Talking Turkey: Will AAP's fall be as dramatic as its rise?

The Aam Aadmi Party’s rise has been an extraordinary one and, judging by recent trends, its decline promises to be equally clear. Arvind Kejriwal, the political impresario, is a man in a hurry and a person who achieved spectacular results in the Delhi Assembly elections, seems to have frittered away much of his capital. From the beginning, Mr Kejriwal posed two kinds of problems: his penchant for dictator-like powers and his tilting the windmills at the Centre. In the first instance, he gave his game away by getting rid of the two of the sparks of the AAP — Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan. He could not tolerate anyone but yes men in the party. Second, beating the drums of “no power” in a scheme of things well known to everyone, given the nature of the state, was excessive.

What is hurting the AAP even more is the level of representatives he has chosen as candidates for the Assembly elections. The long line of MLAs being paraded before the courts every other day would bring blushes to any party. The MLAs being charged with forging degrees, sexual adventure or other misdemeanours are viewed by the AAP as a matter of routine. What seems to have let down Mr Kejriwal is his own hubris. Delhi, for Mr Kejriwal, is only the starting point. He wants to take over Punjab, Goa and even Ahmedabad. Common sense would suggest that Mr Kejriwal should concentrate attention on Delhi in providing a clean and efficient government, rather than spread his wings nationwide. But although he has enacted populist measures on water and electricity, his thoughts are on winning the country.

The most dramatic debacle for the AAP government was that while the capital was swooning under two viral diseases, with hospitals overflowing, there was no one to mind the store. Mr Kejriwal was in a Bengaluru hospital for a throat operation, his deputy had decided on the merits of studying the Finnish school system, at least one minister was on Haj and the heath minister could barely extract himself from the delights of Goa to scramble to get to Delhi the next day. The picture presented was hardly of a responsible government. The Kejriwal government has proved to be the most spendthrift in history. The self-glorification of the chief minister stares from the pages of newspapers and on TV channels every day. In colloquial language, he is termed the “chota Modi” (the little Modi) because he has seemed to tailor his programme in emulation of the Prime Minister, forgetting that there is a difference between the posts he and Narendra Modi hold.

Perhaps it is Mr Kejriwal’s overweening ambition that has laid him low. He had assiduously built up his political career on exploiting the Anna Hazare anti-corruption movement. When Mr Hazare got wind of his former pupil’s high jinks, Mr Kejriwal paid him lip service while ignoring him much of the time. He did not need that crutch any longer. Mr Kejriwal’s present plight raises two kinds of questions. Can he retrieve his position by trimming his sails or has he reached a state of mind in which he can see nothing but his vaulting ambition? The other is his ability to concentrate on resolving one problem, that of governing Delhi, and not become a one-man army putting out fires all over the country. More and more Delhiites are getting tired of his slanging matches with the lieutenant-governor when his administration should follow the rules. There is little point in challenging a system in place while holding the office of chief minister. If Mr Kejriwal wants to fight the system, he should resign and move over to the Opposition.

There are, of course, problems of administering a state of limited powers given to Delhi in view of its status as the nation’s capital. Mr Kejriwal was well aware of these limitations when he took office, but his grandstanding on behalf of Delhi has fallen flat. And the problem of denuding his party of two leaders of stature because he wanted to be the sole king in a land peopled by pigmies. It is not clear yet how the AAP experiment will end. There was much anticipation for the party in the beginning as the new kid on the block and Mr Kejriwal had not entirely lost his bearings, but the process started soon enough: the contest with the “enemy”, the Centre, testing the extent of his own powers even though the priority of becoming a national leader was being advertised in several ways. What the political system has to decide now is how the Kejriwal phenomenon will fade and how soon. What the people of Delhi want is not an interminable quarrel between the Centre and Mr Kejriwal. People want Delhi to be governed well and efficiently without a slanging match going on between Mr Kejriwal and Mr Modi.

Ambition, they say, is the destroyer of souls. Perhaps Mr Kejriwal has pitched his ambitions too high. The kind of charges his MLAs are facing is a shame and speaks of a total lack of vigilance in selection of candidates. His early success in Punjab gave him a false sense of victory and since it is in a sense a one-man show because the leader wants it that way, the burden on Mr Kejriwal is greater. Can Mr Kejriwal pull his party out of its predicament? The answer will depend upon his willingness to learn from his mistakes. Ambition is good but overweening ambition can destroy people and careers. Partly, the election results in Punjab will give the answer. As the Punjab Congress leader, Capt. Amarinder Singh, has pointed out, Mr Kejriwal is from another state and is therefore an interloper in the land of the five rivers. Having packed his party with yes men, it is unlikely that he receives good political advice on time. His deputy, Manish Sisodia, does not strike one as a person who would give unsolicited honest advice. Perhaps Sheila Dikshit, the long-time former chief minister of Delhi, is having the last laugh. There is more to the art of politics than getting votes.