Never has a politician lost political capital so quickly just after winning an absolute majority for a second consecutive election. But such is Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s political life. He seems to rise and fall over and over again.
It is not possible for Kejriwal to be on a roller coaster forever. It has to stop. And when it does, the joy ride will be over.
The time is right for him to stop hustling and settle down for a good deal. And there can’t be a better deal than joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
That would make him a Nitish Kumar. Isn’t that a comfortable thing? Nitish Kumar’s third term in Bihar has been lacklustre, and the anti-incumbency sentiment is more pronounced than ever. And yet, aur hai kaun? Who else is there? This TINA (or ‘there is no alternative’) factor for Nitish Kumar wouldn’t hold if he was not with the BJP today. The Amit Shah-led party would have hauled him over the coals for the misery of Bihar’s migrant labourers across the country. The benefit of being with the BJP is that the only potential challenger is on your side.
Nitish Kumar is the tallest political leader in Bihar, Narendra Modi is the tallest political leader nationally. Beyond the faces, the caste calculation is also such that the chances of the NDA losing Bihar this winter looks impossible. Nitish Kumar is all set to return for a fourth time, unless the Covid-19 crisis takes too heavy a toll. As of now, Bihar has seen only two deaths, with the number of positive coronavirus cases being less than 100.
Also read: Arvind Kejriwal risks becoming Rajiv Gandhi, neither here nor there
Arvind as Nitish
Arvind Kejriwal won a second term in February 2020, losing only five of his 67 seats in a 70-member assembly. Since the day he won, the BJP has made life difficult for him, in a way very different from the first term.
In his first term, Kejriwal saw the BJP use constitutional mechanisms to not let him perform. They wanted to stifle his government by using the excuse of Delhi not being a full state. The Delhi lieutenant governor thus became a more powerful political instrument than the Delhi state BJP. To his credit, Kejriwal managed to outmanoeuvre the BJP on this. Free electricity alone was enough to ensure his victory.
Since then, the BJP has been countering Arvind Kejriwal politically. Kapil Mishra of the BJP incites communal violence, the Amit Shah-controlled Delhi Police is found looking the other way if not actually participating in the violence themselves, and Arvind Kejriwal draws all the flak.
Kejriwal does not want to be seen playing the secular card, and neither does he want to be seen playing the communal card. He gets the worst of both worlds. Petrol bombs are found in the terrace of a Muslim councillor, and Arvind Kejriwal has to immediately sack him. Kapil Mishra gets to take out a peace march, where slogans like “shoot the traitors” are raised.
There’s another leader who is playing neither-communal-nor-secular card: Nitish Kumar. The only difference is that he gets away with the contradiction because the BJP won’t attack its own ally.
If Kejriwal thought the crisis was over, and there were five years for the world to forget the Delhi riots, he was mistaken because pat came another crisis. Not only is Delhi a Covid-19 hotspot (the government has identified 76 ‘containment zones’), but it is also a migrant hub. And Arvind Kejriwal was found wanting in his migrant response.
He could well say the Narendra Modi government planned the lockdown hastily, did not think about migrants, and that he is not at fault. But he won’t be able to say that, because he is the chief minister of Delhi, a unique chair that has responsibility without much power. This is not to exonerate Kejriwal, who has come across as lacking even in empathy, in both these crises: riots and migrant labourers stuck in lockdown.
Also read: No soft Hindutva, no Left Revolution, Kejriwal establishing a new centre in Indian politics
Resistance is futile
A simple way out for Kejriwal today would be to attack the BJP and the Modi government, but he has realised it would be a suicidal strategy, as he saw the last time he tried it. So he has gone to the opposite end of sounding like a BJP chief minister. That is not turning out to be very useful either, since the BJP is attacking him more than ever before. Be it Delhi riots or migrant workers’ crisis, Kejriwal is the fall guy.
Regardless of the number of press conferences he does, promises he makes, and new schemes he announces, Arvind Kejriwal will continue to look like a diminishing leader since he has practically surrendered before Modi-Amit Shah. As a succinct headline in The Telegraph put it, “Looks like Arvind, sounds like Modi.”
This is a thankless situation to be in. Kejriwal is being nice to Modi but the BJP and the pro-BJP media still attacks him. The BJP and the Modi government’s policies create tensions and Kejriwal draws the flak.
It is obvious that appeasing the Modi establishment is not enough for Arvind Kejriwal. He must join it. The BJP’s attacks on him will stop. He will then be able to comfortably enjoy the chief minister’s chair without having to bother much about his political image on a daily basis. In other words, become Nitish Kumar.
This would mean Arvind Kejriwal also giving up on his pipe dream of going national and becoming prime minister. Once again, he could learn from Nitish Kumar to be realistic and practical. It’s not happening. Arvind Kejriwal and the Aam Aadmi Party are doomed forever to be a Delhi-centric party.
Joining the NDA, however, may have the benefit of becoming part of the Akali Dal-BJP coalition in Punjab, thus having a realistic chance of taking on Congress’ Amarinder Singh. Having already apologised to Bikram Singh Majithia, Kejriwal should have no problem with this arrangement.
When Nitish Kumar ditched the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar and re-joined the NDA in 2017, he famously announced, “Nobody can defeat Modi in 2019.” It was this cold calculation about the future that made Nitish do a complete U-turn on his promise of never joining hands with the BJP again. Since Arvind Kejriwal seems to think similarly about Modi’s invincibility, he should come to a similar conclusion.
The author is contributing editor to ThePrint. Views are personal.
heis 12th man of BJP cricket team
Kejriwal is already making the right noises.
He is looking for a face saving deal.
The CM is clean .That is enough.This same BJP will become like Congress which is epicenter of corruption if in power for some more time .Arvind do what your consciousness tell you. May God be with you. My comments was not delivered the first time.You media is the reason for our country’s downfall
Why should AK join the NDA. He is today the only leader who can actually take on any party be it NDA or UPA we need a leader like him to take india ahead he is serious d dedicated to get work done look at what he has done for delhi he delivered what he promised and people bought him back to power I dont think any party can dislodge him..hee got a clean image and hope to see him as the consensus PM opposition candidate if they need to come back to power.. he is too smart not to JOIN the NDA then there is no opposition to the current PM..I hope to see him as a PM of our great nation..
Can’t believe that print has such low quality content. Idk if kejriwal is gonna be a PM, but sure he has some principles & ethics. Media should be the voice of the people, and shouldn’t heed to write such articles expressing what they should do. Give your opinion on something that has happened, that’ll be more than enough.
Totally agree…never expected this from Print.
The writer Mr Shivam Viz seems to hv personal ill-will to Mr Kejriwal. There is neither any point nor any logic in his statement. So, d statement is dropped out.
Well it seems writter is working as a agent of BJP, and has through thi article tried to bribe kejriwal.But he fails to notice that Kejriwal works for the welfare of masses while BJP’S policies are divisive.
During corona pandemic delhi govt under Kejriwal is doing its best.
When Hindu houses were burnt by islamists in delhi, BJP saved the people…change your name from Sanjay to saiffudin if you disagree or bugger off
What non sense, most of the victims of riots were Muslims. V well planned n orchestrated riot by communal forces
It’s RSS terrorists who burnt Delhi and incited violence against muslims, and Delhi police shielded these goons as official militia of ruling party.
stop blaming muslims
Complete wrong analysis, time will tell .
There is nothing new from the beginning he is with b.j.p with his heart and soul His anti corrupt movement was sponsored by r.s.s and the largest benificiary of the movement is b.j.p.he joins or not make no difference.
Arvind Kejriwal is doing everything he can to please PM Mr Modi and Mr Amit Shah after the elections , he didn’t care that BJP was directly involved with causing Delhi communal riots and more than 50 people lost their lives with valuable properties destroyed , he didn’t care when Central Government failed it’s duty in allowing Jammati to gather in Nizamuddin , even though they had prior knowledge of the number of people gathered for prayer in Markaj , and did nothing about it , when exposed , the Govt., played it’s communal card and blamed the Muslims of spreading of virus all over India , ofcourse the Godi Media was too willing to oblige the BJP , he didn’t care when the protestors of CAA and NRC were named as accusers and arrested on false charges , he didn’t care whether he was caught lying about feeding 4 lakh labourers daily and slyly managed to evacuate the poor labourers from Delhi without providing them with even basic needs , I think one day Arvind Kejriwal will excel even Mr Amit Shah in playing dirty in politics , he is now a complete BJP man , Bravo Kejriwal.
Fyi, the Delhi riots happened wen trump was in India… Why would Modi cause riots wen such a big project is happening… Delhi riots is clearly caused by congress/PFI…
He is capable of doing everything, as they did in Gujarat year 2002
Did Central govt tell Jaamatis and muslims to pelt stones at frontline workers and doctors? Spit at healthcare workers? No thats the desert culture of islam idiot
Kejriwal after being quite and mum about Delhi riots incited by the BJP party member, has announced for FIR against Molana Saad Sahb who never incited any incident and 99 percent of the people participated in the Markaz after testing were found negative. These two actions of Kejriwal has exposed that his party is the B-team and he is worst than Nitish Kumar. And so in future whatever he does can never rise again politically as people knew very well that how corrupt this Kejriwal is… Shame on him and to his party to openly support the oppressors.
Till election kejriwal was the blue eyed boy for whole oppositions and to the midea.Now he is at least trying his best to perform with the help of central govt.Now all of sudden he became bad boy for Lutyens midea who are finding everything wrong with him.So started convincing kejriwal to create problems with centre.This shows the dirty intention of tukde tukde gang who support naxalites subversive elements by giving fake views and news in public.But mind you , kejriwal knows very well and he can put them in place.He manages every cunning fellows very shrewdly.
”99 percent of the people participated in the Markaz after testing were found negative. ”
Subsequent evidence speaks otherwise.