Sunil Sethi: The boy who cried 'Wolf, wolf!'

Arvind Kejriwal's anti-corruption campaign made him a hero, but now that the political movement is a party in power, wielding the jhaaru is proving to be a cumbersome business

A memorably ironic headline when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) took power in late December appeared above an editorial commentary in a Pakistani daily: "AAP ki tareef?" it politely asked. Depending on the tone in which the question is posed in courtly Urdu, the double entendre is loaded. It seeks a formal introduction to someone never encountered before; at the same time, it can suggest a mocking rejection. A slight inflection of the voice and raised eyebrow turn the query on its head to mean: "Who the hell are you?"

Six weeks into its rule in Delhi, more and more people are asking the question of the AAP in both senses of the phrase. The AAP's votaries - they are many, and still counting - argue that it is the country's best chance to clean up electoral politics, inclusive for cutting across affiliations of caste, region and religion, and that Arvind Kejriwal is the man to root out corruption by taking on big business interests and political lobbies. But the party's critics also seem to be growing apace, even ahead of his resignation on Friday. The media is less wide-eyed about Mr Kejriwal; and his public wants to know whether he is capable of day-to-day governance in attending to the nuts-and-bolts administering of a large and complex city-state. Is he an anarchist, hell-bent on the politics of confrontation, or merely the boy who went out to tend his flock each morning and ran home crying "Wolf, wolf!"

So far as the chief minister's remit goes, Mr Kejriwal's main achievement after subsidising water and power is to actually "reward" his followers who defaulted on paying their electricity bills in 2012-13. With undue diligence, his government has located 24,036 such customers and decided to foot half their arrears and waive off penalties. What happens to the millions of others who honestly pay their bills on time? Are they expected to foot the largesse that flows at intervals from the AAP's high command?

Mr Kejriwal's anti-corruption campaign made him a hero, but now that the political movement is a party in power, wielding the jhaaru is proving to be a cumbersome business. Since he took office, he has threatened to cancel licences of power distribution companies, accused the Congress leadership of graft and had FIRs filed against petroleum ministers and corporate bosses for pecuniary gain in inflating gas prices. No tangible result is visible, however. As his politics of agitprop becomes more strident, it is also losing its shine. Shrill headlines in the age of 24x7 news tend to fade fast.

Mr Kejriwal's big stick now is the Jan Lok Pal Bill. Without it in place, goes the argument, he cannot crack down on corruption in high places, nor impose law and order in the city-state. He is locked in combat with Delhi's lieutenant governor and the Union home ministry over the first issue and sorely embarrassed on the second by his Law Minister Somnath Bharti's midnight run-in with the police over Ugandan women wrongly accused of sex and drug trafficking.

Surely Mr Kejriwal and his wayward flock knew from day one that they were heading a government in a national capital territory and not a full-fledged state - and a minority government, moreover, supported by the Congress.

The Congress party has belied Mr Kejriwal's fondest hope. Obstructing him in every way, it refuses to bring down the AAP government. Had that happened, Mr Kejriwal would have steamed into the general election on an anti-Congress and anti-corruption platform, doubling his attack, and wearing a saintly halo of victimhood.

In a fit of pique, he has now resigned. That was possibly Mr Kejriwal's best bet. While the Bharatiya Janata Party sits quietly awaiting its chance with a wolfishly big grin, who, except 24,036 defaulters rewarded for not paying their electricity bills, will listen to the boy who cries "Wolf, wolf!"? Meanwhile, minorities and women are not particularly safe in the capital; the roads are crumbling; garbage collection hasn't improved; and the state of government-run schools and hospitals remains much the same. What's more, intermittent power cuts have just begun.