Trust AAP to somehow make news and stay there. On better days, Arvind Kejriwal sends out a tweet labeling prime minister Narendra Modi as a coward and a psychopath. On other days, a cabinet minister of the Delhi government led by Kejriwal is "captured" and "caught" in a CD that shows him paying obeisance to Kamasutra with two women. Yes, the AAP news today is about "former" cabinet minister Sandeep Kumar exposed in a sex and sleaze "sting". Ironic for a party that encouraged and even instigated people to "sting" people who do wrong. Ironic also for a party that burst into the political scene in India with a promise to be "different" and to cleanse the polity of corruption, sleaze and cronyism that has become the unfortunate hallmark of Indian politics.
People do have a right to ask: why deliver voyeuristic revenge on an adult whose sex life should be private? They have a point. But this latest incident reminds of an American lawyer called Elliot Spritzer who became a rockstar prosecutor of New York for targeting the high and mighty involved in sleaze and sex rackets. Poor Elliot was eventually caught frolicking with prostitutes or paid sex workers if you want to be politically correct. Now this focus on the chronicles doesn't mean other political parties in India are any better. They are not; not by any yardstick. It is AAP and Kejriwal who shout from bully pulpits day in and day out that they are better. A bit like a tomato ketchup brand that kept saying its "different"!
Here is an incomplete list of controversies surrounding AAP and Kejriwal since they shocked pundits in the December 2013 Delhi assembly elections by winning 28 seats and forming a government that lasted a gloriously chaotic and anarchic 49 days:
** In January 2014, the law minister of Delhi leads a late night mob that chases, abuses, assaults and threatens some African women who are "accused" by some local residents of doing drugs and creating problems. All right thinking citizens, except die hard AAP supporters and new found fans of AAP in the media are horrified by the brazen display of vigilantism, misogyny and racism.
** Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal publicly backs Bharti, sits on a dharna near India Gate and threatens to disrupt the Republic Day parade even as he proudly claims he is an anarchist.
** After resigning as chief minister, Kejriwal positions himself as a rival of rising BJP star Narendra Modi and decides to contest Lok Sabha elections against him in Varanasi. He became a darling of many intellectuals and media professionals. At one "private" fund raising event in Nagpur, he actually said that "corrupt" journalists would be put behind bars when he came to power.
** In February, 2015, Kejriwal and AAP won a historic mandate in assembly elections, with 67 out of 70 seats. Within a month, he ensured that two founders of AAP and former friends Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav were heckled, abused, assaulted and thrown out of AAP.
** Around that time emerged serious allegations that the new Law minister Jitender Singh Tomar had actually forged his college degrees. AAP vehemently defended him for a few months and accused Modi of vendetta till it was proven virtually without doubt that Tomar had indeed forged his degrees.
** A farmer from Rajasthan Gajendra Chauhan hanged himself right in front of AAP workers and leaders at Jantar Mantar. Kejriwal continued delivering his speech even as the dead body was allegedly swinging. Facing massive criticism, former journalist and AAP leader Ashutosh sobbed hysterically like a Bollywood thespian on a TV channel. Does anyone remember Gajendra?
** Another minister Asim Khan was caught in a sting asking for bribes from a builder. There had been serious allegations against this leader for a while. But he was sacked as minister only after the sting video emerged.
** Two out of four AAP Lok Sabha MPs are de facto out of the party. One of them has written to the Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan requesting a change in his seat as he cannot tolerate the stench of alcohol emanating from singer turned MP Bhagwant Mann. He is also facing an enquiry for live telecasting interiors of Parliament including security aspects.
** Former Law minister Somnath Bharti who acquired fame for chasing African women in the middle of the night was accused by his wife of torture and harassment. The case in going on.
** About 7 MLAs of AAP face charges ranging from caste slurs to molestation.
** 21 AAP MLAS face almost certain disqualification by the Election Commission in the office of profit.
** Arvind Kejriwal apologized to union minister and BJP leader Nitin Gadkari for defamation. Another such case filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is going on with AAP lawyers using every legally allowed trick in the book to keep delaying the case.
** A top AAP leader of Punjab Suja Singh Chotepur has been removed as convenor because yet another sting has "exposed" him for asking money for doling out tickets. Supporters of Chotepur are convinced AAP leaders based in Delhi have framed their leader.
There is much, much more. The question any sensible Indian citizen would ask after all this is: How "different" is AAP?
