Kejriwal says that an ‘Intelligence Bureau report’ foresees his victory in Gujarat Assembly poll
If a political party frequently makes ‘explosive’ claims, over a period of time people get inured to its statements—especially when the claims seldom correspond with the objective reality. So, if Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) boss Arvind Kejriwal thought that he would set the Yamuna on fire with a statement, based on an “Intelligence Bureau report,” he may be in for an unpleasant surprise. This report, Kejriwal claimed, says that his party will win the Gujarat Assembly elections if these are held today. Apparently, he did not explain the small matter of how he got hold of the IB report. After all, the IB is an intelligence agency, not a ministry or department which posts its documents on its website. The casualness with which Kejriwal mentions an IB report to score political points is disconcerting; it is unbecoming for an incumbent Chief Minister to have disclosed the findings of an intelligence report (if he really saw it). A few weeks ago, while slamming Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the alleged Operation Lotus, he had said the Centre’s recent action against Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had increased the AAP’s vote share in Gujarat by 4 per cent. And, for good measure, this increase would rise to 6 per cent if Sisodia was arrested. Nobody knows from where Kejriwal got these numbers—some pollster carrying out a survey, his own party doing it—but he said it nonetheless. The media too reported it faithfully.
Such loose talk doesn’t cover Kejriwal in glory, but it has been quite useful for him and his party. Before coming to power in Delhi, he flooded the political arena in the national capital with all manner of accusations against Congress leaders (as the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance was in power) and some big industrialists. Former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit, who died in 2019, was a favourite target. He pledged to throw all corrupt people behind bars if elected. He did get elected, but did nothing against those whom he had called corrupt. It’s true that the Delhi Police is not under him, but he didn’t even initiate any serious investigation or prosecution against the corrupt. If a private citizen Subramanian Swamy can get powerful people prosecuted and even jailed, why couldn’t Kejriwal? Unfortunately, Kejriwal is not the only politician who has acquired the habit of hurling wild allegations against the people he doesn’t like; Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have also said nasty things about Robert Vadra, without taking action against him if he did anything wrong. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said all kinds of things about Lalu Prasad Yadav in the past, though now they are allies. At the heart of the issue is politicians’ belief that they will not be held accountable for their statements, so they say anything that suits their political purpose. But they must realize that there is something called the law of diminishing returns.