What’s in a name? That which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet.” Thus said the leading lady to the protagonist in William Shakespeare’s classic ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The subtle message from these famous lines is that the character of an object or person does not change with the name.
When jailed Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal releases a message from barrack saying, “My Name is Kejriwal and I am not a terrorist”, he is underlining the fact that he should not be underestimated. Last week Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MP Sanjay Singh in a press conference said Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal who worked “like a son and a brother for the country” has sent a message from Tihar Jail. “My name is Arvind Kejriwal and I am not a terrorist,” Singh said.
A master propagandist, Arvind Kejriwal has often taken refuge in lines and dialogues from popular culture to push forth his political agenda. Similarly, these lines are inspired from Karan Johar’s 2010 production, ‘My Name Is Khan’. This film is a social drama starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in lead roles.
The film narrates a fictional story where Rizwan Khan (Khan), an autistic Muslim, sets out on a journey across the United States to meet the President after Mandira Rathod Khan (Kajol), his Hindu wife, suffers from Islamophobic discrimination after the September 11 attacks. By comparing his incarceration to that of Rizwan Khan’s state, Kejriwal, on the face of it look to raising the issue of discrimination against the minorities, which the Opposition parties claim to be on an increase ever since Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister.
However, a further analysis would show that Kejriwal in comparing himself to Rizwan Khan is trying to drum up sympathy from not just his core constituency of migrant and working class population but also to the community to which he belongs – the Vaishyas. Though Vaishyas across the Hindi heartland are known to be sympathetic to the Bharatiya Janata Party, in the local assembly elections in Delhi (2013, 2015 and 2020) they have gone with Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
Vaishyas in Delhi have always lived with a feeling of being denied their due importance by both the traditional political parties – Congress and the BJP. In both the parties, the post-independence politics in Delhi came to be dominated by the migrant Punjab leaders, be it Har Kishan Lal Bhagat in the Congress or the triumvirate of Madanlal Khurana, Vijay Kumar Malhotra and Kidarnath Sahni in the BJP.
When Kejriwal became chief minister for the first time in 2013, it was said that it took four and half centuries for Delhi to get its second ruler from Vaishya community. The first was King Hemu, whom Akbar had defeated in the second battle of Panipat in 1556. Starting as a smalltime trader, Hemu later became a big supplier of saltpetre, a chemical used in making gunpowder, to the Sur Afghan army, who had ousted Mughal emperor Humayun.
Later he won confidence of the Sur Afghan rulers becoming a General in the Army. When the Afghans, after the death of Sher Shah Suri, starting losing to reenergized Mughal forces under Akbar, Hemu used the opportunity to take control of Delhi and declare himself as the King. Felled by a stray arrow during the Battle of Panipat, Hemu died an unfortunate death, thus Delhi losing its first Vaishya ruler.
Coming back to the current scenario, the BJP in Delhi is worried whether the Vaishyas would take kindly to the arrest of the chief minister. Kejriwal too understands this and he is playing the victim card to the hilt. Vaishyas have good enough presence on almost all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, not just Chandni Chowk, which go to polls on May 25.
Vaishyas both in 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha polls stood firmly with the BJP. To wean them away, next we may hear, “My name is Kejriwal, I am a Vaishya”.
Sidharth Mishra
Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice