The rift between Kejriwal, Anna Hazare widens.
By Rajiv Theodore
NEW DELHI: After years of corruption that had wracked India, and transformed the country into a coffer where politicians of many shapes and sizes have dipped their podgy hands to loot, there was it seemed a light at the end of the tunnel, a glimmer of hope to deliver exasperated Indians out of the morass.
The salvation came from none other than a political entity called the ordinary people’s party or the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led by former bureaucrat and social activist Arvind Kejriwal, a platform that rose from planks of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption crusade.
Kejriwal, a close aide of Hazare, decided to plunge into politics himself after campaigning against misdoing in the ruling parties. It is common news that India is on election mode and the ‘’semi-finals’’ as the press here terms the just held assembly elections, has been dominated by rookies AAP in Delhi besides the powerful show by the main opposition BJP in other states. But the elections mark the rise of AAP and obviously Kejriwal who emerged as a giant killer after he took on seasoned wily politicians to post spectacular wins.
Now what is seen is a grand Machiavellian design beginning to unfold, an attempt to dislodge Kejriwal, as he has now emerged as the dark horse, a tangible threat after grabbing a vantage point after his spectacular performance in the assembly elections in Delhi. Many of his arch rivals, are apprehensive of AAP and their blitzkrieg style of campaigning and winning. They fear Kejriwal’s ability to disturb the calculations of seasoned power mongers coming May when the ‘’Finals’’ or the general elections would be played out to decide the ruler of India.
The early signs of setting up such tripping mechanisms on the path of the Young Turk come from none other than his mentor Anna Hazare, who suddenly felt cold and dry after Kejriwal phenomenal rise to rock star status.
It is evident from Hazare’s recent action after he gave his nod, a bit too hastily, to a long-pending anti-corruption Lok Pal Bill to facilitate its passage in the Parliament. Kejriwal had rejected the present status of the bill which he alleges has been watered down.
At a press conference here in Delhi on Sunday Kejriwal slammed the government on the Bill, “the Lokpal Bill in its current form won’t send a mouse to jail, forget a politician,” he said.
Hazare had been trying to scuttle AAP leadership on several fronts, be it financial bungling in the sale of SIM cards in 2012 or the allegations that the party has been misusing funds for poll campaign.
The credit goes to Kejriwal and Co. that he has neither reacted to Hazare’s pot shots or has made any adverse statement to the elderly activist who is currently on hunger strike which has entered the eighth day, to press for the passage of the Bill. Even the prominent members of the Anna camp, Kiran Bedi and General V K Singh had expressed their reservations about Kejriwal. Political analysts here have drawn parallels with their leanings towards the far-right wing BJP party and their angst against the AAP leader.
It seems that there are concerted efforts, if not coming from expected quarters, to trip the rise of AAP and thus the aspirations of millions of Indians who are fed up with corruption and gross-mismanagement by political parties entrenched in the country for decades.
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