Dangers of Arvind Kejriwal as a Centrifugal Figure in India
India is presently caught in the fangs of fascism that ideologues rejoice over, scribes weep about, minorities rattled about while so-called liberals look for options.
Kejriwal Rise to Power:
In 2012, the globe was struck by an economic crash and wild unsteady shifts transpired in India due to the whipping monsoons and the price of onions went scoring high up to Rs. 80 a kilogram, even up to Rs. 100. The Indian media screamed blue murder day and night at the outrageous prices of vegetables and exorbitant rates in restaurants. They started howling about the corruption of the 2G scam (which incidentally the Supreme Court cleared in 2017 as not a scam) and when the cost of petrol when up by one rupee, the Indian media and BJP along with an enraged engineered public went on streets in hysterical protests. Rage was spilling out everywhere.
Out of this storm, Anna Hazare (an Indian social activist) rose out like a god figure. His team consisted of Baba Ramdev, an Indian yoga guru, businessman, and vocal supporter of the BJP, Kiran Bedi, the first Indian woman to join the police force, who later joined the BJP, Arvind Kejriwal former bureaucrat and activist, who graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) with a mission of repatriation of black money from foreign banks.
Anna Hazare’s powerful movement stirred up mobs but after the 2014 elections were over and Narendra Modi became prime minister, Anna Hazare suddenly faded away mysteriously and was rarely seen on heard amid some of the greatest horrors, economic crashes, and lack of government transparency and draconianism.
Arvind Kejriwal, later decided to step into politics as he said that it was difficult to implement policies without being in politics. Born on 16 August 1968, former bureaucrat and activist, current and 7th Chief Minister of Delhi since February 2015 was also the Chief Minister of Delhi from December 2013 to February 2014, stepping down after 49 days of taking power stating he had failed in establishing the Lok Pal Bill due to a lack of support from Opposition parties.
Kejriwal Rose Out of a Negative Mission
While Anna Hazare’s mission rose to root out corruption, since the BJP regime in 2014, corruption scams are bursting all over amid a muzzled Media. Some of the biggest scams are in 2022 such as the ABG Shipyard, the biggest bank fraud case ever to the tune of Rs 22,842 crores, (30,10,278.65 USD). Incidentally, no black money is back, but Anna Hazare and Kejriwal don’t talk about it.
In fact, Supreme Court Lawyer and civil rights activist Prashant Bhushan claimed that the group India Against Corruption (IAC), which paved the way for the birth of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of which he was also a founding member, was “propped up by the BJP and the RSS” to topple the second Manmohan Singh government.
Since Bhushan was a core member of the IAC of 2011 led by social activist Anna Hazar, there is substance to his claim. When in 2015, Bhushan fell out with AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and was expelled from the party for “anti-party activities” along with Yogendra Yadav, he founded Swaraj Abhiyan.
Prashant Bhushan in an interview with India Today on September 14, said, “In hindsight, there are two things that I do regret. One is not seeing that the movement was to a large extent supported and propped up by the BJP-RSS for their own political purposes to bring down the Congress government and get themselves in power.”
He said, “I have no doubt about it [BJP-RSS role in IAC] today. He [Anna Hazare] was also probably not aware of it, Arvind [Kejriwal] was aware of it, I have very little doubt of that. The second regret that I have is not having understood Arvind’s character earlier enough. I understood it too late by which time we had actually created another Frankenstein’s monster so to say.”
However, the political wheels move in favor of the rich, powerful with murky connections exceedingly quickly which is why they are all silent about the mammoth mountain of corruption present now.
Here is a picture of some of the scams since 2014, picture made by Amit Chaudhary
While the Jan Lokpal movement of 2011 was an anti-corruption movement, today, none of the AAP is speaking about it, nor is Anna Hazare.
Each Time BJP Made a Draconian law, AAP Supported It
Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019:
This act while providing a pathway to Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities also had a stigma attached to it where Muslims who could not prove their citizenship would be denied it and there was fear of them being either deported or put into concentration camps. When the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by the Parliament of India on 11 December 2019, AAP supported this openly. For AAP to support such a discriminatory bill reveals the heart of the party support hard fascism. They did not even resist it, unlike other Opposition parties present.
Article 370 Revocation: On 5 August 2019, the Parliament of India voted in favor of a resolution tabled by Home Minister Amit Shah to revoke the temporary special status, or autonomy, granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir—a region administered by India. This procedure was done without the presence of a single Kashmiri. By Constitutional methods, the revocation of this article can only be done with the consent of the Kashmiris, which is why the Opposition parties fiercely protested against this surprise move in Parliament. In fact, the Center had deployed massive army forces and inflicted a harsh lockdown which caused intense distress to the Kashmiris.
All the Opposition in Parliament resisted this move of the government, all except Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP party who supported it holding hands with the BJP. This speaks volumes of whose man he is.
The abrogation of Article 370 on 5 August 2019 was deemed a masterstroke in India bifurcating J&K into two Union Territories but it led to eerie calm in the Valley which had the propensities to explode with the tiniest provocations from the borders.
Due to this, a lockdown was imposed in Kashmir which affected the Kashmiris in many arenas – physically, emotionally, financially, and politically. The lockdown also led to high-stress levels, anxiety, and depression.
The financial sector was hit in vast proportions crippling businesses further with the suspension of the Internet, mobile phones even down exclusions of SMS. The J&K lockdown led to Rs 12,000 crore loss during the 100 days lockdown.
Someone shared in 2021, “Valley feels like it did back in the 1990s” and also shared on Twitter, “A string of recent targeted killings of civilians in Valley has inspired fear among many. The situation is reminiscent of that in the 1990s”.
Unfortunately, when Arvind Kejriwal supports laws that are instituted without the consent of the people involved, he is not the backbone of a democratic nation
Farmer’s Three Black Laws: The Farm Bills, are three acts initiated by the Parliament of India in September 2020, and once again, Arvind Kejriwal supported it on the floor of the house while the rest of the Opposition fiercely opposed it realizing its implications. Later on, when Kejriwal noted the magnitude of protests, he supported the farmers so as to garner their votes.
Anti-Conversion Bill: An Ordinance is made to stop unlawful conversion from one religion to another by misrepresentation, force, undue influence, coercion, and allurement. The danger of supporting this law is its propensity of making false implications, criminalizing Christians and Muslims, which is already in process. Muslims are under severe attack as well.
Christians are under severe attack after the anti-conversation laws and bills are being passed and violent attacks on Christians, churches, and schools in India increased, some have even been killed on false pretexts of conversion. If Christians are not safe in their own homes and churches, where will they be safe? It is extremely unfortunate that Arvind Kejriwal supports such a bill, and nor does he rise to protect any minorities under attack, sealing his lips during those turbulent seasons.
Some Christian crowds, however, presently are pitching heavily for Kejriwal ecstatically because he worked in Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity at one time and proclaimed he loves the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Muslims perhaps feel more betrayed by Kejriwal after the Delhi Riots, and CAA laws in the presence of a very silent Kejriwal and are now veering more toward Congress and AIMIM. He also had not stepped forward to help student activist Umar Khalid who is still languishing in Tihar Jail in Delhi after a year on flimsy grounds such as WhatsApp forwards, with no evidence of any crime he committed, nor did he incite violence. In fact, he declared, “We won’t respond to violence with violence. Won’t respond to hate with hate. If they spread hate, we will respond to it with love. If they thrash us with lathis, we keep holding the tricolor.”
Kejriwal being the Chief Minister of Delhi seems to be very powerless and unable to help him out. Perhaps even Uddhav Thackeray had he been chief minister of Delhi would have got Umar Khalid out of jail for a crime he did not commit.
Links to the RSS
Ever since the Anna Hazare movement, they have hidden any political links to the movement, seemingly “pretending” that it was purely a social activist movement. However, Prashant Bhushan also said, “Kejriwal Knew IAC Movement Was Propped Up by BJP-RSS,’ Anna Hazare has been criticized for being an agent of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) a right-wing Hindu body. According to Digvijay Singh a senior leader of the Indian National Congress, the entire crusade of the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement was planned by RSS in which Plan-A was Baba Ramdev while Plan-B was Anna Hazare. Sources have claimed that their basic job was to disturb national security. Singh also charged Hazare with having links with late RSS leader Nanaji Deshmukh with whom he worked as a secretary.
People who are familiar with Arvind Kejriwal reveal that he used to participate in all RSS Shakhas until he was 18 years old. In fact, sources reveal that Arvind Kejriwal, Ajit Doval, Kiran Bedi, V.K Singh, and Kumar Vishwas had all arranged protests against the UPA government in 2011 with the face of Anna Hazare fully sponsored by the Vivekanand Foundation think tank of the RSS.
India’s OPEN Magazine declared that it was “nonsense” to say Hazare’s anti-corruption movement of 2011–12 was apolitical. The op-ed went on to say that the purpose of the movement was that, so long as the Congress Party was kept out of power, corrupt politicians of any other party could be elected to Parliament. The example of Ajay Chautala (now convicted for corruption) was cited. “In effect, Anna and his team are campaigning for Ajay Chautala effectively the first candidate put up for election by India Against Corruption movement”.
In a press conference in April 2011, Hazare praised Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat, and Nitish Kumar, chief minister of Bihar for their efforts in rural development, saying that other chief ministers should emulate them. Subsequently, Narendra Modi wrote an open letter to him, hailing him as a Gandhian anti-corruption activist.
There are photos shared by Congress supporters of Kejriwal sharing the stage with Kiran Bedi and RSS ideologue and Rajya Sabha MP Rakesh Sinha. In another photo, Kejriwal was seen addressing an event organized by Swadeshi Jagran Manch, an RSS-affiliated outfit. Other photos showed Kejriwal sharing attending a program organized by pro-BJP Sri Ravi Shankar to share the stage with the then BJP President Amit Shah.
#BJPkiAAP #AAPisBJP Everyone knows that Hazare's RamLila circuses were hatched by RSS Everyone knows RSS controls BJP The fact that the media & liberal journos all kept their eyes wide shut for years, speaks volumes. pic.twitter.com/DoWHrdhRfW — GeetV (@geetv79) July 16, 2020
Some users also dug out the screenshot of the AAP website screaming ‘Modi for PM, Kejriwal for CM’ slogan during the 2015 Delhi assembly polls.
Kejriwal had condemnation heaped on him for his decision to fund Arnab Goswami with lucrative ads for his government even though the contentious anchor runs hate agenda campaigns on his TV channels. This reveals the other side of Kejriwal who has revealed no scruples in supporting the noxious anti-minority Republic TV.
Long before linking up with the RSS-sponsored Anna Hazare, Kejriwal was helping RSS with their anti-reservation agenda, heading Youth for Equality and India Against Reservation, and Kejriwal actually wanted now murdered Rohith Vemula to then be “reformed”
Before 2014 AAP said, Modi for PM, Arvind for CM, and before 2019, a BJP-RSS-Bajrang Dal member put up a hoarding, “Desh maange Narendra Modi, Dilli maange Kejriwal”
All this pointed to revelations that BJP-RSS-AAP is all hand-in-glove.
Why Are Secular Liberals Pushing for Kejriwal?
Secular liberals are seeking a formidable rival against Narendra Modi and in the process, on analyzing the two big losses of Congress in the 2014 and 2019 elections and the recent loss of state elections, they panicked. Suddenly, they are afraid that 2024 will be lost to a fascist regime forever amid a fading Opposition. They had to invent a new oppositional force and on hunting desperately found one in Kejriwal. Perhaps, they thought he was working on development and did not hinge on communal doors and had won Delhi and his recent win in Punjab was another brownie point
In fact, Congress has complained about Alt News Mohammed Zubair ignoring AAP portraying former Chief Minister Shiela Dixit’s creations and outstanding hospitals as Kejriwal’s own and Zubair never fact-checked that false information.
Kejriwal is also applauded by the right-wing media and in his recent interview with ABP, it was odd how the ABP anchor never asked Kejriwal pertinent questions such as inflation in Delhi with the price of lemons soaring to Rs. 350 per kilogram with Modi fans explaining that lack of lemons is not life-threatening denying the reality that inflation is on, nor did the anchor ask him about the meat ban or about the Delhi High Court scolding the Kejriwal government for not fulfilling their promise to feed hungry during the lockdown
Secular liberal journalists, media, and the public are presently suffering from convenient amnesia about the origins of Kejriwal…he was a creation of the RSS. Ultimately, he will support the RSS agenda and he will allow the fourth pillar of democracy to be destroyed, he will pitch for new laws at the behest of the RSS. A leopard will not change its spots and that is the source of his origin and power, he will not forget it.
So Why is Kejriwal a Danger as a Centrifugal Figure in India?
He is too Weak To Protect the Defenseless: Arvind Kejriwal is definitely not a voice against human atrocities nor is he a powerful defender of the weak. He is helpless and powerless in the face of brutal dictatorship and would rather hide in a burrow and wait for the storm to get over while people around him died. The Delhi Riots in 2020 confirmed this reality when he did not intervene to raise a ruckus and Delhi has been the bedrock of violence for ages. Once again, brutality is exploding in Punjab, where AAP has recently formed a government. His pitch for human rights infringements is very frail and not a protector of people.
He is Ineffective in Uniting the People: He is ineffective in uniting Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and others. His cold silence in these situations has escalated situations in Delhi and has not healed the mobs. A true leader would have the power to unite all Indians equally. While he does not make inciting statements, his silence on violence against minorities is almost a marker of approval. With India’s ethnic and religious diversities, a unifying leader who speaks in times of crisis and is not silent like the PM is paramount.
He has No Political Insight: He may be a brilliant IIT guy, but he has no political insight because he could not grasp the gravity of situations on the spur of the moment with no powers of introspection. This was proved by his instant support for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, Article 370’s Revocation, the Farmer’s Three Black Laws and Anti-Conversion Bill, a few laws which were very controversial but Kejriwal could not fathom their serious boomerangs and implications, something that the Opposition parties did. He quickly backtracked when he saw the farmers’ movement growing in dimensions.
He is the Backbone of the RSS: Either Kejriwal supported these laws to strengthen the goals of RSS or he was very ignorant. One way or another, he is clearly trying to appease BJP and is accused of being a chameleon changing his colors to suit his circumstances. Arvind Kejriwal secretly endorsed by the RSS as a central figure in India will enable laws that will change the demographics and democracy of India to crumble the Constitution.
Poor Governance Despite Glowing Reports: The AAP government spent an average of Rs 1.67 crore daily on ads and publicity amid the second wave of coronavirus. Kejriwal spent Rs 150 crore (about 198 million dollars) in just three months, January to March 2021, on ads again. During the Punjab elections again in 2022, AAP spent crores on advertisements. All this is a misuse of hard-earned tax payer’s money.
Delhi is going through hard financial times. During 2010 and 2011, Delhi had a revenue surplus of 10500 crores and now, this has been brought down to 4500 crore rupees by AAP. Also, presently, with a focus on Gujarat for elections, Delhi is neglected on many counts. While AAP promised 500 new schools, they only delivered just 13 schools in the last 7 years. Is this an achievement people ask.
In 2018, the AAP government presented a ‘Green Budget’ to tackle Air Pollution in Delhi, and in 2022 Delhi is ranked as the most polluted city in the world for the fourth consecutive year. Thus, in terms of governance, no, AAP is not the best; however, there are heavy advertisements, constant publicity, and praise declarations to create that image of AAP.
Conclusion
All in all, can India trust someone who is not very truthful, can change like a chameleon, spends crores of poor people’s money to establish a glowing image of himself through advertisements, instead of actually spending that money to do it, supports oppressive laws, never defends minorities, each time Delhi University students JNU are under attack, he conveniently closes his eyes and hides, actually factually linked with the RSS who has an ultimate agenda to throttle non-Hindus and even secular Hindus eventually? Such is already happening and things will only get worse and he will not stop it.
Rita
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and are personal.
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