Given the ‘welcome’ that Kumar Vishwas received in Amethi, the Aam Aadmi Party should correctly read the feudal culture of the Congress on whose support it runs the Delhi Government, and stop being hypocritical
Aam Aadmi Party leader Kumar Vishwas received a welcome in Amethi on Sunday that he is unlikely to forget in a hurry. His motorcade in and on the way to Amethi from lucknow was pelted with stones and rotten eggs, and ink was splashed on it. He was greeted by crowds waving black flags and his effigy was burnt. Since there can be little doubt that these protests were provoked or organised by Congress workers and sympathisers, it should leave Mr Vishwas better educated on the culture of the party with whose support the AAP so proudly runs its showpiece regime in Delhi, and on whose Delhi leaders Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has gone soft since taking charge.
The Congress’s feudal mindset was on full display in Amethi against the AAP leader. Mr Vishwas had gone there to challenge Mr Rahul Gandhi on the latter’s home turf. How could a ‘non-entity’ dare to even think of contesting against Mr Gandhi, and that too from Amethi! It was like a subject suddenly standing up and telling his king that he would like to take a shot at the crown. The king, to keep up the appearance of being aloof from such petty insubordination and the resulting revenge, would perhaps smirk.
But his loyal subjects, not willing to let go of an opportunity to yet again grovel at the king’s feet, would pounce on the hapless man and beat him to pulp. At any rate, the offending creature would be taught such a lesson that he would never, in this life and another, dare repeat such outrage.
Mr Vishwas is not the first one to challenge the Congress scion in Amethi, so why is the party’s camp in that parliamentary constituency in Uttar Pradesh so worked up and determined to scare the AAP leader offIJ Every person has the right to contest elections from any part of the country so long as he or she meets the stipulated requirements of law. Mr Gandhi, we are told, is the undisputed leader in Amethi and is beyond any significant challenge. But this belief was not on display on Sunday when the clearly jittery Congress camp in the constituency used violence to silence the AAP leader. If this is how Congress workers respond at the very initial stages, what will they do when Mr Vishwas’s name is formally announced as the AAP’s candidate from the Amethi lok
Sabha constituencyIJ
The Congress’s ire also has to do with another aspect of a feudal mentality that has seeped into its workers’ veins after being subjugated by the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty for many decades. The party believes that, because the AAP is governing Delhi with its support — support that came thanks to Mr Gandhi — the fledgling party has no right to challenge members of the dynasty. The AAP is planning to contest over 300 seats across the country, but it is unlikely that every one of its candidates will be dealt with by the Congress in the same manner that Mr Vishwas, who has taken on Mr Gandhi, has been. The message to the AAP is: Be grateful to the king-in-making (Mr Gandhi) or pay a price. The punishment could range from AAP leaders being roughed up on the streets and/or their regime toppled in Delhi.
The larger context of the Sunday development — and those others when the Congress has viciously reacted to questions on Mr Gandhi’s leadership qualities — is do with the party’s tenuous hold on his constituency. While it is true that Mr Gandhi has on two occasions won the parliamentary election from Amethi by huge margins, it is equally a fact that his charisma has failed to work in the State elections, where the Assembly segments that fall within the Amethi lok Sabha constituency have comprehensively rejected the Congress’s candidates. Incidentally, this is also true of the Rae Bareilly lok Sabha constituency, which party president Sonia Gandhi represents. This is partly because there has been little development that would justify the constituencies’ high-profile status. Mr Vishwas has raised a few of the development issues which cannot be dismissed entirely as nonsensical.
It would, therefore, be a mistake to presume that Amethi can never go against Mr Gandhi. It may or may not happen this time, but the possibility cannot be ruled out for good, and the AAP may not necessarily be the political slayer when the Amethi ‘fort’ is assailed. Those who do not believe in miracles, need to only recall the defeat of Indira Gandhi at the hand of Raj Narain. The latter was dubbed a ‘joker’ by Indira acolytes — like Mr Vishwas has been called a ‘joker’ by a Union Minister belonging to the Congress.
But whatever happens later, Mr Vishwas is having a merry time for now, basking in the new-found publicity by a media which is rapidly projecting the potential battle into a David versus Goliath confrontation, and is not willing to write the issue off as easily as the Congress’s media managers would want it to. While the most titillating possibility is that Mr Vishwas may cause an upset in Amethi — like his beloved leader Arvind Kejriwal did in New Delhi — the very least that can happen by his high-profile foray is that he will have created a significant base for the AAP in the region, which could be tapped later when the State goes to Assembly poll. If television images are anything to go by, Mr Vishwas was not exactly isolated during his drive through Amethi on Sunday.
However, the AAP cannot escape the uncomfortable question that points to the party’s political hypocrisy in the backdrop of the Amethi event, and which was raised in the beginning of this article. Why is Mr Kejriwal continuing to accept the support of a party which has targeted one of his prominent leaders in this violent fashionIJ This is in addition to an earlier question which has hovered over the Chief Minister since he took the reins: Why did he take the support of a party which he has identified as the biggest looter of the country and against whose Delhi leader (Sheila Dikshit) he claims to have had for some time now incontrovertible evidence of wrongdoingIJ And, then, there is the third question: Was the AAP voted to the House on the promise of hauling up sub-registrars and police constables on charges of corruption or did the people vote them in for their resolve to combat graft in high placesIJ
The problem is that Mr Kejriwal is caught up in petty matters. He is engaged in finding a suitable aam aadmi house for himself; he is busy contesting the police’s contention that he needs Z-Plus security; he is terrified of being seen in anything more opulent than an aam aadmi Government vehicle. While these are laudable qualities, Mr Kejriwal must not forget that he has to govern as well, and remain politically credible. On both these counts, he has a long way to go — Mr Vishwas’s literary jingoism notwithstanding.