Letters: Kejriwal should buck up

Apropos the editorial, "A political start-up" (February 17), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power in Delhi a second consecutive time riding on fanfare and expectations, as it had projected itself as an out-of-the-box alternative to established political parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.

Citizens of Delhi might feel let down because Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has not been able to keep all the promises he made them. But calling his AAP government a failure just a year after it took over is not justified. Of course, in terms of perception - which, at times, is quite close to reality - Kejriwal always seems to be in confrontational mode and ready to pick a fight with the BJP-led government at the Centre. He knows well that the Delhi Police and the municipal corporations are not under his control and that his predecessor Sheila Dikshit ran the government in Delhi quite well for 15 years with this handicap.

Kejriwal would have shown maturity as a politician had he forgotten his differences with the BJP and worked closely with the central government. Having said that, he deserves kudos for the way he sprung to action during the dengue epidemic, that he allocated a bigger chunk of the state budget to the education sector, and that he implemented the odd-even car rationing scheme in the face of criticism from various quarters. The scheme might not have reduced pollution significantly, but did mitigate the traffic congestion problem. People of Delhi, too, responded positively to his initiative. But he still has a lot of ground to cover and for this he has four years left in power.

When Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee and Kejriwal came to power, there were huge expectations from them. Yadav and Banerjee have not delivered as much and people are getting disenchanted with them. Kejriwal needs to keep this in mind, so that he does not arouse the same feelings in the people of Delhi.

Bal Govind Noida

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