The MCD poll results have proved to be yet another deadly blow on the wannabe revolutionary Arvind Kejriwal and his ilk. The elections which were touted to be a referendum on the poor and populist governance record of the Delhi Government have definitely gone against AAP. Since, the same electorate which had installed you with a humungous mandate a couple of years ago has rejected your brand of politics out rightly. I, a middle class Delhitte one of your former core constituency, take this as an opportunity for advising you to do what you are good at run away from your responsibilities by making some lame excuses and use the weapon of anarchism which you like to describe as ‘Satyagraha’.
Following are the three of the reasons for your defeat in MCD and why you should pack your bags and leave Delhi in the hands of an able administrator, someone who actually administers Delhi.
1. Politics of excuses- The EVM excuse:
Your absurd political journey has had one constant, excuse for failures instead of introspection. After every defeat, whether the Lok Sabha Elections or the pathetic governance of Delhi you have the knack of finding a scapegoat. But this time things were different you had an excuse ready even before the results were announced, in fact, even before the elections were held. You correctly forecasted that you were going to lose badly but instead of taking the responsibility for the same you found it convenient to shift the blame onto the democratic processes of India. This time you questioned the working of EVMs but this is only the tip of the iceberg what you actually maligned was the integrity of one of the most important democratic institutions and constitutional bodies of India, the Election Commission whose capability of holding free and fair elections have not been acknowledged not only within India but across the globe. Since, you did not have any excuses left in your kitty you started to cast aspersions on the fundamentals of Indian democracy itself. When the Election Commission threw a challenge on your face to prove the charges that you had levied all you could was act like a motormouth without adducing any pressing evidence.
You are alleging that the system of holding elections and the fundamentals of Indian democracy are flawed but you have forgotten that you have also been elected out of the same system. If it is actually flawed then should hang up your boots and let someone who believes in Indian democracy take up your post.
2. Politics of lies and personality cult:
You stormed into power in Delhi on a fundamental promise that you won’t act as a fugitive and stay in Delhi throughout your tenure along with a manifesto aimed at making Delhi free of the ills that it has been reeling under for decades now. The rosy picture that you had presented was by and far limited to your manifesto and once you stormed into power you forgot all your promises. Most of your time was spent out of Delhi either campaigning, raising funds for your obnoxious outfit or leisure after party work. There were times when Delhi was stinking in face of strikes by sanitation workers or reeling under water borne diseases in monsoon months but you left Delhi in autopilot mode busy wooing other electorates. You could never really get out of your megalomania. This was followed by a promise to Punjab of your leaving Delhi for Punjab if AAP won in Punjab which indicated that you could again become a fugitive if there is a lucrative opportunity. Governance of Delhi was not even in your list of priorities leave alone the idea of it being a major priority. Guess what; you could not achieve anything after betraying us you only lost what you already had. You lost your key constituency, i.e. the Delhi electorate. Your short political life started in Delhi and it seems as if it has ended in Delhi only.
The AAP was supposed to be a voter centric party professing ideals such as transparency and popular participation and it was projected as such. But you never really practiced what you preach and the identity of your political party has become somewhat concurrent to your personality. It seems that your outfit is working under the notion that “AAP is Arvind, Arvind is AAP”. This has not helped your cause as after raising the expectation of taking things onto a next level you have proved to be as opaque and undemocratic in functioning as your contemporaries, if not worse.
3. Rejection of populism:
One of the major reasons behind your massive victory in the 2015 Assembly Elections and I am somewhat embarrassed to admit this was because of the freebies that you had promised. You were able to incite an aspiring middle class by promising heavy subsidies in civic amenities without any proper classification between those who need such subsidies and those who don’t actually need it due to their economic status. You promised similar freebies for the MCD elections and you went a step further this time you promised only freebies without promising any steps for improving governance as you did in the Assembly elections though without any intention to fulfill them. In your tenure as the Chief Minister we have realized that such populist measures without proper governance can only lead to misery. Like the Assembly Elections you had again made certain promises to do what actually falls within the jurisdiction of the Union Government, e.g. exemption of House tax.
We don’t want an incompetent administrator who wants to survive solely by doling out freebies. We want someone who can deliver by providing concrete governance. You are not what Delhi needs. MCD results are an indication of what we are going to do with you in 2020 when you might again be blaming EVMs for having lost the 2019 Elections followed by a reversal of mandate in 2020. It’s better to prevent that embarrassment and leave Delhi (or maybe even the political arena) for good in 2017 itself.
Conclusion:
One of the major positives of India’s electoral system is the fact that the losing side invariably accepts the verdict of the people and gracefully becomes a part of the Opposition. You are guilty of violating this healthy norm. As the former Prime Minister of India had once said on the floor of the Parliament “Hum jeete hain hum mein vinamrta hai, Haar me to aatam-manthan hona chahie” (We have won that is why we are showing humility, defeat must invoke introspection). It seems that you remain arrogant both in victory and in defeat. You don’t even possess the virtues which the conventional politicians that you used to criticize vehemently.