Is Arvind Kejriwal right in his strategy

    

Arvind Kejriwal, a social activist turned politician and the founding member of the “Aam Aadmi Party”, has been hailed as the most popular public figure of 2013 by many and rightly so, for his stand against corruption and the high-handed, clumsy political system of the country. The man behind the implementation of the Right to Information Act, 2005 has become a household figure in Delhi in a short time owing to his common people like mannerisms and is regarded as the crusader for the fight against corruption.

With the new rays of hope for change, which Mr. Kejriwal had exhibited and instilled in the common people before the Delhi state elections, gave the much required confidence and belief to us to fight against the malfunctioned political and bureaucratic systems. Issues like corruption, misgovernance, high handed political system, inflation, safety of women disgruntled the common people and hence they became the core issues for the elections to be fought upon. Mr. Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party successfully fought the elections on these key issues, and the unprecedented success of the Aam Aadmi Party, a first timer, in the recently concluded elections bears absolute testimony to it.


But as they say, every story has two sides. Since the appointment of Mr. Kejriwal as the chief minister of Delhi, many issues have turned up which have questioned the credibility of the Aam Aadmi Party. Populist promises made before the elections of reducing the electricity prices by half and providing free water haven’t been fulfilled. This has raised many eyebrows in the various corners of the city regarding the trustworthiness of AAP. Further, demeaning and denigrating the republic day celebrations and violating section 144 show disrespect for the Indian constitution. Instead of taking every issue to the streets. Mr. Kejriwal must opt for deliberations to reach more productive solutions amicably. Negotiations and deliberations are the tools of problem solving and relation building which must be used effectively by the AAP whether over the issue of the control over Delhi police or any issue for that matter. Similarly, foul language doesn’t have any room in the politics. The language used by the law minister of Delhi, Mr. Somnath Bharti, was deplorable. Respect for competitors must always be there and the use of the foul language violates the sanctity of it. Also, Mr. Kejriwal needs to know that excessive populism will not take him far. Populism might give short term political mileage and benefits to him but it adversely effects the health of the economy as it puts a lot of financial burden on the government. Instead of promising half reduction in the electricity prices, Mr. Kejriwal could have given impetus and encouragement to the private players to engage in the power production, thus increasing the output. This would have automatically reduced the electricity prices. The purpose in both the cases is same but the path chosen is different.



We all hope that Mr. Kejriwal and his party learn from these experiences and try to imbibe a sense of respect towards the constitution. People have voted them into power by bestowing a lot of confidence upon them. They must try to uphold that. We all hope that change which Mr. Kejriwal had shown to us before the elections materializes.