#RIPAAP: 5 Moments Which Cautioned Arvind Kejriwal

Infighting in the Aam Aadmi Party is nothing new. It has been ongoing since the beginning of this year. Before that, party chief Arvind Kejriwal’s relations with his mentor Anna Hazare had soured. After Kejriwal won Delhi elections in December last year and some of his ‘ways’ of governance were put on display, Anna distanced himself from him completely.

Kejriwal tried to pacify Anna and even sent his emissaries to the fast venue where Anna was holding a fast for Janlokpal. But his mentor asked his group to leave the fasting venue for they started shouting slogans and opened verbal spat with others present there.

This was a sign for Kejriwal who should have paid attention to the disenchantment of his mentor. At the same time began rising the voice of opposition within the AAP. But Kejriwal did not try to do anything about it.

Now the fissures have gone deep in the party which is evident by the open dirty fight among the party members. Some are accusing him, and some are defending him. But it presents a clear picture which says that Kejriwal was responsible for every single decision taken for the party and its members – whether pursued for the same or not by other members.

It was Kejriwal’s arrogance, sometimes greed for power, and sometimes the attitude of an anarchist which has resulted in the destruction of AAP. In addition to that his personal image was daunted because of the many lies he told people and many U-turns he took in order to grab or be close to the power seat.

He is a leader who taught people to raise their voices against bad and wanted them to keep him and his party in check. But it seems it hurt his ego when they did so.

Here are 5 moments that cautioned Kejriwal against his bad decisions, arrogance, repeated lies and working with a few people by his side:

1. Vinod Kumar Binny episode: The first one to raise his voice against Kejriwal and his coterie was AAP leader and newly elected MLA in Delhi assembly elections from Laxmi Nagar seat was Vinod Kumar Binny. He had accused Kejriwal of ‘ruling’ the party and being inaccessible to the volunteers and other MLAs who were not a part of his coterie. He was supported by other MLAs too which included heavyweight Tina Sharma. Binny was expelled from the party and Sharma left it for good.
2. Somnath Bharti episode: Arvind Kejriwal failed to act against the vigilante justice way of governing by his close aid and law minister in the AAP government Somnath Bharti. The blatant breach of trust and violation of human rights expected Kejriwal to act sanely but he sat on dharna against policemen who tried to make Bharti understand the implications of such act. Later he turned the issue into a completely different one. He was given a face saver by the UPA government at last which was unpurturbed by his dharna. But Kejriwal failed to take note of it and called it his victory.
3. Madhu Bhaduri episode: Founder member Madhu Bhaduri had quit the party after the dharna drama. She had called upon Kejriwal to introspect and provide good governance to the people rather than doing activism. Afterall, he was the government and not the opposition. But Kejriwal paid no attention.
4. Resignation episode: Kejriwal’s resignation was also a big drama. When he was taking up Lokpal Bill in the Delhi assembly people had already begn to speculate that it was just a preparation by him to leave Delhi and jump into the fray of Lok Sabha elections. His ambition had grown bigger. The same happened and resulted in the loss of trust. Various newspapers coloured their pages with the reports of Delhi people feeling cheated by him but Kejriwal did not care to explain as to why he left and what were his plans for Delhi in the future.
5. Lok Sabha election episode: Before the Lok Sabha elections, Kerjriwal had promised to put common people at the fore. But he inducted stars in the party and volunteers were neglected. The decision making body remained confined in a room and the internal democracy was caged. It started the beginning of many AAP members and volunteers joining other parties and blaming AAP for lying to them. It continued till the end of the general elections. After its bitter loss, many star campaigners and candidates left the party too because Kejriwal was still not able to understand what his mistakes were. And then he tried to come back to the people of Delhi that too with the help of Congress which people had rejected.

The whole jail-bail episode and now the letter-politics in the party has showed how the coterie and Kejriwal himself kept the aspiration of rising to the power in no time.

But they forgot, ye public hai, sub janti hai…