How have you fallen from heaven,
O star of the morning,
Son of the dawn.
The Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal, who rose to become chief minister of Delhi in a short time, is not exactly Lucifer. But the irony is that a leader who emerged from a campaign against corruption has been arrested on charges of corruption. The Enforcement Directorate has taken Kejriwal into custody to interrogate him about the charges of corruption in the formulation and implementation of the new excise (liquor) policy for the year 2021-22 by the Delhi government headed by him. The ED, while seeking remand for his custodial interrogation, told the special court in Delhi, “Kejriwal has conspired with other persons and was actively involved in formulation of policy for facilitating kickbacks and has played a role in generation, use and concealment of proceeds of crime.”
It is a steep fall for an IIT-educated revenue service officer, who resigned from a coveted government job to launch a transparency campaign which earned him the Ramon Magsaysay Award. But people who have worked closely with Kejriwal are not surprised at the way things turned out for him. His most prominent associate, Anna Hazare, said, “He was arrested due to his deeds. He would not have been arrested if he had not done what he did.”
A vegetarian and a teetotaler, Kejriwal’s contribution in framing India’s transparency law, RTI Act, is widely acknowledged. He came into national limelight when he partnered with social activist Anna Hazare to launch a campaign for appointment of Lokpal to ensure probity in public life.
But then things changed. Anna Hazare left him. A large number of other associates, who are widely respected in their fields, parted ways after working with the AAP chief for some time. Among them are Narmada Bachao Andolan convener Medha Patkar, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Royal Bank of Scotland country chief Meera Sanyal, low-cost airline pioneer Captain Gopinath, top Apple executive and grandson of Lal Bahadur Shastri, Adarsh Shastri, top lawyer Prashant Bhushan, and academic-turned-politician Yogendra Yadav.
Some of them have revealed that they parted with his company because they found him no different from other politicians. A former AAP leader said, “At least others have some intellectual honesty. The Congress says it stands for secularism and it has stood by that principle for the last 75 years. The BJP has its own set of principles and policies, and the party has stayed with them. For Kejriwal, winning election and wresting power for himself is the only goal. He is extremely self-centred and autocratic. He does not allow anyone to get in the way of his quest for power.”
Similar views were expressed by another former AAP leader who had worked closely with Kejriwal. There is an account about a fund-raising visit of an AAP team to Canada, UK and the United States before the 2017 Punjab elections. It revealed Kejriwal’s transformation from a campaigner for transparency and probity in public life to a politician. The party delegation visited a gurdwara in Brampton near Toronto in Canada. The gurdwara was filled with pro-Khalistan people. A huge portrait of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale hung prominently on a wall and there was a martyrs’ gallery filled with pictures of bodies of those who lost their lives in the Golden Temple in Amritsar during Operation Blue Star. The AAP delegation encountered similar elements in other gurdwara.
When the delegation members informed Kejriwal about the anti-India sentiments in the foreign gurdwaras and expressed reluctance in carrying on with their meetings, they were reportedly told by the AAP chief to ignore the ideology and focus on fund-raising. Other political parties alleged that the AAP campaign in Punjab was being run by Khalistanis. Kejriwal was so sure of his party’s victory in Punjab in 2017 that he had sent his party’s top spokespersons to all the TV channels. When the results started coming in and it became clear that his party was routed at the hustings, the spokespersons were asked to blame the EVMs.
AAP leaders are also full of stories on how Kejriwal conspired to oust other prominent leaders of the party in order to take full control of its affairs. In March 2015, after winning the Delhi assembly elections, Kejriwal decided to expel senior leaders, especially Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan. A few of his trusted MLAs were called to a flat in North Avenue by his close associate. The MLAs were asked to attack Bhushan and Yadav at the party’s next National convention, which was to be held a few days later. They were told that the party chief wants them to demand the ouster of the duo. The party cadre was similarly prepared to raise slogans against Bhushan and Yadav and demand their expulsion. The meeting went exactly as per the planned script.
Anna Hazare highlighted that Kejriwal used to be against consumption of liquor, but ended up getting caught in a case relating to sale of liquor. The AAP chief started his political innings as a leader leaning more towards the Left, but ended up looking like a right-winger. So much so that he was labelled an RSS man by critics.
