Arvind Kejriwal believes that the unpredictability and brazenness of his style will appeal to people, who are tired of the corrupt ways of all political parties.
Naming and shaming politicians is how Arvind Kejriwal hopes to make an impact as the newest entrant in Indian politics with a political party that will be given its name on November 26. The anti-corruption crusader-turned-politician began by questioning the legitimacy of the real estate deals involving Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, and claiming to have documents that bring out his nexus with a business group.
In a span of three years from 2007, Kejriwal claimed, Vadras fortune grew from Rs.50 lakh to Rs.300 crore. Congress governments in Haryana and Rajasthan, he said, helped facilitate Vadras real estate and land deals, which were valued in crores of rupees. These were allegations that had been reported in the media several months earlier and forgotten. They created a buzz for a few days when political exchanges filled television news channels with the viewers being none the wiser at the end of it all. Of course, Vadra shut his Facebook account in a hurry after he made what was widely seen as a distasteful comment, mango people in a banana republic.
The heat and dust of this expos had hardly settled when Kejriwal turned his focus on Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid and his wife Louise Khurshid, alleging that the Dr Zakir Hussain Trust, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) they run, had misappropriated public funds, running into several lakhs of rupees, meant for helping disabled persons. This allegation was the subject of a sting operation by a media house.
The Khurshids held a press conference to explain their position but it ended up in an ugly exchange of words between them and a section of the media. The allegations against the trust included forgery of signatures and fake names in the lists of beneficiaries. Kejriwal claimed that the Khurshids had not answered the five questions put to them by India Against Corruption (IAC), the organisation he runs. But even as the tempo of the charges was building up, Kejriwal suddenly announced that he was ending the agitation in Delhi and moving it to Farrukhabad, Salman Khurshids Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh, starting November 1.
With two of his exposes still hanging fire, he went on to a third one a couple of days later. This time his target was BJP president Nitin Gadkari, who, he alleged, got farmers land at throwaway prices for his business ventures in what has come to be called the irrigation scam. However, the charges, made by Anjali Damania of the IAC, were seen to be soft when compared with the other two. Besides, the allegation-a-day kind of activism did not go down well with even serious civil society members in the fight against corruption.
Several questions were raised against Kejriwals strategy. If Kejriwal was serious about fighting corruption and if he indeed had proof of corruption in all these cases, why did he not approach the courts? Is he only doing it to sensationalise corruption?
Why should we approach the court all the time? It is for the governments to take action. We are only trying to make people aware that there is corruption cutting across party lines. It is a cosy nexus at the top in all parties. We are trying to raise peoples awareness about this cosy nexus so that this corrupt system can be changed, Kejriwal told Frontline.
Said Prashant Bhushan, a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court and a crusader against corruption: Paise se satta, phir satta se paisa, kab tak chalega? (power through money, then earning money using this power , how long will this continue?). It is this adulterous relationship between money, power and politics, in which the common man has been totally marginalised, that we are trying to break, said Kejriwal. And for doing this we have to prove that all parties are together in this, we have to expose all, he added.
Aiming to changeBut can the fight against corruption alone ensure electoral success? Can a political party based only on the anti-corruption plank succeed?
Corruption is the most secular concept of all. It hits across caste, class or religion, so it should appeal to people irrespective of barriers, Kejriwal said. And this, he added, was why he believed his campaign against corruption could actually be translated into a successful political venture. That, if achieved, would be a first in Indian electoral politics. Going the political way is not an end for us; it is the means to an end. Fighting elections is not the end of our movement against corruption, but is part of our movement itself, whose objective is to change the system.
The political analyst Yogendra Yadav agreed. If they can articulate the issues properly and maintain their focus, they can succeed because there is a massive scope outside the mainstream political domain even now, said Yadav. According to him, the time has come when real issues like corruption have become topics of political discourse, and in this discourse money, for once, will not be able to play a role. For the younger generation today, which finds itself totally sidelined in a corruption-riddled system, this is the defining moment when swaraj can actually become a reality.
Gopal Rai, a close associate of Kejriwal, said all the money and muscle power of established political parties had ensured only 50-55 per cent voting. The rest, who never vote, are waiting for an alternative and this is the segment we are targeting. We are promising them the alternative politics, which will be politics for change, he said.
If the reaction of political parties to Kejriwal is any indication, there is some unease among them. The Congress trashed his charges against Vadra, saying that as a private individual Vadras business transactions were nobodys business, but a battery of Union Ministers and party functionaries was quick to defend him. Similar was the case with Gadkari, with senior BJP leaders, including the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, defending him.
Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh gave an indication of the unease in political circles when he said Kejriwal had broken the understanding among political parties of not targeting family members of politicians. In effect, he gave credence to Kejriwals charge of a cosy nexus at the top in all political parties.
The unease has brought forth counter-charges against members of Kejriwals team. Prashant Bhushan was accused of purchasing land at cheap rates in Himachal Pradesh, ostensibly for some educational institution, and Anjali Damania was accused of shady land deals in Maharashtra. Another associate, Mayank Gandhi of Mumbai, was accused of being in cahoots with builders and using his clout to get land cheap. All of them are now being investigated by the partys internal Lokpal, headed by the retired Delhi High Court Judge A.P. Shah.
Probity and transparency is what we are demanding from other parties and we are setting an example by putting our colleagues under investigation. Why dont the Congress and the BJP do the same? Why dont they at least declare that they will get the charges looked into by an impartial agency? Kejriwal asked.
The war withinKejriwals biggest challenge, perhaps, is responding to criticism from civil society itself. His close associate Y.P. Singh, a former Indian Police Service officer who was until recently with the IAC, accused him of shielding Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Sharad Pawar. He said the charges against Pawar in connection with the Lavasa township near Pune were far more serious but Kejriwal did not raise them. Kejriwal responded by saying that the charges against Pawar had been mentioned in his charge sheet against 15 Union Ministers in May and that he had sat on a nine-day fast in July demanding action against them. These are issues anyone launching a big movement has to face. One has to take these things in ones stride. He said vipassana, his daily morning walks and yoga kept him cool and grounded.
The vision of his party will be declared on November 26 but swaraj, as the draft document shows, is its leitmotif. His partys elected candidates will shun all VIP trappings such as red beacons, government bungalows and government cars and will have only as much security as is available for any common man. His party structure will not be the high command type, but one where even candidates will be decided by the local party workers. And if his candidates get elected, all decisions concerning the people, barring a few, will be taken collectively by the people themselves.
There are models for such governance and we will show that it is possible, he said. Besides, of course, Jan Lokpal, the right to reject and the right to recall, will form an integral part of his agenda. We will have a time frame for implementing our programmes. We will also have a mechanism that will keep us in touch with people who are not part of our organisation, otherwise we will be doomed, he said.
He admitted that building the organisation was a daunting task. We have enormous support even in the remotest areas, but we will have to reach out to people and that is a challenge, he said. As for the partys core ideology, he said the fundamental principles such as reservation and protection of minorities would remain non-negotiable. All the rest would be discussed, debated and then finalised.
Various committees are already at work, he said. Though their immediate slogan is Dilli chalo, it is going to be a long journey ahead.
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