It’s just a rare coincidence that Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP captured Delhi yet again on his wife Sunita’s birthday on Tuesday. His third-time sweeping victory was forecast quite in good time, though the BJP master strategists and Delhi boss Manoj Tiwari had kept boasting of a conclusive victory.
Appropriately, Kejriwal should have decided to take oath as the first ‘hatrick' Chief Minister of Delhi on February 13 on which day in 1931, Delhi was officially declared as the capital of British India. The British administration had shifted capital from Kolkata to Delhi in 1911 and King George the Fifth had come to India to lay the foundation-stone. The modern location of Delhi has been described as ‘Indraprastha’ in the scriptures and ancient history books. Experts have discovered that a monarch of the Gupta dynasty had founded Delhi as a seat of power in the third century AD. Later, somewhere near Surajkund of today, Raja Anangpal Tomar, who had founded the Tomar dynasty in AD 736, made Delhi his principal place of administration. He had probably chosen the Aravalli hills in Mehrauli as his headquarters for strategic military advantages. Between 3000 BC and 17th century AD, Delhi was a site for seven different cities and referred to as Hasthinapur meaning 'elephant-city'.
Much later, the Delhi Sultanate kept the city a vibrant place of power and commerce. But subsequently, the city lost glory and slipped into oblivion until Shah Jahan, the fifth great Mughal, shifted capital from Agra to the great city in 1638. The Mughal emperor too considered the Yamuna river to be more resplendent alongside Delhi than in Agra. Over time, 14 walled gates came up protecting the city. Five of them, Ajmeri Gate, Lahori Gate, Kashmiri Gate, Delhi Gate and Turkman Gate, are still in place as mute witnesses to the grand history.
The British Raj which formally commenced only after the Sepoy Mutiny in 1857 after the crown took over charge from the East India Company. The capital of British India shifted from Kolkata to Delhi in 1911. The reason was that Delhi was the financial and political centre of many empires that had earlier ruled India successfully. Immediately after Delhi became the capital of India, a temporary secretariat building was constructed in North Delhi in 1912 to seat officials. Four million British pounds were spent on shifting the administration facility from Kolkata to Delhi.
Construction of the administrative buildings and facilities began in earnest and Delhi became ready in 1931. British architect and planner Herbert Baker and Edwin Lutyens had designed the modern city. And one Sobha Singh was given the contract job of finishing all civil works. He started work as soon as the First World War over in 1918. Lord Irwin formally inaugurated Delhi in 1931 on February 13.
Post-Independence India witnessed only Congress people in power until the mid-1970s when the Congress was dethroned for half a term only. Badly defamed Indira Gandhi, vanquished for dictatorial style of ruling India, returned to power and ruled until her assassination in 1984. The Congress slowly became weaker after that. The BJP rose from nowhere, won elections and enjoyed one full term under the stewardship of most charismatic Atal Behari Vajpayee between 1990 and 1995. All pollsters forecast a thumping comeback for Vajpayee which never happened. What caused the unexplained fall was the arrogant display of power and wealth by some of the frontline saffron leaders. They held all party meetings in five-star hotels and splurged enormous amounts of money on a horribly stupid 'India Shining' publicity. The ordinary citizen eventually lost trust, and the Congress managed to scrape through and enjoy two consecutive terms.
The BJP again dislodged the Congress from power in 2014. Highly paid market strategists came by and victory was achieved. Modi proved to be a popular leader only because of his humble background, personal honesty, and a number of eye-catching theatrical acts in public. All the same, Amit Shah and Modi kept committing errors of being too loud and boastful. Their tall poll promises of employment and black money recovery were nearly impossible to keep. Further, they resorted to hate narratives to belittle or slur the stature of potent, highly-adorable opponents.
Meanwhile, the greenhorn Aam Aaadmi Party (AAP) headed by a former IITian bureaucrat had materialised to drive both BJP and Congress crazy with fear and confusion. The AAP promised sea improvement in the critically-essential services and goods including incredibly cheap or nearly free electricity, water, healthcare and education. Kejriwal became messiah for keeping all his promises within months of coming to power. For all this, the BJP with all its might was forced to bite dust in Delhi. The AAP has proved beyond doubt that life-supporting essential commodities like power, water and basic healthcare do matter so much to the ordinary citizens.
In the latest fight against the AAP, the BJP suffered massively more because of hate speeches and baseless blames dumped on the AAP leaders who have made things happen even without any control over land and police. The more Shah and Modi hurled hurting words at the AAP, the stronger the voters' decision turned to bring back the truly-performing AAP. The BJP is only licking wounds now in utter cluelessness, remorse and shame.
The Delhi voters know Kejriwal can do hardly any good in the national arena. But at home, he has no match in vision and implementation of the promises made. While making door-to-door campaign, Kejriwal had the guts to tell voters that they should dismiss him if his work has not yielded any benefits for them.
The AAP has brought down prices of water and electricity by only plugging leaking holes. Corrupt officials have been nabbed and pilferage fully controlled. Advanced healthcare is absolutely free; and Government schools now have better facilities than many so-called elitist public schools run by profit-crazy private entrepreneurs. The blood sucking, expensive private schools have been ruthlessly axed for their indiscriminate fee-increasing sprees. Presently, Government schools look more plush and sophisticated than private schools known hitherto for glamour and glitter.
It seems Kejriwal is out to compete with Naveen Patnaik in winning election after election by only proving to voters that he is simple, honest and striving incessantly for truly measurable ‘good governance'.