10 Incidents That Killed The Trustworthiness Of Arvind Kejriwal

Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal has become a figure of many lies. The regard which people held for him during the anti-corruption movement days in India and the trust that he enjoyed is waning. Now people see him no more than a ‘drama queen’ who can do anything to remain in the limelight. He grabs media attention as and when suits him and tries to befool people with his ‘aam aadmi’ tag.

Here are 10 incidents that broke our trust in him:

1. Vigilante Justice: The very first instance where Kejriwal failed us was at the time when Delhi government under him was merely a week old. His then law minister Somnath Bharti indulged in vigilantism and in the garb of justice harassed Nigerian women. Kejriwal not even supported Bharti, he sat on a dharna against Delhi Police officials who refused to take part in Bharti’s vigilantism. Later he turned it into a war between centre and state over police jurisdiction. Kejriwal is yet to apologise for the shameful act that Bharti carried out and the inconvenience that he caused to the people of Delhi.
2. Resignation: The biggest drama broke out when Kejriwal resigned from his post of Delhi CM. Lok Sabha elections were to be announced, AAP was to go national and Kejriwal with his ministers was trying to pass Lokpal Bill in Delhi Vidhan Sabha. Although it was an unconstitutional move, the passage of the bill could have strengthened the trust of people in him for they saw Central Lokpal as a weak one. But Kejriwal used it merely as a tool to break away from responsibilities and fulfill greater ambitions.
3. Power tariff: Kejriwal started ‘Bijli Satyagraha’ over the alleged faulty meters and high electricity tariff rates. He asked people not to pay their electricity bill. This led to a huge number of defaulters whose electricity was cut. When he came in power, he gave waiver on power and the connections to the houses were restored. Then Kejriwal resigned and everything went under a big question mark. Later, during a court hearing, the waiver was put off and now several houses are facing cases of electricity theft and non-payment.
4. Sheila Dikshit: The whole campaign of AAP during Delhi elections was based on anti-corruption. Kejriwal had promised that he will put former CM Sheila Dikshit behind bars for the Commonwealth Games Scam. When he became CM, that too after defeating Sheila by a big margin, he did not even name her in the CWG FIR. While he was in the pursuit of his ‘national’ ambitions, Sheila was stated as the Governor of Kerala making her immune from such cases.
5. Communal Politics: The recent video of AAP leader Shazia Ilmi is a proof that Kejriwal and his party does not believe in ‘alternative politics’. And it is not the only proof. AAP leader Yogendra Yadav changed his name to ‘Salim’ when asking for votes in Muslim areas. Another leader, Kamal Mitra Chenoy openly asked for votes on caste and religion basis. Kejriwal himself stated in an interview to Muslim Mirror that he was a “practicing Muslim” in order to get Muslim votes. Now they are speaking of religion based reservation for Muslims – a poll plank of Congress – which is unconstitutional. No action has been taken against them by Kejriwal.
6. Silence on members moving against AAP: By now, almost 2/3 members of the core group, and similar number of workers have left AAP and either joined other party or remained out of politics. They all left exposing AAP and its façade. Whether it was Madhu Bhaduri or Vinod Kumar Binny, Tina Sharma, Ashok Agarwal, Ramesh Yadav, Surjit Dasgupta, Ashwini Upadhyay and the list goes on. While 250 members in Gurgaon had quit dramatically in the presence of Kejriwal, 2400 members recently quit the party from Lucknow. Kejriwal dodges the question every time asked.
7. Repeated attacks no FIR: There have been strings of ink attacks, eggs attacks and slap attacks on Kejriwal and his party members. Oddly enough, in each case the assaulter was identified as a member of the party despite the claims by Kejriwal that he was being targeted by the opposition BJP. The attacks sometimes have been of grave degrees like that on Somnath Bharti in Varanasi. He was beaten by some youth during a talk show with India TV. Kejriwal, as usual maintained that youth wing of BJP – ABVP – was behind it and that his life was under threat including that of other AAP leaders. But he refused to file an FIR and even refused to take precautionary security. Interestingly, the inflow of funds increases every time there is an attack on Kejriwal or AAP members. Also, Kejriwal has remained tight-lipped about the assaulters being identified as one of their own. He even supressed the fact that Bharti had foul-mouthed the youth who had asked a question and hence was thrashed.
8. Alliance with Congress: The post-poll alliance of AAP with Congress – an ‘evil’ and ‘corupt’ party – was an incident which had broken heart of many. Although it was an outside support, it was a deviation from what Kejriwal and AAP apparently believed in. The current Lok Sabha election has thrown some more light in this direction, Kejriwal has forgotten all about ‘corrupt’ Congress now. All his energy is in the direction of defeating Modi who is considered as a development man in the eyes of public and is number one enemy of Congress. Most of the AAP candidates standing against Congress bigwigs have either returned their tickets or refused to fight election against them. Kejriwal does not have any explanation for this.
9. Kashmir: While AAP leader Prashant Bhushan and Kumar Vishwas wanted a referendum on Army deployment in Jammu and Kashmir, another leader Yogendra Yadav batted for autonomy. A huge uproar was followed after it was discovered that AAP website showed Kashmir as a part of Pakistan. Did Kejriwal clarify anything? No. He merely issued a one-liner for damage control which said that “Kashmir is an integral part of India”.
10. U-turns: Kejriwal is a man of U-turns. You cannot believe any of his statements. He was dubbed as a ‘pathological liar’ for the same. One moment he will be saying something, the next moment he will be saying the opposite of it. Be it about taking support of congress for forming government, using government vehicles, taking government accommodation, doing ‘alternative’ politics, delivering Lokpal to people of Delhi within ‘15 days’, scraping janta durbar or not contesting Lok Sabha elections, he has taken a U-turn wherever possible. And as an addition, he chooses to remain defiant on his U-turns.

Kejriwal has created a big mess and has robbed public of their innocence by his ‘krantikari’ acts. And yet he thinks that he will be able to win in Lok Sabha elections and give people an ‘alternative’. But the amount of pain that he has generated will stop people from believing in someone else who will try to create an ‘alternative’ and fight for them.