Curiously, several skeletons are tumbling out of the Aam Aadmi Party’s cupboards. Those who have reposed faith in this 10-year-old political establishment are deeply upset at the way the ‘party with a purpose’ is shaping up. The latest “expose” about its high-profile leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is simply astounding – that he has spent as much as Rs 45 crore to spruce up or renovate his official residence on the Civil Lines. It is understandable that the old residence required renovation. It is not a huge one but has enough space for a decent living for a senior bureaucrat or minister. As it turned out, the building was redone, which too need not be frowned upon. But, the devil is in the details. Over Rs 11 crore was splurged on interior decorations; six crore on imported marble floor tiles; one crore on interior consultancy itself; eight crore for a camp office for the CM. One piece of curtain cost as high as Rs 8 lakh. All these for the comfort of the leader of India’s self-labelled party of the poor, represented by the aam aadmi – with the broom as symbol.
Arvind Kejriwal started his public life by doing social service for the poor in the slums of Delhi for some years; an effort that won him a Magsaysay award in social service, high acclaim and political power of the highest order. That his government has done good work and kept corruption under control are unassailable facts. Yet, the Delhi Liquor Scam cropped up, drawing Kejriwal’s second-in-command in the government, Manish Sisodia, into jail at the height of a CBI investigation. The case is ongoing. Kejriwal and his government are accused of tweaking the state’s liquor policy to help contractors and take a huge bribe, and the money was suspectedly used for the AAP’s campaign in the Goa assembly polls. There can be no smoke without a fire. Kejriwal himself was summoned and grilled by the central agencies in this connection. Another of Kejriwal’s ministers was already in jail in relation to some other allegations of wrongdoing.
The last hope for the anti-corruption activists in this country is thus fading. The AAP was born out of the 2011’s India Against Corruption movement spearheaded by Gandhian Anna Hazare. Kejriwal then broke ranks by saying there was a need to fight corruption from within the establishment itself and not just through agitations. It was his luck that Kejriwal succeeded in this attempt, won power in Delhi for repeated terms and he took his party to power in a second state – Punjab – as well. At the height of his glory, he’s perhaps on a reverse drive.