Is the liquor scam the beginning of the end of Kejriwal?

As the American free thinker H.L. Mencken had presciently said: “The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing.”

 

It seems he was describing the current political scenario in Delhi. The same game is repeatedly played by the skilled practitioners of the political craft. It is déjà vu for the public.  Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is his usual combative self- fighting the LG yet again.

After the Kejriwal government got embroiled in the excise scam and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia got raided by CBI subsequently, things have got murkier.

 

Nowadays a flurry of press conferences, are held by both sides, on a daily basis. While the BJP keeps asking Kejriwal and his lieutenants to respond to the serious allegations of corruption leveled against them related to the now infamous “Excise scam “, they are met with complete silence over the charges. Instead, AAP leaders are busy in leveling counter charges of corruption against the present LG and the BJP’s “Operation lotus”.

This has prodded the well-known social activist and his erstwhile colleague in the famous Lok Pal agitation, Anna Hazare to write a letter to Kejriwal, slamming his government’s new excise policy and asserting that the CM has “sunk in the addiction of power”. Hazare also said that it seems the new policy will encourage the sale and consumption of liquor and spur corruption.

Hazare, reminded his former associate Kejriwal about the latter’s book ‘Swaraj’ which favored banning liquor. Anna Hazare, who had penned the foreword of ‘Swaraj’, reminded Kejriwal that he   “… wrote several idealistic things in the book. Everyone had hopes from you but it seems that after becoming the CM, you forgot that ideology and that is why the Delhi government came up with a new liquor policy.”

 

“The policy will spur corruption and this thing is not at all in the interest of the people. But still, you took the decision to bring the new liquor policy. Like addiction of liquor, there is an addiction of power and it seems that you have sunk into it.” Hazare also added that the policy shows that a party which was born after launching a historic agitation is now following the trajectory of other parties, which is painful.

After the CBI raided Kejriwal’s deputy, Kejriwal propagated another falsehood–that the central government wanted to stop the excellent work done by the Delhi government in the field of education and health. Kejriwal went further and declared that Sisodia, the current education minister of Delhi, is the best education minister of the world but shied away from responding to the serious charges of corruption levelled against Sisodia and his government.

It seems that there is an all-out effort by Kejriwal and his party to somehow divert the issue and not allow the public to know the extent of malfeasance in the excise scam.

The most unscrupulous feature of Kejriwal politics has been to create a false narrative by various means, including media publicity, and using sections of the fourth estate. He has been following this path from the start of his public life. Initially Kejriwal had proclaimed that a true democracy is one where laws are not discussed inside assembly buildings but are   discussed and debated on roads. He termed this as   true grass root democracy in action. But while opening thousands of new liquor shops to solely benefit the liquor mafias and himself, he conveniently forgot the critical participation of the people in decision making. It seems that meticulously selling the false narrative of his ill- conceived schemes to the gullible population and deluding them that he is promoting Vikas -is Kejriwal’s main objective.

Earlier, while Kejriwal was spearheading the Lokpal anti-corruption movement, he had made the tall claim that he was bringing the Lokpal Bill to end the misery of the people and to usher in an era of prosperity. He was aware he was making a totally false promise and that corruption would not be decimated by passing of the Lokpal Bill. Still, an absolutely phony narrative was created in the minds of a large number of people that electing Kejriwal to power would auto-correct all the ills plaguing our capital.

It is abundantly clear that he and his ministers are neck deep in this excise scam. He is unable to rebut the charges levelled against him and his government- by the opposition parties. So, he is left with no option but to adopt diversionary tactics to save himself and his coterie. He could fool the people into believing that the Lok Pal act would be the panacea for all the ills plaguing India- but his deceptions are now being exposed. The only option left with him is to come clean by answering all the questions raised by the investigators about the excise scam and to stop levelling unsubstantiated charges against others.

People also must realize that governance is serious business and cannot be left to the mercy of those who are abusing their trust, with impunity. The public has to stop being duped by populist leaders like Kejriwal who expend all their effort in creating phony storylines by brazenly spending taxpayers’ money for the same. We have had enough of these masqueraders ruling across various states of our union. We need authentic and principled human beings as our leaders. Societies sink into depravity when toleration is considered good in itself without regard to the prodigious deception and duplicity being tolerated.

Also Read:  Anna Hazare slams Kejriwal on liquor excise policy