NEW DELHI: The politics of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) started from a government quarter in Delhi’s neighbourhood, Kaushambi colony in Ghaziabad. In the initial days party founder Arvind Kejriwal made a big show of him being an Aam Aadmi (common man). He insisted on taking a metro from Kaushambi station to Pragati Maidan station on Blueline for the first day in his office.
From Pragati Maidan he was driven in common man’s vehicle a second hand Maruti WagonR to the Chief Minister’s office in erstwhile Players’ Building now called the Delhi Secretariat. In less than 10 years’ time, the same Aam Aadmi and his political progenies have ‘victorious’ fought for the possession of a lavish colonial bungalow.
Sometimes one wonders, if the AAP has a story department like the Bollywood studios of the yore. First we saw the clips of the outgoing Chief Minister walking his parents to the waiting car leaving behind the CM bungalow and thanking the staff. Next we saw photographs of the newly installed Chief Minister sitting signing the files with cardboard boxes strewn around her.
Thereafter, followed a blitzkrieg of statements in the media on how a women Chief Minister had been thrown out of her official residence. The question is when did the new CM enter the house?
As famous English poet TS Eliot wrote, “Between the motion; And the act; Falls the Shadow.” So between the reel showing Kejriwal leaving the house and Atishi sitting in midst of cardboard boxes and signing the files was a government letter in circulation.
In this letter from an official of Public Works Department (PWD) to the officer on special duty to the Chief Minister, it was mentioned that despite the news of Kejriwal exiting the house the keys of the house were never handed over to the designated caretaker.
What followed next was that the possession of the house was required by the PWD as an enquiry was on about the expenditure made on rebuilding the house with any sanction. Now that’s the true story of the fresh round of histrionics which we got to witness in the media about the possession of 6 Flag Staff Road bungalow. A year back, the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) had registered a case into alleged ‘irregularities and misconduct’ with respect to the construction of a new official residence for then Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The charge was that the Public Works Department (PWD) had initially issued a proposal only for the renovation and beautification of the bungalow. However, the original British-era property was razed to the ground and a new bungalow was built.
It’s was alleged that the PWD demolished the old structure without a survey report and constructed the new building without getting a new building plan sanctioned. Finally, there is the issue of expenditure. It’s said that the PWD, which is under the Delhi government, increased the cost of renovation work at the controversial bungalow from Rs 7.62 crore to Rs 33.20 crore without any sanction.
Kejriwal had responded to the move the way he is best known to do. He has said that PM Narendra Modi was nervous therefore he has instituted the enquiry against him. He has claimed that in the opposition block, he was the only one capable of taking on the BJP.
The results of the recently concluded Haryana polls and before that the Lok Sabha polls, clearly reflect that Kejriwal’s such claims of public support have no substance. In between Kejriwal also spent a good time behind the bars and seems to have got not much public sympathy for his incarceration.
Delhi is passing through a turbulent time with broken roads, clogged sewers, broken down public transport system and many others. The new Chief Minister would do better to address these issues than have a photo session with cardboard boxes to gain public sympathy for her party boss and also a lavish house for herself.
Sidharth Mishra
Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice