A common man until 2012, though erudite and professionally highly successful,
has today become one of the most extraordinary in the country. Arvind Kejriwal,
the Indian Revenue Service officer, gave up his highly prestigious and lucrative
service to get into the political arena. He embarked on his journey by joining the ‘Anti-CorruptionMovement’ that was demanding a ‘Jan Lokpal Bill’ to curb and highlight the
menace of corruption in the country. Anna Hazare, (who now has (unfortunately)
become outdated in the national picture) the able, and powerful leader of the
movement, found great support in him, and hence the foundation for Kejriwal’s great
political journey was laid. Anna Hazare, through his Hunger Strike, captured the
attention of a slew of people across the corners of the country. His relentless
grit, intense fervor, unparallel determination, and intrepid attitude towards bringing
a positive change made him an apple of almost everyone’s eye, not to mention
the ruling party’s exception.
The movement actually turned out to be a watershed movement in the political discourse of the country. Some demands were met, and some weren’t; a few people, in a short span of time, became people’s permanent benevolent leaders, but few couldn’t. From seeing a high-level drama, to a paradigm shift in the public’s opinion about the elite ruling class, the movement witnessed it all. Nearly a decade later, today, people, to a huge extent, have sadly forgotten much about one of the most impactful anti-corruption movements in the country, and the zeal within their hearts to combat the menace has somehow faded; but Arvind Kejriwal, the then integral part of the movement, has become one of the most influential people in the country by making exceptionally impressive strides in the politics.
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| Pic credits: Aayush Sangal | Flickr |
Arvind Kejriwal, an IITian and a former coveted Group A civil service
officer, has today turned into a shrewd politician with his political acumen helping him win Delhi’s Legislative Assembly elections, (and
recently Punjab as well) that too with a thumping victory. No one would have
ever thought that one fine day, an intellectual man with a fascinating
educational record will come, proudly rule over the Delhi Chief Minister’s
throne, and will, by and large, become the first and the only choice for the residents
of Delhi. Kejriwal started his ‘dominating’ political journey in 2015 when he
absolutely stunned the political stalwarts from all the political parties with
his huge victory, and since then has emerged as one of the ablest
politicians in the country. In contrast to winning a whopping 67/70 seats in his
first major elections in 2015, the number though came down to 62/70 in 2020.
But this slight reduction in the number of seats isn’t actually a major cause
of concern for him, as today, the ‘Aam Aadmi Party’ (AAP) is continuously climbing
the success’ ladder, not just in Delhi, but in other states as well.
It's indeed true that the party’s quest to carve the same remarkable
impressions on the political canvas of other states just the way they have on Delhi’s
seems a distant, and possibly next-to-impossible vision. But one should not
forget that winning 67/70 seats in Delhi’s Legislative Assembly elections
also seemed impossible until Kejriwal actually did so. Hence, being a man of
principles, and possessing the utmost tenacity, nothing actually is impossible for
him.
The ruling party in the centre has been trying its all by hook, or by crook to at least hand over a narrow defeat, if not big, to Arvind Kejriwal, but the ‘contemporary political legend’s’ invincibility in the capital has been intact so far, and is increasing with every passing month. From prosecuting his aides and ministers by (rightly/wrongly) using the central agencies, to regularly creating an unsymmetrical power struggle between the Delhi Government and the Governor, i.e. the legislature and the executive, the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) has tried most of the moves on the chess board, but the Delhi’s King has been emerging out victorious every time, with an even more pompous victory. The most recent being the awarding of the politically coveted ‘National Party’ tag to the Aam Aadmi Party by the Election Commission (EC) of India. Even when their Deputy Chief Minister, and the Health Minister are tasting the waters of prison, the AAP’s political performance seems robust, and the future’s trajectory even more vibrant.
Read my another insightful post on ‘The Good Side of Politics’.