By the time you read this, Finance Minister and BJP leader Arun Jaitley would have filed civil and criminal defamation cases against AAP supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders. It would be an interesting legal battle to watch. Of course, defamation charges and cases are not new to Kejriwal. And of course, we should all be used to the predictable habit of Kejriwal making "wild" allegations against all and sundry. Remember how he kept hammering away during his early days as a political leader; claiming that he has proof against alleged corruption of Shiela Dixit? Remember how he kept saying he has secret bank account numbers of Mukesh Ambani? Of late, his principal target is prime minister Narendra Modi. If you believe even a fraction of his allegations, it would seem Modi wakes up every morning crafting plots to harass, intimidate, throttle, sabotage, remove and destroy Kejriwal, the Delhi government and AAP. That is after Modi has spent the night dreaming of such plots. You and me might laugh at the antics and theatrics of Kejriwal. But the real issue is that a hell of lot of people seem to believe him.
And that is where we come to the word "demagogue". Judging by any yardstick, Arvind Kejriwal is not only a demagogue in the classic sense, he also happens to be the most successful demagogue in contemporary times. Here are three definitions provided by the Merriam Webster dictionary for a demagogue. Many mainstream media professionals, analysts, activists and pundits are still convinced Narendra Modi is "Demagogue Number One" of India. But he has been beaten hands down by Kejriwal!
"A political leader who tries to get support by making false claims and promises and using arguments based on emotion rather than reason"
"A leader who makes use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power"
"A leader championing the cause of common people in ancient times".
Kejriwal and his fans think the third definition is more suitable. But the reality is that the first two definitions better represent facts as they stand today. There is a clear "underclass" in India that is angry, frustrated and totally alienated from the system. Kejriwal is brilliantly using and leveraging this bubbling undercurrent of anger and angst to build his political career. And why not? All politicians have the equal right to make tall claims and fuel popular prejudices. But just three examples below will showcase how the Kejriwal posturing of fighting for the poor is sheer sophistry of a demagogue.
In the din and noise over the National Herald case and the CBI raids on Kejriwal's principal secretary Rajinder Kumar, one major news event was completely buried and ignored. Last week, the Delhi High Court severely reprimanded the Delhi chief secretary K.K. Sharma and virtually threatened to send him to jail on contempt charges. Why? This relates to the implementation of the controversial Street Vendors Bill. Despite many reminders, the Delhi government is not implementing it. The Bill requires street vendors to follow a set of rules, get a license from a local body and then operate. But there is utter chaos since the Kejriwal government is sitting pretty and authorities are "seizing" the "assets" of poor street vendors. According to the Delhi High Court, more than 1,400 writ petitions have been filed by street vendors who face a loss of livelihood. In public posturing, Kejriwal would love to be the messiah of street vendors. In reality, his government has virtually abandoned them.
Not a single major news outlet has covered this ongoing crisis of livelihood for hundreds of thousands of street vendors. Similarly, virtually no news outlet has bothered to examine the "revolutionary" Education Bill that was passed by the Delhi assembly in the last week of November. One key provision of the new Bill deals a body blow to private school teachers who are exploited by school owners and managements. A 1973 law had decreed that private schools must pay their teachers the same salary earned by government school teachers. The Kejriwal government has at one stroke removed this provision. Thousands of private school teachers are agitated. Sine the "supply" of teachers is always more than their "demand" in Delhi, school managements are now free to go back to their good old days of exploring helpless teachers. Of course, Kejriwal has done all seemingly to stop "greedy" private schools from exploiting parents. This author at least has not come across a single "education" activist or analyst calling out Kejriwal for this amazing display of double standards!
The third case has hit at least some attention from the media, though definitely not as much as it deserves. It is about the Jan Lokpal Bill passed by the Delhi assembly. Shorn of jargon, this Bill breaks virtually every promise that Kejriwal has made as an anti corruption activist and a crusader for the poor. Why, it even has a provision whereby citizens making "false" charges of corruption could get a one year jail term! So much for anti corruption!
The obvious question is: for how long can the demagogue Arvind Kejriwal continue getting away with this? This is one case where we have no choice but to fall back on the classic cliché of journalism: only time will tell.
