What do we look for in a leader? Most people would answer by pointing out competence, level-headedness, honesty and so on and so forth. Arvind Kejriwal was just that, his announcement to join politics straight out of the “Anna movement” gave impetus to the expectations among the Indian masses. We thought that we would get after a long time a new, young and iconoclastic leader who would shake the very foundation of Indian polity and its political system.
That sentiment lasted for first one year and then the reality dawned on us all. The one-time prince of change and iconoclast turned into a seasoned politician with political rhetoric which would put others to shame. As seats grew, so did Kejriwal’s ego. It all started with the AAP winning Delhi for the second time. Consecutive embarrassments in Punjab and failure to win any seat anywhere but Delhi, rifled up more than a few feathers.
Kejriwal with his huge ego went on a rampage to sideline anybody who opposed his dictatorial norm of running the party. There were always rumours of people being targeted for going against or even having opposing views than those of Kejriwal’s, but it was made public when one of their own MLAs Kapil Mishra came forward and accused Kejriwal of despotism and corruption.
Since then, Kapil Mishra was sidelined and he disavowed the AAP. Today, once again this inner rift came out in public as AAP removed one of the last remaining nationalist leader Kumar Vishwas as the Rajasthan unit chief of AAP, and replaced him with a known yes-man Deepak Bajpai. Vishwas had been denied a Rajya Sabha ticket earlier. Out of the three seats up for grab, AAP had given one to senior leader Sanjay Singh, while the other two had gone to moneybags.
Earlier today, erstwhile journalist and AAP spokesperson Asutosh stated –
“Two days ago we have conducted a PAC meeting. In the meeting we have decided to replace Kumar Vishwas with Deepak Bajpai. The decision has been taken in the wake of the Rajasthan elections, scheduled to happen this year. Kumar Vishwas was given charge last year but he has not been working towards strengthening of the Rajasthan unit.”
The sourness increased, when Kejriwal apologized to union minister Jaitley. Kumar rightly felt that this action would serve as an injustice to the thousands of grass root workers against whom cases had been filed. His position was clear- that the legal cell of the party should be activated so that the cases against normal party workers can be dealt with first. He had said:
“My request to the party is that legal cell of the Party should be activated and cases against 11000 party workers should be finished first.”
With this latest move it seems the AAP has again worked itself into a blunder, with Kumar Vishwas on top AAP could have really gained momentum using the anti-incumbency and various other issues but a last-minute change of leadership is going to cost them. In the end, this move satisfied Kejriwal’s ego at the expense of the party and party workers’ expectations in the Rajasthan elections. If there was anyone who could have steered AAP to a respectable total in Rajasthan, it was Kumar Vishwas. But looks like AAP has lost Rajasthan even before fighting the elections.
But here’s Kumar Vishwas’s poetic response to Kejriwal and AAP:
हम शब्द-वंश के हरकारे,सच कहना अपनी परम्परा
हम उस कबीर की पीढ़ी,जो बाबर-अकबर से नहीं डरा
पूजा का दीप नहीं डरता,इन षड्यंत्री आभाओं से
वाणी का मोल नहीं चुकता,अनुदानित राज्य सभाओं से
जिसके विरुद्ध था युद्ध उसे,हथियार बना कर क्या पाया?
जो शिलालेख बनता उसको,अख़बार बना कर क्या पाया?😳👎 https://t.co/koUnDmuiSi— Dr Kumar Vishvas (@DrKumarVishwas) April 11, 2018
