Prof M.L. Raina
Arvind Kejriwal has become the talk of the town, whether you like it or not. May be, it is his sincerety of purpose, dogged determination, unique style of functioning that have caught the imagination of the general masses, except his political detractors who are on the prowl to ‘hunt’ him down, on one pretext or the other. With his heart on fire for rooting out corruption, neck and crop, he declares that he can go to any length to shatter the existing political world into bits and reshape it after his heart’s desire.
There is no denying the fact that Kejriwal has, all along, been a crusader for bringing order out of chaos in the society which is faced with corruption in myriad ways. This committed social activist and revolutionary decided to jump into the fray in the political arena, and thus launched Aam Aadmi Party. This newly born party unknown to the world, sprang a surprise on the citizens of Delhi by winning a laudable victory. Not only this he was most unexpectedly, catapulted into the highest seat of power in the Delhi’s legislature. The political transformation, so unimaginable quick, in the capital city, was utterly unimaginable for Kejriwal himself who termed it as a miracle.
The extraordinary success achieved in the political battle sent Kejriwal on an untrodden path of moral righteousness and political cleansing. In his exubrance and excitement he set out doing things, to fulfil his promises he made to the Delhites in hot haste, not conscious of the administrative hurdles that would come his way, coupled with the motivated malignity of the opposition parties that stood deprived of occupying the alluring seats in the gallaries of governance.
To all appearances, his supposedly political antics are ludicrous which have made him the butt of ridicule. Unmindful of the slings and barbs flung at him, he marches on and on fearlessly on the path of his mission to cleanse the polluted political atmosphere, to start with in the capital and cleanse Delhi of corruption and moral deparvity that have become the bane of the entire nation.
The unusual ways adopted by Kejriwal to do his business are reminiscent of Don Quixote, the protagonist of a spanish novel. He sets out on his mission to put the world to rights. He rides a mare and carries with him a long and sturdy stick which is his weapon to fight the enemies of moral order and right conduct. He beats all posts of imagined enemies in the shape of animals, flocks of sheep, innocent cow boys and the like. Consequently, he invited abuses and physical bruises. The leitmotiff of the novel is that idealism, howsoever meaningful it may be, comes into clash with the hard realities of life, and votaries of ideal system in different spheres of life are taken for mad people, whose fate is to remain in a state of disillusionment.
Kejriwal conceptualised the idea of newness or novelty in the methodology of running the Govt and thus embarked on the unfamiliar, unrealistic and unheard of techniques of governance. New brooms sweep clean’ is an old adage. Kejriwal wanted his ‘new broom’ to sweep in a different fashion. To go about this newness of his method, he began to dole out promises of addressing complex problems in no time. In his boundless elation, he declared that he would do ‘this’ ‘that’ and the ‘other’ in a jiffy, just in a quixotic manner-saying that one problem would be solved in five days, the other in ten days, and yet another one in a month.
In his obsession with Aam Aadmi rule, Kejriwal adopts his ‘newness’ element, sits amdist crowds of commoners on occasions of national importance. By doing so he tries to present himself as a humble and modest person, no different from a commoner, without any special status. He wanted to discharge his duties as the Chief Minister of Delhi in his exclusive style of novelty. He pooh-poohs the need of decorum, protocal and personal security. His antics driven by his obsession for Aap Aadmi rule, he has reduced the administrative and political high-ups to the level of ordinary people and treats them as such.
He does not realise that his ‘new broom’ needs efficacious grooming before sweeping clean the corridors of power in Delhi.
In the political tumble one positive thing has emerged. They electoral success of Aam Aadmi has unmistakably shown that the disgruntled citizens of Delhi got, at long last a God sent chance to release their pent up fury against the Delhi Government for its misrule and chronic corruption at different levels. But his resignation as CM has again put Dellhites in darkness.
Whether there is method in Kejriwal’s madness or madness in his methods, only time will show.
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