When Arvind Kejriwal was standing beside Anna Hazare during Lokpal agitation, he was seemingly the torch bearer of the movement after him. The way he tried to portray his image as a corruption crusader with activism that time now has a monumental free fall as the CM. Today, corruption has the last laugh as Kejriwal being the leader of his flagship corruption fighting party has now attired a mainstream party formulation.
Every new political party tries to find its niche in the realms of polity by ascribing to a certain ground-breaking issue. Mamata Banerjee emphasized on how the left decimated the state of Bengal for decades. An image projection of Mamata changing this rooted red apathy and terming the movement as ‘Paribortan’ made people bring her to power ceremonially. And today, TMC is not much different than what the left was in spirit and chaos to push the state into a similar platform it harbored during the times of the communist rule. Kejriwal replicated the same pattern in a way to project his new party AAP as the only path breaking way to provide an alternative to the political mainstream. With two important philosophies of breaking the norms of the mainstream and shunning corruption in its kitty, AAP has in fact eroded their principles faster with diametrically opposite actions.
AAP began its journey by getting into a coalition with the Congress to form its first government in Delhi. And with that manipulative political decision, there was no looking back.
With advent of times, AAP has tasted all the controversies which the mainstream parties have imbibed in lieu with scams, scandals and corruption.
From sex scandals in the form of its Welfare and Child Development minister to flushing 500 crore bill for AAP commercials and even upgrading travel mode of their ministers in a string of SUVs, the party has catered to all the credentials of a mainstream party which it consistently opposed.
One of its supposed highlights it brought in Delhi was a flagship programme called Mohalla clinics which was aimed at providing primary healthcare free of cost to citizens closer to home.
Mostly attributing to a populist scheme, the clinics were touted to represent the vision of universal access health care and were even praised by former UN head Kofi Annan. AAP government and Arvind Kejriwal claimed these clinics as a shining model of its said good governance and transparency in Delhi.
Perhaps populist schemes look good on paper especially when you can hone them as an effective election campaigning propaganda. Nevertheless, when it is about implementation or tangible benefits, they are mired with controversy.
The vigilance commission after receiving complaints has unearthed mass compromising functionality in the Mohalla clinic project.
Specialised doctors have said to be seeing more than 500 patients in stipulated four hours each, which brings it down to seeing an impossible two patients every min. Treating patients with such record time is also about violating the norms that have been laid under which the doctors must spend time for at least 7-8 mins with a patient. This fraudulent practice of ‘falsifying names’ to increase the spread sheet is understandable in the advent of getting more money per patient. The other aspect to it is about prescribing useless medications to make the patients come back again and merging this phenomenon with the said above false list is making the doctors in the clinics earn exorbitantly. It is not just about these two deceitful actions but the Vigilance commission needs to probe into more complaints and scrutinize the overall working operations of the clinics. The inquiry is seemingly turning into probing a scam of sorts which will again expose a loophole in the hyperventilated claims of a less corrupt Delhi under AAP.
In a letter, the Vigilance department has put forward 11 points of concern and has sought replies from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and the Chief Medical District Officer (CDMO).
The investigation now which is perhaps at the primary level of how the doctors are indulging in malpractices may branch into secondary level of how they could break norms and if the extra income they generate is having any cuts, political protection and beneficiaries. The opposition in Delhi has always been critical of Kejriwal’s electoral promises on healthcare and these clinics were supposed to be an answer for the same. As AAP is in much dire straits over its leaders been involved in scams in the past, these allegations and probe have a multi factorial effect on its purported socialist models of development and its well-built image as a corruption watchdog. The investigation may climb the ladders of political complicity in this scam to hurt the party especially when it’s fortunes in the state of Punjab are said to be very bright. The party is learning mechanisms to spring back and cover up like other mainstream parties. Yet it’s still nascent to keep its flock together in a revelation like this one.
Former PM Manmohan Singh was very laudable about MREGA which happened to be an effective paper tiger and a vote pulling populist measure. However, its implementation on the ground was something that garnered more light. PM Modi had said in the parliament that he will not close such schemes as they are shining examples of Congress populist measures failing on the ground. We perhaps are seeing the same with respect to Mohalla clinics. As the commission probes the scandal and further gets into the core of it, Kejriwal will be ready with deployment of his tweets chanting it’s a grand conspiracy again.