The National Capital Territory of Delhi has elected a new legislative assembly and, through it, a new government. Incidentally, the National Capital Territory of Canberra in Australia, Ottawa, the capital of Canada, Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, Pakistan’s capital Islamabad and US capital Washington DC do not have a legislative assembly and are governed directly by the central government. Of the major federal capitals, Delhi is the only one that has a legislative assembly and the equivalent of a state government. Within the city also operate three municipal corporations, a municipal committee and a cantonment board. All these bodies have superimposed on them the central government that directly controls the police, owns much of the land through the Delhi Development Authority and the ministry of urban development through the land and development office and in any case interferes with the day-to-day working of both the NCT government and the local bodies. Singapore, which is a city state, manages all the urban services through the national government and there is no real decentralised local government in operation there. Because of the highly diffused power structure in Delhi, it is a city which has the maximum government with minimum governance. A good description of the existing governmental disposition in Delhi would be bedlam.
The election was contested by the Congress, the BJP and the AAP. Before I come to the main theme of the paper—cynicism as the new political philosophy—let us look at the two main chief ministerial candidates. Arvind Kejriwal began his career as a member of the department of direct taxes, Indian Revenue Services. His sole aim was to remain posted in Delhi and he used every known bureaucratic tactic to that end. He took two years’ study leave as per rules. It meant that while he continued to draw his emoluments as if he were not on leave and to enjoy all the perquisites of office he was also required to sign a bond that on completion of study leave he would give a detailed report to his parent department on what he had studied, and also serve the government for a minimum of three years on completion of leave. He did not fulfil this condition, never returned to a posting and kept on finding excuses for not doing so. Ultimately, the government gave him a notice to refund what had been paid to him during the period of study leave and Kejriwal sat on the matter till an appropriate occasion presented itself to him at a rally by Anna Hazare where the notice was flourished and Kejriwal claimed that through it he was being victimised by the government. The record of his 49-day government is well known, as also the frequent changes in stance adopted by him to suit his convenience.
Kiran Bedi was an IPS officer with unbounded ambition and determination to use any means, especially publicity, to achieve her goal of high office. She was a member of the AGMUT cadre of the IPS whose officers are in the normal course expected to serve in Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and the Union Territories, of which Delhi is one. Like Kejriwal, she was not prepared to live out of Delhi. On being posted in Goa, she came away after serving for 41 days. In Mizoram, she stayed for only a fortnight and virtually deserted her post. One allegation is that she used the posting to get her daughter admitted to Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi, against the Northeast quota. In Chandigarh as IG, she deliberately picked a fight with the home secretary, which led to the governor virtually throwing her out. Her tantrums on not being made commissioner of Delhi police are well recorded. Between Bedi and Kejriwal there’s little to choose.
Delhi in 1947, with the influx of Punjabi refugees became a city of Punjabis. The hardworking took to professions and trade and made Delhi a well-to-do, largely middle class city. The growth of Delhi brought in its wake migrants from the poorer states and regions such as eastern UP and Bihar to service the needs of the relatively better off and these people created slums, many of which were relocated in jhuggi-jhopdi rehabilitation colonies in the outer areas during Emergency. We now had a Delhi that was official, then we had the Delhi of the Punjabi migrants and now there was a Delhi consisting of jhuggi-jhopdi rehabilitation colony dwellers who were from the poorer regions of India.
The aspirations of middle class Delhi were very different from those of the poor. The poor wanted at least the minimum basic services and employment opportunities, whereas middle and higher income Delhiites wanted good roads, flyovers, shopping malls and, eventually the metro railway. Both classes, however, wanted less red tape and much less corruption. The Congress presumed, as a matter of right, that the poor, the backward and the minorities were its vote banks. The BJP presumed that the middle class was in any way its monopoly.
The AAP, meanwhile, worked assiduously amongst the marginalised while assuring the middle class that it would give them a corruption-free government. Perhaps, its workers understood the realities of Delhi better than the traditional parties and when BJP suddenly catapulted a complete newcomer, Bedi, to be the putative chief minister, the party faced an internal revolt that may not have surfaced, but was like a subterranean magma about to explode.
The selection of Bedi was not by a normal political process but reflected the cynicism of the top BJP leadership that it might get the party a few extra seats and an edge in the Vidhan Sabha. When the votes were counted on February 10, the BJP got only three seats, the Congress zero, with 63 out of 70 candidates forfeiting their deposits, and the AAP captured an incredible 67 seats. The citizens of Delhi who in May 2014 had given all seven parliamentary seats to BJP because they voted on national considerations gave 67 Vidhan Sabha seats to Kejriwal because his party highlighted local issues thus giving a fitting answer to Amit Shah’s contemptuous cynicism.
The AAP has a number of internal contradictions that could probably have been kept under control if its majority was not so brutal. But, with a majority of this magnitude there would always be a tendency to feel that nothing can stop the party. This can lead to some form of extremism in decision making. This is likely to lead to a confrontation with the Centre. If such confrontation is resolved by discussion and mutual consent things would be fine. If the approach of the NCT government becomes shrill or agitational, things could become ugly and that would affect its stability. This would depend largely upon whether or not Kejriwal has matured.