DICTATOR KEJRIWAL HAS HIS WAY

By Vikas Khanna

Finally, the “dictator” Arvind Kejriwal has his way!

A day before a sting carried out on Kejriwal quoted him as saying : “The two (Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav) would have been kicked out had they been in any party)”, the founding members alongwith two others were literally booted out by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from the national executive.

A badly-scripted drama went horribly wrong. There was nothing constitutional about the meeting. Kejriwal came, addressed the meeting for 35 minutes, and then left.  The message was clear. Its my way or the highway.  The other side represented by Bhushan and Yadav was not allowed to speak and both the leaders were booed and their supporters manhandled. Within a few minutes, a hastily moved resolution was passed to expel Bhushan, Yadav, Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha from the national executive. It all went the way Kejriwal wanted. The duo was forced out from the national executive with complete humiliation.

That Kejriwal was in no mood even to listen to the dissenting voices speaks volumes about the arrogant attitude of the person who till a few months ago appeared to be a man next door. Does the former bureaucrat consider himself to be above the party or he thinks that he is the party? There is no doubt that he was the face of the party. Therefore, a larger responsibility lay on him to ensure that he carried along all voices within the party. But the way he has behaved in his second avatar as chief minister of Delhi – be it restricting the media (which, incidentally, made him what he is today) or resorting to complete turnarounds on the lofty promises that he made during his first stint as chief minister. Unfortunately, he is riding the proverbial coattails of an established name and probably fooling people.

While political opponents would savour with absolute relish the rumblings within the AAP, one wished the situation would not have turned ugly and come to such a sorry pass. It reflects the nascent party in a very poor light that it could not keep its house in order within months of coming to power with a brute majority.

As charges fly thick and fast, it is difficult to point out who is speaking truth and who is lying? But one thing is certain that there is trust deficit between the two factions which seem to have widened in the last couple of months.  But what is surprising  what could be the trigger which created so much of animosity between Kejriwal and Bhushan-Yadav duo?

The charges leveled by Kejriwal and his cronies that the duo rebels conspired for the defeat of the party appear to be shallow. The contribution of Bhushan and Yadav was equally important as that of Kejriwal and others in building the party from nowhere.

On the contrary, the issues raised by Bhushan and Yadav seem to hold water as they talk of transparency, accountability and internal Lokpal among others. But whether they used the issues as a ruse to some kind of bargaining as alleged by Kejriwal camp is something hard to digest.  

The first casualty of the latest drama is veteran social activist Medha Patkar who decided to quit the party in protest against the way the two founding leaders were publicly humiliated. More than a dozen activists have already left the party alleging high-handedness of Kejriwal in running the affairs of the party. And if the party continues to be run the way Kejriwal wants, then similar like-minded people will have no option but to bid goodbye to the party which they built with toil and tears.