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Why the new Arvind Kejriwal doesn’t badmouth anyone, only talks of AAP’s successes

From a ‘Mr Clean’ who berated almost every politician as ‘corrupt’, Arvind Kejriwal has turned into ‘Mr Nice’, who only says positive things.

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New Delhi: There is a new Arvind Kejriwal in the national capital — one who is guided by Mahatma Gandhi’s three monkeys who see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.

From a ‘Mr Clean’ Delhi Chief Minister who berated almost every politician as “corrupt” and called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “psychopath”, Kejriwal has turned into ‘Mr Nice’, who only talks about positive things.

In October, when the Modi government passed a proposal to regularise Delhi’s unauthorised colonies, Kejriwal held a press conference thanking “the Centre for its” cooperation, saying “certain things are beyond politics”.

Earlier this month, he invoked former Prime Minister and Congress leader Rajiv Gandhi’s famous corruption remark as he talked about his government’s scheme to make bus rides free for women.

At a press conference about the odd-even scheme in October-end, Kejriwal praised the efforts of the BJP-led central government and Delhi civic bodies to curb pollution, instead of “pointing fingers”.

Political analysts said the change in Kejriwal’s tone could be attributed to a toning down of ambitions, brought about by successive defeats in various elections. Opponents, meanwhile, said it resulted from fear that his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) might lose its sole bastion Delhi as well.

AAP leaders claimed there had been no shift as such, adding that governance had always been the party’s priority. However, speaking off the record, party leaders said there was more to Kejriwal 2.0 than meets the eye.

The tone changes

In December 2015, less than a year-old as Delhi Chief Minister, Kejriwal referred to Modi as a “coward” and “psychopath” after CBI raids at his office.

A year later, Kejriwal asked PM Modi for proof of the Army’s surgical strikes against terrorist launchpads in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

In February 2019, he said Modi’s treatment of non-BJP-ruled states made him appear to be the “prime minister of Pakistan”. His remarks came during former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu’s protest in Delhi last February to demand special status for the state, and days after the CBI’s attempt to question former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar at his residence over Saradha scam-related allegations triggered a standoff between the Modi government and West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee administration.

Then came the Lok Sabha elections and the AAP won just one of 40 seats it contested, finding no redemption in backyard Delhi either — it came third in five of Delhi’s seven constituencies.

Coming on the back of the party’s successive defeats in several states, including Goa, Gujarat and Haryana, and Delhi’s 2017 municipal polls, the results seem to have precipitated a change in Kejriwal.

At a meeting with party volunteers after the Lok Sabha election results were announced in May, he acknowledged there was a “Modi wave” at play and said it was time to seek votes on the basis of work done by the AAP.

Come August 2019, as the Modi government controversially scrapped Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir, Kejriwal cheered the decision.

On 1 November, while addressing students at a Delhi school during mask distribution, he said “all agencies and departments have worked together” to bring down pollution in Delhi, tipping his hat to the central government and civic agencies as well.

Although this was followed by requests to the Punjab and Haryana chief ministers to stop stubble burning, there was no personal remark.

His tone has also softened on the unauthorised colonies issue. In March this year, he questioned why Modi hadn’t done anything to regularise the colonies since he came to office in 2014, despite promising that he would.

“Since the past 20 years, BJP and Congress have been fooling people of these colonies on the same lines,” he added in a tweet. “Every time they make the same promise and forget about it once the elections are over.”

However, in October, when Housing & Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri termed the central government’s nod for regularisation a “Diwali gift”, Kejriwal held a press conference to thank the Modi government for its cooperation.

Just over a week ago, Kejriwal harked back to one of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s better-known quotes.

“Rajiv Gandhiji said, out of Rs 100 spent for the welfare of people, Rs 85 goes into corruption and just Rs 15 reaches people. We are saving those Rs 85 and giving facilities to the people of Delhi,” Kejriwal said, referring to his government’s free public transport scheme for Delhi’s women.

“What problem do the opposition parties have if I am working towards the welfare of the people? They should get above politics in these matters,” he added.


Also read: Here’s how Delhi govt can make its free bus ride scheme for women a financial success too


‘Can’t afford to be anti-Modi’

Rahul Verma, a fellow at Delhi-based thinktank Centre for Policy and Research, said “most regional leaders have realised that running positive campaigns pays off, as was the case with Sharad Pawar in Maharashtra”.

“The realisation in five years within the AAP and Kejriwal is that there is no longer an ambition to be a national party,” Verma added. “He is only strengthening his chance of winning by being positive and talking about governance since there is no one else to match his charisma or persona in Delhi.”

Saying Modi is one of the largest vote aggregators all across, Verma said “one cannot afford to be anti-Modi any longer”, even if a similar strategy worked for the AAP against the Congress-led UPA.

Former AAP spokesperson Ashutosh, who quit the party in 2018, said Kejriwal had wisened and become strategic. The Kejriwal of today is perhaps more receptive too, he added.

“Earlier, counsellors and even advisers told him not to be this critical and negative about Modi but he didn’t listen,” he said. “However, after he kept losing elections, he realised he needed to change something.”

In 2018, Kejriwal had issued apologies to several leaders, including the late Arun Jaitley and former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia, whom he accused of corruption and fostering drug trade, respectively, in the face of defamation suits totalling Rs 20 crore.

Author and senior journalist Rasheed Kidwai said he saw the change as a result of the political compulsion to evolve in order to survive.

“With age on Kejriwal’s side, he is perhaps also looking to go outside Delhi… and has managed to get the support of a lot of leaders and shares good terms with the likes of Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar,” he added.

A softer approach with ‘arch-rival LG’

One of the most striking aspects of Kejriwal’s transformation has been his softened tone with the lieutenant governor, whom he once accused of being a central government agent “unleashed” to stall his administration’s work.

Last month, Kejriwal publicly thanked Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal for his cooperation, including for the laser show organised as part of a community Diwali event. The event, he said, had proved a success because of the lieutenant governor.

Sociologist Shiv Vishwanathan said the shift suggested Kejriwal had scaled down his ambitions. “Arvind has ceased to see himself as a national phenomenon. He has become a regional leader who extends to Punjab, Haryana and Delhi,” he added. “Survival means scaling down ambitions.”

The new tenor, ThePrint has learnt, is also inspired by a party strategy for the 2020 Delhi assembly elections where Kejriwal will only focus on governance issues and talk about the work done by the AAP without criticising or pointing fingers towards any political figure.

In his stead, national spokesperson Raghav Chadha and MP Sanjay Singh will articulate the party’s stand on state and national matters.

For example, when Kejriwal was denied permission last month to attend a mayors’ conference in Denmark, Singh lashed out at the Modi government, saying it wasn’t a vacation the chief minister had sought permission for. Kejriwal, meanwhile, refused comment.

Several party leaders told ThePrint that their five-year term had been a learning curve. The losses that followed the party’s phenomenal performance in the Delhi assembly elections, they said, made the party introspect and realise that there was room for change.

Asked about this approach, Singh said he and Chadha had been focusing on responding to the opposition’s allegations based on their experience.

“Every party delegates certain topics to their spokespersons depending on knowledge and other such issues. So ours is no different,” he added.

As for the CM’s focus on governance and silence on political leaders, he said, “We have always prioritised governance over everything else, it is an assumption that we love to fight on everything… actually we like to give true results.”

ThePrint reached Chadha, but he wasn’t available for comment.

‘A strategy for votes’

Opposition leaders said the change was only meant to seek more votes.

Describing the AAP as “crooks of the first order”, Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari said they were “ready to do anything for votes”.

“The BJP is going to jhuggis to celebrate Diwali while Kejriwal is busy organising a laser festival and wasting people’s money on advertisements and what not,” he added.

The AAP, he said, knew the BJP would investigate its deeds if voted to office. “Kejriwal will have to go to jail and is thus using this strategy of being polite to everyone now,” Tiwari added.

Kirti Azad, the Delhi Congress campaign committee chief for the 2020 assembly polls, said “Kejriwal changes his colour like a chameleon”.

“Hence, he is indulging in shadow-boxing out of fear as he knows he is going to lose in the Delhi assembly elections too,” he added.


Also read: Enough talk of AAP’s Delhi sops, BJP plans to showcase Modi govt move to legalise colonies


 

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8 COMMENTS

  1. If kejriwal had followed this strategy in the first 3 years of coming to power, he would not have lost his credibility and support base. After doing sincere work for three years if he had started targeting modi in 2018, people would have even supported him.
    But alas like all politicians he started thinking he is god and infallible and lost all his colleagues in the process. He may be resposible for the rise of AAP, but he is also responsible for its downfall.

  2. Delhi People have seen true color of Kejriwal from 6-7 years & now changing his color,won’t change true identity of Kejriwal. People look at honesty & performance.

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