Arvind Kejriwal is the most experienced director and master actor of the Great Indian Political Theatre. He can beat anyone in this genre. In the last 14 years, as a social worker, politician and Chief Minister, he has created so many types of tamasha that even his closest rivals would be surprised to see him. He has proved that he has an amazing and unlimited ability to create tamasha. But can elections be won continuously on the basis of this ability alone?
The answer is not easy because anything can happen in India. Politicians keep cheating voters by creating different types of spectacles and displaying tableaus. Sometimes a tableau of development is shown, sometimes of caste and religion, sometimes a pretense of becoming a Vishwaguru is made, sometimes free sweets are distributed, sometimes a pretense of martyrdom is made, sometimes a messiah is made and sometimes people are cheated by pretending to be a son. India’s democracy has been witness to many such dramas for the last 75 years.
Arvind Kejriwal is now preparing a new tableau in Delhi. He is going to perform a new tamasha. It is a coincidence that at the time when Ramlila troupes are performing Bhoomi Pujan for the staging of the play, Kejriwal has resigned from the post of Chief Minister and has tried to put himself in the category of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh and Mata Sita. When he went to announce his resignation, he took ‘Bhagat Singh’s jail diary’ with him. He told his party leaders and workers that even in the jail of the British Raj, Bhagat Singh’s letters were sent out but his letters were stopped. On the basis that his letters were stopped, he is proving himself to be greater than Bhagat Singh.
It is a different matter that his letter reached every home. Every person came to know what Kejriwal had written in the letter. The instructions he sent to the ministers after going to jail also reached the ministers and the people of Delhi came to know about it. His wife used to meet him and tell the people of Delhi through video messages that their ‘son’ is so worried about them while sitting in jail. So, there is no meaning in this drama that the letter was stopped.
The second narrative is that after coming out of jail, they have to undergo Agni Pariksha (fire test) like Mata Sita. Many leaders of this country have gone to jail before. From Indira Gandhi to Lalu Prasad, Amit Shah to Shibu Soren, Jayalalitha to Karunanidhi and Chandrababu Naidu to Hemant Soren, countless leaders went to jail after being trapped in false or true cases and continued their politics after coming out. None of them created a spectacle by calling themselves like Sardar Bhagat Singh or Mata Sita.
Actually, Kejriwal needs to create such a drama over his imprisonment and corruption charges because he has to give details of his 10 years of governance in this election. The people of Delhi also want to know what Kejriwal, who won the election on the promise of changing their lives and making Delhi the best capital city in the world, has actually done? Has he been able to provide relief to the people of Delhi from their eternal problems? Delhi’s eternal problems are waterlogging in the rainy season, pollution in winters, traffic jams throughout the year, cleaning of Yamuna, garbage scattered on the roads, huts being built everywhere like mushrooms, illegal colonies, hawkers and footpaths spread haphazardly on the roads, transport, has any of these problems been solved?
Overall, the daily song is that schools and hospitals were built. The reality is that only one or two new hospitals have been built and new classrooms have been added to some schools. Even today, the situation is such that there is a 24-hour fair outside the hospitals of the Central Government in Delhi. There is a crowd in those hospitals of the Delhi Government which were built decades ago. Delhi’s health and education model is also just a means of publicity. It is not fulfilling the needs of the people. If it were, then there would not have been so much competition for admission in private hospitals and private schools.
Overall, Kejriwal has some populist programmes to show as his 10 years of work. His government is giving 200 units of electricity and 21,000 litres of water for free to the people of Delhi. The large population is definitely getting the benefit of this. But slowly the benefit is decreasing. Because the electricity distribution companies have been given the freedom to increase the fixed charge and increase the load per connection. They are earning money in other ways instead of power usage charge. Now Kejriwal’s government is going to bring a scheme to give one thousand rupees cash every month to women. The question is what is the vision behind this? Even those leaders are giving some services for free or giving cash, who are not claiming to be very educated or very farsighted or very honest like Kejriwal.
Overall, this time distributing free freebies or creating the same old narrative of schools and hospitals is not going to work. That is why Kejriwal has created a new drama of resignation. Its purpose is to divert attention from the corruption charges and gain sympathy. He wants to reduce anti-incumbency by bringing in a new face. He wants to change the narrative being created by the BJP. He feels that if he surprises the opposition party and the voters of Delhi with his unexpected decision, people will forget all the past events. People will forget the allegations of opening liquor shops in every street and allegedly taking bribes for it and will consider him as Bhagat Singh and vote for his martyrdom.
But this is not easy. After ten years of anti-incumbency, even the tableaus set up by Narendra Modi did not work. The grand tamasha of the Ram temple in Ayodhya also did not work. People asked him questions too. People decided to vote on the issues of inflation, unemployment and poverty. Perhaps Kejriwal has learnt a lesson from that and he is trying harder to divert attention.