Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal continues to ride a groundswell of support 11 months after his election. The people who voted him to power, however, are yet to see if he will succeed in cleansing and re-invigorating a system of governance rotted by corruption, inefficiency and callousness. Where Mr Kejriwal has succeeded so far is in portraying himself as a target of all vested interests. He has cast himself as a champion of the downtrodden who is being thwarted at every instance for daring to challenge the powers that be.
This is all very good and while the public has complete sympathy for the feisty underdog who is ready to take on the system, it has no sympathy for losers. Curiously, it is the chief minister himself who has turned the Delhi’s political space into a gladiatorial arena. Mr Kejriwal has declared war on all his opponents. The trouble is he is battling on too many fronts. His first and most important antagonist is the Bharatiya Janata Party. With the Congress discredited and demolished in Delhi politics, Mr Kejriwal considers the BJP to be his main rival and has decided to treat it as an implacable enemy.
Mr Kejriwal has targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally and, of late, has charged his right-hand man and finance minister Arun Jaitley of corruption during his 14-year stint as president of the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA). This salvo appears to be a reaction to a Central Bureau of Investigation raid on a top bureaucrat in Mr Kejriwal’s administration. This can only further strain relations between the BJP-ruled Central government and the Delhi government now that Mr Jaitley has filed a criminal defamation suit against Mr Kejriwal and five other Aam Aadmi Party leaders for levelling corruption charges against him.
Losing friends and making enemies appears to be a skill Mr Kejriwal has perfected. Early days of his tenure as chief minister were marked by a disgraceful fall-out with old colleagues, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, who were expelled from the party for dissenting with him. This was a sad parting, especially since the two men had stood steadfastly with Mr Kejriwal during his months of long struggle against the government.
Mr Kejriwal appears to have learnt little. After falling out with a somewhat rude and presumptuous police chief, Mr Kejriwal now has alienated the bureaucracy on whom he must depend to effectively govern Delhi. When senior bureaucrats decided to skip work last month to protest the suspension of two of their colleagues, the chief minister instead of going for dialogue accused them of behaving like the “B-team of the BJP”. The most sustained combat Mr Kejriwal has encountered is in his engagement with Delhi’s lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung, a former bureaucrat who wields enormous influence in the capital where he has long stalked the corridors of power. Mr Jung’s refusal to give
Mr Kejriwal a free hand in selecting key bureaucrats and in striking down some of his orders have placed the two on a collision course.
The battle has been exacerbated due to existing laws that severely curtail the powers of Delhi’s elected leaders. Delhi is a Union Territory under the Constitution. This essentially means that the Central government continues to be the dominant partner in Delhi’s administration and in maintaining law and order. The Centre’s powers are implemented through the L-G, who in this case happens to be Mr Jung. Mr Jung and Mr Kejriwal have crossed swords from the time the latter began his anti-corruption campaign a couple of years ago. After Mr Kejriwal was re-elected last February, his attempts to appoint key bureaucrats, including the state chief secretary and the head of the anti-corruption bureau, were blocked by Mr Jung. Mr Kejriwal responded by accusing the office of the L-G of trying to finish off AAP. It was the familiar complaint of conspiracy but the casualty was Mr Kejriwal’s anti-corruption agenda which till today remains ineffective.
The well-connected L-G might well be acting as an extra-constitutional authority, but as far as the ordinary citizen is concerned, Mr Kejriwal’s constant diatribe against him looks like a personal feud. The man on the street is well aware that individuals of singular influence often exceed their mandate; yet this in itself is neither a matter of surprise nor does it evoke outrage. The point is to change things, not fight endless battles against the powerful or tilt at windmills. The capital’s odd-even traffic plan has been a success because every institution involved has cooperated with the Delhi government. This includes the police, a large body of public volunteers, the Central government as well as the judiciary.
Indians, no matter what their political inclinations or level of education, are highly aware of issues that directly impinge upon their lives and are prepared to support policies that seek to address their concerns in a rational manner. Indians do not, however, respond well to authoritarian tendencies of any sort in the long term. Every leader, monarch or lord who has tried to ruthlessly enforce policy without securing popular cooperation has failed. In this country consensus is the key to successful governance. This is something Mr Modi seems to comprehend instinctively. His way is to co-opt people into his way of working rather than coercing them. He rarely publicly challenges political opponents and has taken great pains to win over the bureaucracy. Mr Kejriwal would do well to take a leaf out of Mr Modi’s book. Courage, decisiveness and tenacity are great qualities in a leader, but only as long as they don’t lead to hubris.
(The writer is an independent security and political risk consultant)
