The decimation of the “Khaas Admi” in the
guise of an Aam Aadmi
By
S Prabhakar
Disclaimer: I can describe myself as being apolitical or maybe least interested in politicians or politics compared to cricket, movies, and other general topics. I never support or root for any politicians/political party but appreciate certain honest politicians who worked sincerely for their State/Nation and also critical of few rank corrupt and dishonest politicians. I am so disappointed with the way Arvind Kejriwal (AK for short) projected himself and then deceived many that I felt like attempting an article on him, my first one on politics.
This Article may not be palatable for
AK/AAP supporters.
The “Khas Aadmi” in the
guise of an “Aam Aadmi”, AK, has been decimated and a large section of people,
including his mentor Anna, once close confidants Kumar Viswas, Swati Maliwal, Ashitosh and many real `Aam Aadmi’ like me either felt Happy or relieved.
The long wait of 27 years is
over for BJP which has won Delhi elections comfortably, though cannot be termed
as a complete sweep or landslide. AK, the eternal liar, who has disappointed
many for over a decade with his misleading postures and statements of being a
politician with difference and honesty and man on a mission to bring a
change and practice clean politics has been done and dusted for the
time being. If losing all the important
Delhi state is bad, losing his own seat has come as a huge body blow. AK himself said that these elections are
like a referendum for him and if that be so he got the message of what
the Delhiites think about him and he will take a longer time to come
out this shock treatment.
The modest beginning:
AK had a very modest
beginning coming from a non-political family and background. He is an IITian and was a Revenue Officer. When
Anna Hazare started a movement against corruption, he joined as a foot
solder sitting in the second row behind stalwarts like Anna, Baba Ramdev,
Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Ashitosh and Kumar Vishwas. Among these popular personalities, AK was a
less known figure. But he rose on the ladder to the top swiftly and made his
presence felt by the time Aam Admi party was formed. To win the hearts of poor and middle
class he has projected a `phatichar’
image in the name of being an Aam Admi, wearing lose pant shirt, wearing
chappal, keeping a Rs. 10 Ronaldo pen, covering his head with a muffler
and badly cuffing all the time (which miraculously disappeared in a year after
his becoming CM of Delhi), travelling by a low-end Maruti car.
That was a right and ripe
time of over a decade of the most unprecedented corrupt practices unleashed by
Congress Government a scam in every field, whether it was, Coal, 2G
Telecom, CWG, Adarsh Housing or Defense deals scam. It made life easy for AK to launch a tirade
against the corrupt practices of Congress.
Sitting on dharna behind Anna and other stars, demanding an investigation
by Investigative Agencies and arresting the guilty political opponents has
become his daily routine. A Government
with a difference, a Government of, for and by Aam Aadmi and a corrupt free
Government were his `Takiya kalams’. As Indian politics has seen very few highly
educated politicians, his IIT and Revenue service background and the fact that
someone left a lucrative Government job has impressed many and made them make the
mistake of being easily fooled around by this shrewd character called AK.
The real Aam Aadmi, who were
badly looking for a change and alternative to the corrupt congress and Hiduvta agenda-driven
BJP, thought Aam Aadmi party to be the best
alternative going more by the Brand name of Anna and other Stars than AK. On the appeal of Anna, many Aam Aadmi/common
men from different walks of life have either joined Aam Admi party or given
generous donations to put it on a very financially strong footing compared to
any political party at its infancy stage.
With a very strong anti-congress and anti-incumbency wave and BJP not
having that stronghold in Delhi compared to other States and Centre Aam
Aadmi party had a dream debut in elections by winning Delhi handsomely.
With all other star
campaigners being busy in their respective professions, AK, who left a
Government job by that time, could impress and convince Anna to push his name
as Chief Ministerial candidate and after winning the election became CM of
Delhi in the shortest political career.
Many Aam Admi in the country felt it to be their win and genuinely
believed that AK would prove to be different from other politicians and would
run his party and Government with honesty and integrity and in the most
upright manner.
A lifetime opportunity
squandered :
After being elected as CM, piggy
backing Anna movement against corruption, AK had a lifetime opportunity to
write a new chapter in the history of Indian politics to be the most
honest chief minister/politician India has ever seen and find a place
aside greats like Lal Bahadur Shastri, Morarji Desai, JP and Vajpayee. Delhi being the smallest city state it would
have been easy to run it successfully and transform it into a clean and
beautiful city worth being the capital city of the Nation. Had he done it, he would have got so much
praise and publicity and would have won few terms without the requirement
of money power and without practising muddy politics.
Not sure whether AK has ever
seen the Tamil film `Amaidhipadai’ which was remade into` M
Dharmaraju MA’ in Telugu and as `Jallad’ in Hindi
(starring Mithun Chakraborty). In that
movie, a party worker, who is a mimicry artist entertaining the public who come
for election rallies was put as a candidate by a seasoned politician to prove a
point that any donkey put up by him as a candidate in elections can win. He is proven right and the mimicry artist
wins the elections and from the moment he wins the elections, he changes and
shows his true colours, first making his mentor his assistant standing by his
side with folded hands, and transforming himself into ruthless corrupt and
dirty politicians, killing anyone or any number of people to hold on the power
at any cost. He goes to the extent of
asking his right-hand henchman to kill his wife whom the henchman treats like
his mother. When the henchman asks
`malik’ you love your wife and my mother so much how can you order for her killing? He says no doubt I love her so much having
served me for such a long time, but I love my seat and power more than anyone
else including my wife who is threatening to expose me. If you have not watched the movie in any of
these languages please do catch up and you will get a feeling as if the movie
was a biographical account of AK though it was released long before AK was born
as a politician.
What we saw in the next 5 to 10 years shocked not only all lambs like Aam Aadmi but his die-hard fans and followers. Within no time after being sworn in as CM of Delhi, the very first move he made was to throw away the pillars and backbone of Aam Aadmi Party from the Anna movement, viz., Prashant Bhushan, Yogendera Yadav and Kumar Viswas on charges of `hold your breath’ that they are working against the interests of the Party. Before the elections, he has not made a move without consulting this trio and after becoming CM it took not more than a week to realise that they were working against the interests of the Party. AK has followed religiously one of the 7 principles propounded in the contravecial Hindi movie `Kissa Kursi Ka' , that while climbing the Political ladder you should lick the feet of the person ahead of you, and kick the person who is below you in the ladder. Then he completely dumped and ignored his mentor `Anna’ probably sniffing that Anna will never approve what he was to unleash. I never heard AK take the name of Anna in any of his speeches or acknowledge him as his mentor, never seen him meeting him ever on any occasion including his Birthdays. Good Bad or worse, in this aspect I find Nehru and Mayawati to be far better than AK. They showed so much respect for their mentor Gandhi and Kanshi Ram respectively. Simultaneously he sidelined other stars like Kiran Bedi and Ramdev. All these people are so fed up that they never came back to the fold of Aam Aadmi party and it has been a complete take over by AK. That was an indication for any intelligent man things that were to unfold. Quickly he made his coterie with close confidants who toed his line of thinking, like Manish Sisodia, Satyendra Jain, Sanjay Singh, Amanatullah Khan and Somnath Bharati (all of them were arrested subsequently on one case or the other). Within no time he proved himself to be no different from any other politician and seemed to be in a hurry to join the bandwagon as one the most corrupt politicians who ran the party and the Government in the most autocratic way.
AK, proved to be worser than other politicians to the extent that other politicians never pretended to be `sharafat ka putle'. in one of the scenes from Ram Teri Ganga Maili, Ganga tells an old man who pretends to be blind and asks her to help him reach his house and brings her and hands her in a kotha/prostitute den, "Baba in future never mislead any lady in distress the way you did with me, otherwise, people will lose faith on blind and stop helping them". One should tell AK the same, if you want to be dishonest, or corrupt like any other politician you be so, do not give false hope that there is a politician with a different, honest and clean, It hurts and pains more when they realise the reality as they did in your case.
Liar Liar Liar
The USP of AK is that he
lies all day long with a straight face without ever bothering about the `tamasha’
he is making himself in these days of rampant use of social media by all including
politicians. Some of the famous and much-circulated
lies of AK:
1. 1 Lie – I will
not take a big bungalow as CM residence like Shiela Dixit.
Truth –
First he took two bungalows of five bed rooms each and as if it is not enough
gone on to build a Sheesh Mahal worth over Rs. 75 crores as CM residence and landed in a
big soup.
2. 2 Lie – I will not use big car as CM and do away with lal batti and VIP culture
Truth – went for a costly SUV with lal batti and big contingent of security and party men following his cavalcade. Travelling in Metro for swearing-in ceremony was only for optics.
3. 3 Lie – I will swear by my children that I will never support Congress nor take support from them. (even the worst of the creeps will not swear by children)
Truth – He is part of INDI Alliance with Congress and had alliances with Congress
4 4 Lie – Cleaning of Yamuna River. Just before elections in 2015 and 2020, he promised to get Yamuna cleaned if he was elected to such an extent that we can have a picnic there with our children.
Truth – for 10 long years not even a single day of work has taken place in cleaning the Yamuna River and shamelessly he repeated the same promise in 2025, and the electorate paid him back befittingly
5. 5 Lie – Promised corrupt free Government
Truth – Turned out to be the biggest lie and a joke in his entire political career. Apart from other things, in the Liquor scam, prima facie, he was found guilty and was arrested.
6 6. Lie – While asking for an investigation against Shiela Dixit, and Sonia Gandhi and demanding that they should be arrested for corruption, he said if there is any allegation against him or any of his colleagues he will be happy to face investigation and anyone found to be corrupt should be sent to jail
Truth – His wish was granted when CBI, ED and other investigation agencies filed cases against him and his legislative colleagues and 18 of them were put behind bars for various charges after courts found prima facia cases against them, he cried horse of vindictive politics by BJP and misuse of ED/CBI
7 7. Lie – When Arun Jaitley took the lose-tongued AK to court in a defamation case, AK hired India top criminal lawyer Ram Jatmalani for a Bomb as fee (Rs. Four crores only) and paid the fee from Government funds. When questioned he blatantly lied that Jatmalani is doing it pro-bono
Truth – the next moment this news came in the papers Ram Jatmalani released a copy of his bill for a professional fee of Rs. 4 crores and confirmed that every single penny has to be paid.
8 8. Lie - AK
said he will never give the ticket to corrupt and criminals
Truth:
there were many instances where his candidates were criminals and corrupt both.
In total 44 AAP candidates so far have criminal cases against them.
9. Lie - AK published a book named "Swaraj" claiming that he is the original Author of the book.
Truth - The book was originally written by Ajay
Pal Nagar and he sent this copy to Kejriwal, AK rewrote this book with
his name and published it without giving any credit to original Author.
10 Lie –
Denied taking 4 lakhs USD from Ford Foundation, which is involved
in funding many NGOs for anti-India work.
Truth –
He first accepted that he had received the funding in an
interview with Business Standard and then denied it again.
The list goes on unending……
The swollen cash chests of
AK’s Aam Aadmi Party:
To begin with, the Aam Aadmi
Party heavily relied on donations from the common men when Anna was at
the helm of the affairs. The
Anna movement has caught the imagination of the people in such a way that
genuinely the common men have given generous donations. Our AK also known as Mr. Natwarlal was
reported to have done some bungling there also and pocketed a few crores out of
those donations also.
Once the party has come
firmly under the grips of AK, the thousands have become lakhs and lakhs have become
crores. To be fair to AK, there
is no denying the fact that no political party can survive without funds and
donations (genuine or otherwise) and they are the the biggest source of
funding. No politician or political
party can contest in any election without having huge funds at their
disposal. The amounts prescribed
by the Election Commission are peanuts and that amount is blown away in a few
hours by any Politician/Political party in any election. AK has come to power piggybacking on the
popularity of the Anna movement and the equation at that time was
different. Once came to power, tasted
the power and after getting transformed into a seasoned politician, he
had no option but to get down to doing all those things which a typical
politician does, including raising huge funds for Self/Party. Its
anybody's imagination that huge funds running into crores are not donated
by anyone without quid pro quo.
Rahul Gandhi and AK and his followers never get tired of highlighting
the support Adani and Ambani give to Modi and vice versa. Every political party has its own
Ambani/Adani and falls back on some industrial houses/businessmen for funds.
One can take such receiving of donations as a normal thing if AK restricted the fundraising from Industrialists/businessmen of Delhi/Punjab but his taking funds/donations from Ford Foundation and alleged to have taken funds from Canadian Kalistani separatists raises serious national security concerns and definitely make him ‘different’ from others and dislodges him from the `fake high pedestal’ on which he tries to keep himself of being the Honest and upright Politician.
After conquering Delhi and Punjab, AK, understandably became ambitious and set his eyes on National politics thinking he and his party were better alternatives than Congress to take on Modi’s might. It appears that he has not learnt lessons from Chandrababu Naidu and KCR who were uncrowned kings in their respective states but when their ambitions swelled to play an active part in national politics (KCR has changed his party name from TSR to BSR also) they lost elections of their respective states and the same thing happened with AK also. But to fuel his political ambition at a national level he has upped the ante and planned and executed the biggest Excise/liquor scam giving as many as 800 hundred licenses bringing a loss of revenue to the Government to the extent of over Rs. 2000 crores as per CAG report. Whether he could deliver clean drinking water to every household in Delhi or not, he succeeded in making liquor reach within 100 meters of every household of Delhi including making liquor easily available near schools. That proved to be the `waterloo’ for him and landed him in Tihar jail thus earning him the dubious distinction of becoming the first serving Chief Minister to be jailed.
Non-functioning from Jail
The CM, with a difference,
has his distinctive mark after being arrested also. Even the more seasoned politicians and CMs
like Soren, Lalu and Jayalalitha have resigned when facing arrest, but our “doodh
ka dhula Kattar imandaar” AK has refused to resign and put some one in his
place and said that he will operate as CM from Tihar Jail. He was blissfully unmindful of the fact that
he would not be allowed to hold meetings with his colleagues in Tihar, movement
of documents and the process of signing documents when in Tihar Jail is highly
restricted but still chose not to leave the Kursi even for a short
while. Understandably a non-trustworthy person
cannot trust any other person.
Ultimately after spending more than five months in Jail, when SC granted
bail they put conditions that he can not enter CM office, cannot pursue
any official files or sign any document as CM.
So from holding on to the post of CM, his bail conditions were worse than staying in Jail. So he had no
option but to put the weakest Aatishi as CM and never missed an
opportunity to remind all that she was a temporary CM.
So that is the Kissa Kursika
of a person who claimed that he does not have any `lalach to become CM’
What future holds for AK?
I must say not bright
The ardent die-hard Aap and
AK followers try to put up a brave front by saying that though AK/AAP has lost
the elections, the percentage of votes different is less than 3 percent
compared to previous elections. But what
is more important is the difference between the seats lost is 46 (68-22)
But what AK/Aap should not
forget is that in the last Telangana assembly elections, the percentage of
votes difference between Congress and BRS was only 1 ½ percent
but lost the elections and Government and within one year the party and party
supremo KCR, who is credited with bringing Telangana was decimated and
the existence of the party itself is in doubt.
Whatever purpose they had in
mind, as last Slavo, few AAP MPs came out in public and made tall claims
that they were offered Rs. 15 cr to 20 cr to switch over before the declaration
of elections. By that time every exit
poll has given a clear majority to the BJP.
Going by their claims, AK/Aap should be conscious enough that if some
Rs. 300 cr are put on the block, the party can be finished. After the disastrous results, I am sure the
Aap MLA may jump the wall for a much lower price tag.
As far as AK is concerned,
he has already declared that ED/CBI and other investigative agencies are caged
parrots and whatnot and he was put behind bars when he was in power and was CM
of Delhi. Now that neither he is CM nor
even MLA, he can imagine how vulnerable he is and the cases registered against
him are quite strong with every court including the Supreme Court prima facia finding
some evidence of his wrongdoings because of which he was put behind bars first
and stringent conditions were put by SC while granting bail also.
The toughest days are
ahead of AK, coming out clean out of these serious corruption cases is not
going to be an easy task before he can think of resurrecting his political
career and his Party.
The fewer lies he
tells the better for him
S. Prabhakar
9th
February, 2025
