, SP, AIADMK, Shivsena, RJD etc.

Phtoo credits - DNA 

So, why this happens? It's not that simple to simply blame politicians. Most of them are forced into this because of us. As VN Gadgil, a veteran Congress politician once said, "In India, people don't cast their vote, they vote their castes". This effect is still there though there has been an improvement and if people find a good leader to vote to or a good local Leader, they vote for him irrespective of his community or surname, if you know what I mean.