Arvind Kejriwal: A Political Greenhorn or A Game-changer

“The time is always right to do right” - Nelson Mandela
“I Arvind Kejriwal do swear in the name of God......... affection or ill-will.”
This was an epochal moment in the political history of India when Arvind Kejriwal- an aam aadmi took the oath as the 7th Chief Minister of Delhi. It was more significant as a debutante political party had entered the Indian Election scenario so vehemently that it thrashed the stalwarts to lick the dust. Sheila Dikshit who ruled Delhi as Chief Minister for 15 years faced the most humiliating defeat at the hands of non-political entity Arvind Kejriwal by 25,864 votes. How did it happen and more importantly why did it happen? Actually, the seed of this discontent was sown long ago.
The citizens of India had seen an unprecedented uprising when Anna Hazare along with Arvind Kejriwal, started his fast at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar in August 2011 for the Anti-corruption Janlokpal Bill. The fast ended with a promise from the Government to pass the Janlokpal bill but the bill did not see the light of the day even till the end of 2012. Tired of Govt.’s apathy, falsehood, corruption and criminalisation of the politics, it was then that Arvind Kejriwal took the most logical step in view by establishing his own political party-The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in November 2012 with the view of providing an alternative political system, a clean and honest government and transparent policies which would essentially be formed by people’s active participation. The government and political big wheels made the mistake of underestimating the power of common man. The story of this ‘common yet extraordinary man’ had begun way back in 1968.
Arvind Kejriwal was born in Siwani-a small town of Haryana on 16th August 1968 to Gobind Ram Kejriwal and Gita Devi. His father was an electrical engineer. Kejriwal had his school education mostly in Hisar, Sonepat and Ghaziabad. Thereafter, he joined IIT, Kharagpur to study mechanical engineering. From 1989 to 1992 he worked for Tata Steel, Jamshedpur. He prepared for the Civil Services Examination and joined IRS as Assistant Income Tax Commissioner in 1995. During the training years; he met Sunita; his fellow trainee and they were married in 1994 before they started working in Delhi. They have daughter Harshita aged 17 and son Pulkit aged 12.
It was during IRS service that Arvind Kejriwal formed his NGO ‘Parivartan’. This was the beginning of a spark that was to become a guiding torch for millions waiting for ‘Swaraj’ in India. Kejriwal took Rs. 50,000/- donation each from his brother and maternal uncle to start ‘Parivartan’. This gave him a chance to serve the people of Delhi who were suffering endlessly at food ration, electricity and income tax departments. He helped about 800 people although he tried to reach many more but could not due to the lack of financial or other resources.
Kejriwal was among the first few to understand the value and impact of RTI. He brought RTI to the slums of Delhi and is well known for his efforts to implement it at the grass root level when he exposed fake ration card scam. It was due to his tireless efforts to uphold Right To Information that he was honoured with Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership in 2006. True to his character, Kejriwal donated the entire award money to form ‘Public Cause Research Foundation’ and to pay the salaries to the people working for ‘Parivartan.’ In 2006, he quit his job at IRS and became a full time campaigner against corruption.
Kejriwal felt the need of a more stringent law that could punish the corrupt offenders as RTI could only bark but not bite. RTI could provide the required information about the fraudulent acts but had no authority to punish the wrongdoers. From here started the ‘India Against Corruption’ (IAC) movement which demanded a potent Janlokpal to fight against corruption.
IAC did to nation what multiple acts or leaders could not do for years. Kejriwal was the Civil Society representative appointed by the government to frame Janlokpal and his main motive was to get it passed in the Parliament in its original form constituting all tooth and nail. He brought Anna Hazare to the centre-stage who with his Gandhian aura and unique fasting tool united the masses across age, culture, religion and region barriers to put pressure on the UPA Government to pass Janlokpal Bill. Recent generations had hardly ever seen such strength and will power of like-minded people who were relentlessly fighting for a good cause. Anna Hazare was arrested and also Arvind Kejriwal for supporting him. After 13 days, the IAC movement came to an end when the UPA Govt. promised to pass the bill in its next parliamentary session. The promise, however, was soon forgotten leaving the masses feeling cheated.
Down but definitely not out, bamboozled but determined to get his way through the corridors of political power Arvind Kejriwal did the least expected by announcing his decision to join mainstream politics of India on 2nd October 2012. He was criticized from all quarters of political parties but now Kejriwal had decided to pay them in their own coin. He slowly but surely started making a niche for himself by protesting peacefully against Delhi Govt.’s anti-people policies. He was gradually building up citizens’ activism and was successful in capturing their attention to raise a wave of anti-incumbancy. The party was rightly named AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) and by choosing broom (Jhadu) as its election symbol, it made its intention clear that it wished to sweep all corrupt practices.
Arvind Kejriwal started his own kind of campaigning by connecting with the people. AAP had a simple approach of reaching out -to make themselves accessible to people and media. They built no unsurpassable walls around them. By maintaining common man’s mannerism, AAP aspirants became one with the plenty around them. They were no different from them. They did not have fancy cars, body guards or personal assistants. They moved by their old cars, auto-rickshaws or metro and that’s how they had every chance to build a network of supporters with 1.6 crore voters of Delhi out of whom 4 lakh were going to cast their vote for the first time. They believed in face to face interactions with the people.They could practically be seen or heard or touched like the humans in flesh & bone. This was a stage of transformation for the people of Delhi who were used to see their leaders once a five years and that too lecturing from high podiums-seen; yet unapproachable, heard; yet not having an ear to their problems and real; yet dream-like!
AAP appealed to the restless and disillusioned youth who were craving to change the face of India. These young people became their back-bone. The party carefully fielded its candidates with average age of 40. Most of these candidates were well educated and had established careers. Appreciably, none of them has any criminal records. AAP gave creditable representations to women, dalits and youth. These common faces had no previous experience, political legacy or the wealth to fight election but they had one thing in common-strong will power to be a part of the revolution in the political history of India.
On 4th December, Delhi Legislative Assembly election was held and the result was announced on 8th December 2013. Of the total 70 seats, the BJP & alliances won maximum 32 seats, closely followed by first-timer AAP with 28 seats crushing Congress to the most appalling crunch of 8 seats. No one had expected this phenomenal windfall for AAP. BJP refused to form the Government and Congress was in no position to do so. After consulting the people of Delhi in about 280 public meetings, AAP decided to form the minority Government with the outside support of Congress in the hung assembly. On 28th December, 45 year old, Kejriwal became the second-youngest C.M. of Delhi after Chaudhary Brahm Prakash who became C.M. at the age of 34.
This is Part 1 of a series of 2 articles, the second half will be published in the second issue.