Arvind Kejriwal's confrontationist conduct was a trick by him to avoid the serious business of delivering. He tried to spread the canard that rivals were blocking people-friendly plans. But he never had the solutions
The ignominious exit of the Aam Aadmi Party Government, within weeks of its formation, was in-built. The AAP did not have a majority on its own and had assumed office on the props provided by the Congress, suspect even at the best of times. There was a contradiction which was impossible to reconcile. A self-proclaimed ‘anarchist’ and a system drawing its strength from the Constitution, obviously could not co-exist.
An anarchist, by definition holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, or harmful. Arvind Kejriwal, in his avatar as Delhi Chief Minister, has lived up to this definition. His law Minister leading a mob in a midnight raid against foreigners smacked of racial prejudice. Mr Kejriwal created history by sitting on a dharna when he should have been dealing with public issues in the Secretariat as a Chief Minister.
Reducing power tariffs and giving free water supply may get him some applause. But that will not get for Delhi a distribution system for more power as summer comes and when demand for power will peak. Similarly, giving free water supply will not tell us from where and how extra water for the people of the capital will be obtained.
The Chief Minister seemed to be in confrontation with the Centre at one end and the constitutional system at the other. If the constitutional system has laid down certain restrictions on the functioning of the Delhi Government, either the Chief Minister works within the system or seeks to change it through amendments in Parliament.
More than the free water, Delhi wants proper and adequate supply. If Mr Kejriwal had been sincere about the water problem, he would have focussed on augmenting its supply by opening negotiations with the Chief Ministers of the neighbouring States of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, responsible for meeting a bulk of the capital’s water requirement. Why can’t Delhi’s potable water quality be improved to the extent that bottled water becomes irrelevantIJ
The anarchist in Mr Kejriwal does not believe in seeking solutions to the myriad problems a Delhiite faces in his daily life. How shallow was the tactic of holding an Assembly session with several thousand people around who could be counted on to react on the spot as they watch the game being played before them!
Next is the Jan lokpal Bill that he threatened to introduce, ignoring the constitutional requirements of sanction for it from the Centre. If the Chief Minister is openly seen as deliberately flouting the constitutional restrictions, what example is he setting for his followers, let alone other peopleIJ
To cap it all, Mr Kejriwal awarded electricity bill waivers for those who refused to pay high charges. What if many others too consider the electricity bills, even after the drastic reduction in tariff that he has given, as excessive, and not payIJ
Does he not realise that in many States, distribution losses of power are as high as 50 per centIJ Strangely, Mr Kejriwal, who was so eager to award non-payers of electricity bills from Government funds, never appealed to stop power theft at the consumer’s end. The fact that the discoms have succeeded in getting convictions against power theft carries its own warning.
Of course, it is good publicity gimmick for the outgoing Chief Minister to sit on the road and block traffic. But the last month’s event when he did that must have taught him a lesson. He had to be bailed out with a sleight of hand by the lt Governor, whom Mr Kejriwal’s partymen accused of being a “Congress agent”.
Mr Kejriwal apologised later but he did not pull up those who were arrogant and had crossed the limits of decency in politics. Another example of his anarchy was his concessions to auto-rickshaw drivers. As Chief Minister, he should have disciplined them when the public complaint is that they over-charge and often refuse to go where commuters ask them to take. He had freed them from all discipline and wanted the police not to issue challans to them.
Instead, only the Transport Department staff will undertake the task of surveillance. That department has only 128 staff members while the Delhi-NCR area needs thousands to keep vigil. Besides, the auto-rickshaws will not be under any obligation to go by the shortest route. Delhi has over five lakh visitors from neighbouring States. The auto- drivers have often been found to be taking particularly these visitors for a ride.
Even local residents complain of such harassment. In ignoring the commuters’ plight against auto-drivers, Mr Kejriwal seems to imply that he has no responsibility to protect the public from harassment and exploitation by the auto drivers just because they have been a major instrument for his pre-election propaganda. Surely, that is another demonstration of what people could expect when they had a declared anarchist as their Chief Minister.
The woes of the public, so well demonstrated with the Chief Minister giving anarchic freedom to auto-drivers to harass and exploit their customers, was all set to multiply when the Government would have encouraged electricity users to tamper with their meters or not pay bills; would have removed all traffic discipline in public transport, and so on.
All decency was thrown out of the window in the AAP’s regime. The Chief Minister rolled out names of anyone in public eye and dubbed them as ‘corrupt’. Then he asked his people and his officers to register FIRs against them. He condemned them first and then set the law against them.
What such anarchy from the high pedestal of constitutional power will generate, seemed to be of no concern to the party and the regime. The AAP seems to say out loud that whatever its people say is the law,; what the constitutional process says is bogus.
Or was it a ploy on his part to avoid the serious business of trying to solve the burning problems of the people, by showing up that it is others who are blocking his plansIJ But he never spelt out in black and white the solutions themselves before targeting anyone and everyone as the roadblocks to his heaven of bliss.
If he had been sincere, the very first job he should have done was to declare his budget and let the people know what he was going to do to tackle the problems and how he would find the resources, the expertise and the organisation to implement the schemes.
Perhaps we are forgetting that for a self-projected anarchist, no organisation is required — because all organisations are likely to be corrupt, create roadblocks, be reactionary etc. The demolition squad is at work. Only the reactionaries talk of constructive vision.