An Insignificant Man to the Chief Minister – Arvind Kejriwal

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Primal Patel
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who is arvind kejriwal

Rise of Kejriwal

Yes, we are talking about Arvind Kejriwal, the current Chief Minister of Delhi. How he became a chief minister from a social worker. Which factors convinced him to enter politics? Arvind Kejriwal came to the public view for the first time in India during the Anna Hajare’s andolan (struggle) for Janlokpal Bill. Kejriwal was one of the key men for drafting the Janlokpal Bill but somehow members of parliament did not support the bill.

Kejriwal’s Journey Before Becoming a Politician

Kejriwal was born on 16 august, 1968 in Siwani, Haryana. He completed his schooling from Campus School, Hisar and Holy Child School, Sonipat. He studied Mechanical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He worked for Tata Steel Jamshedpur but soon resigned to prepared for Civil Services. He joined Revenue Service and become Assistant Commissioner at the Income Tax Department. He reached the ranks of Joint Commissioner of Income Tax. His career was in controversy as he allegedly took leave on paid salary. Many claimed he was earning salary without serving. Finally he officially resigned from the bureaucrat’s duties in the year 2011 and gave a full stop to his government service. He started getting involved in Social Work and Anti-Corruption activities full time.

Social Activist Towards Politics

In the year 2010, he joined to Anna Hajare in Janlokpal Bill movement and this was the first occasion that Kejriwal came into the limelight in public and media glare. There was public support and they tried their best, but it did not lead to anywhere. Kejriwal understood, they were yelling at the system from staying away from it, and it did not help the cause. In the year 2012 he finally made up the mind to form a political party and christened it “Aam Aadmi Party” or popularly called AAP, with the intention to chance the style of politics and become a standard. AAP also roughly translates to “You” in Sanskrit/Hindi. AAP refers to the Voters or general Public. While Aam Aadmi is literal meaning of Common Man.Manish Sisodia (current Deputy Chief Minister), Yogendra Yadav (now parted away and form Swaraj Party), Kumar Visvas, were the prominent faces of this party during the formation of AAP. In their first election of Delhi Assembly in 2013  they fought on the bases of electricity and water. During the election campaign the then Chief Minister of Delhi and Congress politician Shila Dixit told that “Kejriwal is not in their radar”. Congress took AAP very lightly and it backfired. AAP won 28 seats in their debut election, BJP won 31 and disaster happened with Congress. Congress managed to bag only 8 seats. It was not enough for AAP to form the government. They took public opinion on it and made alliance with Congress and Kejriwal became a Chief Minister for the first time. But the AAP-Congress marriage did not last long. In just 49 days he stepped down citing he does not have unconditional support of Congress and he will not be able to table the Janlokpal bill in Delhi assembly.

After resignation he regretted that he resigned without taking nay public opinion. Delhi remained without government for 1 year. In the year 2015 election commission announced 7 February 2015 for assembly election and  10 February for result. Kejriwal’s AAP clearly swept the whole Delhi with the victory on 67 seats out of 70. All the political pundits were shocked that how this one young political party can come up with this sensational result without any big financial backup.

AAP and Arvind Kejriwal government claims the below work they have done in the last 5 years:

  • Construction of new classrooms in several government schools has received appreciation from global community and introduction of the Happiness Curriculum is also welcomed
  • Free electricity up to 200 units
  • Residents who use less than 20 kiloliters of water a month, get it free
  • Installed CCTV cameras throughout Delhi
  • Mohalla Clinics in Delhi

Some mistakes which Arvind Kejriwal committed in the initial days of his political career:

  • Arvind Kejriwal emerged from the anti-corruption movement and not only Delhi but the whole country and most importantly the educated youth supported him. But after becoming the Chief Minister he tried to take advantage of the wind of support to challenge Narendra Modi. During the Varanasi campaign, his one sentence that “His fight was only against Narendra Modi” started developing doubts in the minds of many supporters. In short the Kejriwal vs Modi campaign hit him negatively.
  • In the campaign against Shiela Dixit, he claimed he had 500 pages of proof against her corruption, but after coming to power, he did not follow up on his claims.
  • His and his team’s initial and ignorant misuse of the social media handle to just blame the PM and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi for everything in his tweet did not go well (although they understood the mistake and later tried to focus on promoting their work and not just complaining). His battle against LG and Modi created negative image of constant confrontation
  • His alliance with some parties of Bihar did not help him.
  • His haste to jump into central and other state government election (read Goa, Punjab) also was to childish. His supporters wanted him to work on Delihi and make it a model government and then move to other states and center.
  • He could not keep hold of the other founding members of AAP who alleged Arvind Khejriwal’s attitude to be self-centered and no democracy in the party.

Some points where the AAP government and Kejriwal did not meet the local Delhiest expectations:

  • 1000 electric buses never saw the streets of Delhi
  • 3000 public buses promise was never fulfilled
  • Not much done on cleaning the Yamuna
  • Party promises of getting Delhi rid of filth was never pursued
  • The growing slums and unregistered localities are also not giving positive impact to AAP
  • Nothing concrete was done to control the Air pollution. They even did not draft a plan or mitigation options to give solace to the residents
  • 5000 crore plan to redesign 10 road to decongest never say the daylight
  • Politics on providing Free Services at the cost of others are also not something the educated mass supports
  • Delhi Safety and Security is still a concern even after almost a decade of the horrific Nirghaya case

Everyone agrees that Arvind Kejriwal is one of the few politicians who talk about real issue viz health and education. Although there has been some decline on his support from the general population of the country, but he is still one politician whom many would secretly want to support. Just because his points are valid, and he talks for the betterment of people. Only time will prove if they are just talks for the sake of talking, or was there any real intentions too.

All eyes are on the Delhi election on 8th of February 2020. Exit polls are also in favor of AAP. On 11th February 2020, public will give a first hand report card to AAP and Arvind Kejriwal.

We wish Delhi all the best and pray, whoever comes to power, works for the people and the problems they are facing. Development should be their main agenda along with Health Care, Education, Safety, Pollution Control and Public Commute.

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