If the discourse was mot so nasty, one could have been tempted to call Delhi chief minister and AAP supremo the Virender Sehwag of contemporary politics. Like Sehwag, the only language and attitude that Kejriwal seems to understand is attack and counter attack. So when the CBI raided the residence and office, along with 12 other places, of Rajinder Kumar, an IAS officer accused of corruption who happens to be the principal secretary of Kejriwal, he counter attacked with vengeance. After calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi a coward and a psychopath, Kejriwal set his sights on top BJP leader and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Old allegations of corruption and cronyism at the DDCA (the cricket body of Delhi) where Jaitley has ruled supreme for a long time were dredged up to try and corner Jaitley, and the Modi regime. Folks in the media love the theatre of the absurd and Kejriwal knows this well. So now it is a “war of perceptions” between Kejriwal and Jaitley. Facts, as we all know, no longer remain relevant when Kejriwal is on the prowl. But this is not about Kejriwal. It is about how Arun Jaitley seems to have repeatedly lost the “perception” battle ever since Modi came to power. This is indeed surprising for a man who is known have excellent relations with the mainstream media in Delhi. Just look at the cases:
1:
Black Money: The buck stops with Modi, but it was Jaitley who came under sustained fire over the black money issue. The recovery of black money stashed abroad was one of the key promises that Modi repeatedly made during the 2014 Lok Sabha campaign. So all hell broke loose last year when the Modi regime told the Supreme Court exactly what the previous UPA regime had been saying: that bilateral treaties with other countries prevented the government from releasing the names of Indians with “black money” accounts in overseas banks. Ram Jethmalani fell upon Jaitley like a ton of bricks and has since publicly accused Jaitley of shielding the corrupt. The facts are irrelevant. A large majority of Modi fans active on social media (described derisively as Internet Hindus by the mainstream media) also slammed Jaitley over the issue. Modi has lost much political capital because of this.
2:
Reforms: When Arun Jaitley presented his first Budget in July, 2014, the euphoria of the Modi and BJP victory was still the flavor of the season. And yet, well known columnist Swaminatahan S. Aiyer ridiculed the Budget in his Times of India column as an UPA effort with saffron lipstick. Other independent commentators too slammed the effort. The next Budget was not savaged as badly, but no serious economist or analyst praised it either. Then come the two big ticket “reform” measures of this regime: the land bill and GST. While the buck stops with Modi, Jaitley cannot escape blame since he has been the publicly acknowledged strategist behind these reform measures.
3:
Investor & Tax Payer Friendly: During his historic Lok Sabha campaign, Modi kept harping on now excessive “government control” and the persistence of the so called Inspector Raj was stifling the Indian economy. He kept assaulting the UPA regime for its capricious and arbitrary efforts to harass investors and tax payers. So Modi fans were shocked first when his regime reiterated the UPA demand from Vodafone of billions of dollars in tax claims. The same was repeated with Cairns Energy. The real shocker came when finance ministry “babus” released a new income tax filing process that, apart from other things, wanted Indians to detail their personal expenditures during overseas visits. Social media platforms were set on fire not just by Modi critics, but also Modi fans who hurled the choicest of abuses on Jaitley. That draconian “form” was withdrawn. But alas, the damage has been done.
4:
Rising Prices: The first blow came when onion prices threatened to touch Rs 100 per kg. It was Jaitley who was seen to intervene and assure Indian consumers that this was a temporary blip. But Modi critics lost no time in ridiculing his regime for the failure to control prices of even basic commodities. But criticism turned to scorn when the prices of pulses threatened to cross Rs 200 per kg. There were many statements from Jaitley about how the government would crack down on “hoarders” who were profiteering from the shortage of pulses. To no avail. Modi critics laughed at his statements. And many Modi supporters lamented how Jaitley was talking the language of Indira Gandhi of 1970s.
5:
OROP: This again was one of the most “emotional” promises made by Modi during the Lok Sabha campaign. In fact, the first “election” rally that Modi addressed after being officially anointed as the PM candidate was to armed forces veterans. They expected much from him on this issue. But strangely, the issue kept dragging on till veterans launched a nationwide protest de,amusing the implementation of OROP. During his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort in 2015, Modi admitted that the OROP issue was tougher than he had assumed. The promised OROP has been delivered. But talk to any armed forces person, and the dislike, mistrust and scorn of Jaitley and his Finance Ministry bureaucrats is so intense that it is frightening.
If you follow and get “entertained” by social media wars, you will find out more “gory details” on all the five issues. But who said politics is not ironical? Last year, Modi publicly praised Jaitley during a rally in Jammu and paid tribute to his father. Jaitley’s father was a hard core Congress leader of Jammu & Kashmir. Incidentally, the BJP leader and Lok Sabha MP who has been publicly denouncing Jaitley is former cricketer Kirti Azad. His father was a Congress chief minister of Bihar!
