Arvind Kejriwal and Kanshi Ram: So near and yet so far, politically

Perhaps because the nitty-gritty of politics is so tough, the BSP founder and the AAP boss remain so far apart on so many issues

Probably, it is early to gamble on the political future of Arvind Kejriwal, but he has managed to paint as black, the political class in general. Kejriwal, 45, is famous for his backroom maneouvering in a protest movement against corruption that erupted in 2011. It was led by veteran social activist Anna Hazare, who fasted to demand the creation of a Lokpal (powerful ombudsman) to combat corruption. It failed.

But, Kejriwal considered the architect of the crusade is a politician today. 

On October 2, 2012, on the 143rd anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, Kejriwal launched his political party, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). And like others of his ilk, he must make a grab for power if he has to stay relevant.

According to latest Times Now-CVoter  survey, the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP would make an impressive debut by winning seven of Delhi's 70 assembly seats. Political observers say the AAP made inroads into slums and colonies of the poor by raising issues such as high cost of power, water crisis and petty crimes. The other challenge the ruling Congress could face is from the BSP, which has gained in strength over the last decade. Of a total of 70 seats in the Delhi Assembly, the Congress won 43 and 47 in the 2008 and 2003 elections respectively. The BJP won 23 and 20 seats.

 

The new C-Fore survey predicts that the AAP is poised to make an impressive electoral debut by capturing nearly 20% of the vote —  which adds up to 7-12 seats in Delhi.

Kejriwal calls Arab spring protesters in Egypt an inspiration for their use of social media, and has become adept at campaigning, using technology in the absence of Hazare to draw crowds. The AAP has reportedly registered 1.5 million phone users in Delhi alone. The party is going from door to door to seek donations from Delhiites. Party sources said they had collected close to Rs 4 lakh from 20,000 households in the New Delhi constituency, and they now plan to extend the programme to all the 70 assembly constituencies. The party raises funds online, too.

There is one school of thought that argues that India is ripe for some new politics at present. The old politics has clearly run out of ideas and energy. Kanshi Ram was the last outsider who built a successful political party. He began way back in early 1970s and it took nearly twenty years before he had a mechanism which won seats in Uttar Pradesh.

Arguably, the founder of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) was one of the shrewdest politicians in India. In 1984, he created a party almost single handed. His one point policy that he offered was: self-respect for the Dalits. In fact, it was not an original idea. At the beginning of this century, Shri Narayana Guru tried it out in Kerala. But his activities were chiefly limited to social reform. Ram used it as a tool in the realm of politics and on a far larger scale.

Ram first launched an organisation for protecting the interests of Dalit workers in government organisations in 1978. He later floated a political forum -- Dalit Shoshit Sangharsh Samiti -- in 1981.

He tested political waters by entering the fray in 1987 in a Lok Sabha by-election against Vishwanath Pratap Singh in Allahabad when the latter founded Jan Morcha, but failed to make it to Parliament. However, he later won from Etawah, Uttar Pradesh, in 1991 and entered the Lok Sabha.

Ram made no bones of the fact that his ultimate goal was to grab the Chief Minister’s chair for himself or Mayawati. He had elevated political opportunism to a philosophy. Early in his career, he had decided that agitations against price rise or for minimum wages never led to real social change. Capturing power was the only way.

It had taken him one look at Mayawati at a Dalit meeting to realise her potential. So he approached her parents: what plans did they have for the fresh law graduate. The parents wanted her to join the IAS, but Ram served up the clincher: if Mayawati went into politics, she would have a hundred IAS officials kow-towing to her.

When the Dalits come out in huge numbers to vote in western Uttar Pradesh, where they once wouldn’t be allowed to, they always attribute the change to the moral courage inspired by the Dalit messiah. 

Like Ram, Kejriwal is not a first-or-second-generation dynast set up in politics by fond parents. He cleared the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) examination on his first attempt and joined the mechanical engineering stream at IIT-Kharagpur in 1985. After graduating from IIT, Kejriwal took up a job with Tata Steel Ltd and was posted at the company’s Jamshedpur design plant in 1989. After some time, Kejriwal cracked the civil service examination and was posted in the Indian Revenue Service. His first posting was in Delhi as an assistant tax commissioner.

Kejriwal worked in the tax department for some time, but his heart was never in the nine-to-five job. In 1999, he took a sabbatical to work with Parivartan, a non-government organization. In the same year, Kejriwal met Shekhar Singh, a person who would later join him in a movement that would give India landmark legislation in the form of the RTI Act. 

The AAP leader produced documents alleging irregularities in land deals involving Congress president Sonia Gandhi's businessman son-in-law, Robert Vadra, and India's biggest property developer, DLF Ltd. Vadra denied the allegations, saying they were "utterly false, entirely baseless and defamatory". The real estate firm also denied any impropriety. 

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid called Kejriwal an ant trying to take on an elephant after he alleged a non-governmental group led by Khurshid and his wife misused funds. The Khurshids have denied any wrongdoing.

 

In Pakistan, too, Imran Khan took nearly 17 years to make a big electoral impact — and he was a World Cup winning cricket captain. Will Kejriwal take so long? 

 

Promising a safe city for citizens, the AAP symbol of a broom holds the promise of wiping the streets of Delhi clean, ridding it off crime and corruption.