Natwarlal bites the dust
There was a time when Arvind Kejriwal was looked upon as the solution to all of India’s problems, the miracle man who will end corruption in public life and give the people good lives
Kejriwal, who was a former Income Tax official, came to power as Delhi’s Chief Minister by riding piggy back on the shoulder of Anna Hazare’s movement against corruption.
He joined social worker Anna Hazare‘s movement for integrity in public life in 2012, and became Chief Minister of Delhi in 2013. Since there was massive corruption in public life in India, people were fed up of it, and were looking for a redeemer, who would end this nefarious practice that had spread its tentacles all over the country.
Therefore, they supported the Aam Admi Party (AAP), which Kejriwal and some others had created as an organization standing up for honesty in public life, with great gusto and enthusiasm. A large number of people, including many NRIs, contributed funds to the party.
In the 2015 Delhi assembly elections, this fledgling party, with Kejriwal as its leader, won a resounding victory, claiming 67 of the 70 seats in the Assembly, decimating the two major political parties, Congress and BJP. AAP struck a chord among all sections of the masses with its message of a moral political order based on the sovereignty of the people and devolution of powers to the grassroots. This made Kejriwal start dreaming of becoming India’s Prime Minister.
However, having become Chief Minister of Delhi, he soon realized that the anti-corruption movement had run its course, and he must now take recourse to ‘realpolitik’ i.e. practical politics divorced from any ethics or principles.
He realised that in India politics requires a huge of money, and cannot be done without corruption. So he struck a Faustian bargain, and quickly abandoned his professed principles.
Among the first things he did was to throw out from the party any prospective rivals or competitors, like Shanti Bhushan, Prashant Bhushan, and Yogendra Yadav, who had objected to giving AAP tickets to dubious persons, against whom there were serious charges of corruption.
Kejriwal also removed the upright retired Admiral Ramdas from the post of internal Lokpal, and appointed his henchmen in his place. Thus, he acquired dictatorial power within AAP. He then gave high posts in AAP to ‘chamchas’ i.e. sycophants loyal to him, like Manish Sisodia (elevated to deputy chief minister of Delhi), Satyender Kumar Jain (who was made the health minister), Sanjay Singh (who was made a member of the Rajya Sabha), Gopal Rai, Somnath Bharti, Saurabh Bharadwaj, Atishi, Raghav Chadha, etc.
Most of these people faced serious charges of corruption and were for long in jail. In fact, ever since Kejriwal became the chief minister of Delhi in 2013, scandal after scandal was exposed, and these allegations rocked his government/party, and many prominent figures had to resign (though Kejriwal, like an artful dodger, always claimed having no knowledge of their misdeeds).
Ironically, these corruption allegations were against a party that catapulted to power on the slogan of honesty!
Huge amounts of money were spent by AAP, obviously on the direction of Kejriwal, on advertisements, hoardings, posters, etc praising AAP, and in particular Kerjriwal.
Kejriwal got two Guptas elected for the Rajya Sabha, allegedly for some quid pro quo.
ED (Enforcement Directorate) raids were held at the residences/offices of several prominent AAP functionaries, including Kejriwal, and their secretaries in connection with a massive liquor scam, and this modern Natwarlal was arrested and jailed. Later, he was released on bail, but the criminal case against him is still going on.
After coming to power as Delhi’s Chief Minister Kejriwal revealed his true colours, and became totally dictatorial. He brooked no criticism or dissent against him within his party. As mentioned above, among the first things he did was to oust Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav, co founders of AAP, because they objected to giving MLA tickets to some shady people. Kejriwal insisted in giving tickets to them as they had contributed a lot of money to the AAP funds. He allocated a whopping Rs.536 crores in the 2015 Delhi budget ( 21 times the previous year’s figure ) for his self publicity advertisements in Delhi.
Like Don Quixote, Kejriwal surrounded himself with Sancho Panzas, who never criticized him.
As regards the major problems of poverty, unemployment, price rise, malnutrition, healthcare etc Kejriwal had no clue how to solve them, except by resorting to stunts like ‘mohalla clinics’ ( which soon got embroiled in corruption charges ).
People of Delhi voted for AAP in February, 2015 because they were disgusted with both BJP and Congress and wanted a change, just as Indians voted for Modi in May 2014 because they were disgusted with Congress and wanted a change.
Kejriwal wrote a book called ‘ Swaraj ‘. In that book Kejriwal said that we must transfer power from Delhi to the gram panchayats and mohalla panchayats. This is sentimental nonsense. Everyone with even a little knowledge of social realities knows that most of such panchayats are hotbeds of petty caste politics and centres of corruption. It is general knowledge that officials ( or their kith and kin ) of gram panchayats have illegally grabbed most of the gram sabha land, which was meant for public use of the villagers ( as pointed out by me in my judgment in the Supreme Court in Jagpal Singh vs. State of Punjab, 2011, which may be seen online ), and often do all kinds of other misdeeds for the benefit of themselves or their kith and kin. What will transfer of power to such casteist and corrupt bodies achieve ?
When he came to power in 2015 Kejriwal announced he will live a simple life. But he built a fabulous ‘Sheesh Mahal’ at huge cost of hundreds of crores of rupees for his residence. Even the bathrooms and toilets in it were lavish, costing a huge
There is an adage ” You can fool some people all the time, and all people for some time, but not all the people all the time “.
Kejriwal evidently thought he could fool all the people all the time. But his recent defeat in the 2025 Delhi Assembly elections has shown him the reality.
Natwarlal the man who had once sworn that on his children he would never join politics, has at last bitten the dust
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