Is Kejriwal a wild card in Indian politics?

Since he announced the formation ation of his political party on October 2, Arvind Kejriwal has gone on to set the political agenda, hogging headlines day after day. He has proved all those who dismissed him as a spent force, after his break with Anna Hazare, wrong.Kejriwal has shown an understanding of the popular mood among the urban middle class. The more he ups the ante against politicians, the more people love him. Such is the environment in the country that any charge, right or wrong, against any politician sticks.His first “political” act,  to take on

Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra, made him a hero overnight.  He had had the courage to challenge the top of the political establishment, something even opposition parties had failed to do. The information about Vadra was available in the public domain  for over a year.  But neither the media — though an article came out in The Economic Times, and the information was available online — nor the BJP, the main opposition party, chose to pursue it. There was a serious discussion inside the BJP on whether the party should target Vadra, but it decided against it.There is an unwritten code among parties not to target each others’ family members. Congress leader Digvijay Singh referred to this when he alluded that the Congress could have moved against Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s adopted son-in-law Ranjan Bhattacharya and Advani’s son and daughter. 

Though the BJP was compelled to flay Vadra in the wake of Kejriwal’s attack, fearing that it may otherwise have to cede opposition space to him, Kejriwal is rapidly changing the rules of the game — as also the rules of political discourse.  His strategy is to expose individual politicians rather than look at why the system is throwing up errant politicians in hordes, across parties. There are enough people in the system giving IAC information abut those they would like to see exposed.They see this as a golden opportunity to get even with opponents. His exposes  presuppose the belief that  replacing the present lot of politicians with another set would solve the problem. This way Kejriwal does not  have to   immediately present  a cogent plan of action for tackling corruption, or indicate his solutions to the country’s pressing problems. Neither does he have to, as the leader of a new political party, indicate the sections of society his party would identify with and represent.  For the moment, he is jolting parties and unnerving politicians. He comprehends  the nature of the media better than most  politicians and uses it to his advantage. He was, for instance,  savvy enough to come out with the Vadra revelations not as a film but as a serial, maintaining the suspense about the next  installment.Having gone for Vadra and Salman Khurshid, he took on BJP chief Nitin Gadkari even though most of what he revealed had already been made public. This was essentially a move to portray himself as being even handed after being accused of only targeting the Congress. Even as Kejriwal turns the searchlight on a sick system,  there is a worrying aspect of his style of functioning.

It  may be encouraging the mentality of a lynch mob, which decides that someone is guilty — many  politicians are — and it will not hear of anything else because public opinion it is catering to is so enraged. Even if Salman Khurshid and Nitin Gadkari are guilty, they must be given the right to be heard, to defend themselves, and be given the benefit of doubt till proved guilty. This  is not just about legalities, but about the principles of fair play which make for the rule of law that underpins our democracy, decrepit though it has become.  Of course, Kejriwal is fighting a battle of perceptions and may not worry about  legalities.Disillusioned with the Congress and unenamoured of the BJP, many middle class Indians say they will give him a chance at poll time. But  building a new party is not an easy proposition  in a country as large and diverse as  India. For all his impeccable credentials, Jayaprakash Narayan, shied away from it in 1977, choosing instead to bring all the opposition forces together to take on the Congress for the Emergency it had imposed. VP Singh did likewise in 1989 as he waged a battle against Rajiv Gandhi around the issue of corruption.Kejriwal has managed to give a fillip to an anti-Congress  mood that has been building up in the country. Because he will cut into the opposition space wherever he picks up strength — like in Delhi — the BJP has cause to worry. It appears that besides Delhi, where he has been most visible, he will focus on Haryana, the state to which he belongs and where he is fast becoming a household name. He may also want to make an impact politically by challenging  some heavyweights like Salman Khurshid and Nitin Gadkari in their fiefdoms. Since his efforts will  weaken national parties, it could lead to a more fractured mandate next time that will throw up a weaker government, more vulnerable to powerful pressures from domestic and foreign quarters. Some middle class Indians would vote for him but others would worry about the possibility of a greater instability, and about his lack of familiarity with governance.  Given the present mood against the high level corruption and economic hardship, a weak leadership and policy drift, the Kejriwal phenomenon may go on to create a fertile ground for the entry on the national stage of someone like Narendra Modi, who sports the image of a tough leader and deliverer,  is a workaholic with no charges of corruption, no family and is known for demagoguery.  But then it would also polarise the polity on the other side. Kejriwal is a wild card in Indian politics today, and one can only hope that it will push  our democracy to find the necessary correctives. The writer is a political and social commentator

By Girija Chaudhari