Letter to BS: After two wins, Kejriwal seems to be discarding liberalism

The readiness to take risks and importantly to stay with its USP defines a successful political entity. Having mislaid both, the Congress has lost direction, the Left Front has faded away, cocooned in its dated ideology, and the Bharatiya Janata Party is at the crossroads risking its principles and policies in a personality-driven hubris. Caught up in the updraft of two huge back-to-back wins, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party seems to be discarding the plank of change and liberalism to move to familiar podiums of identity politics. If it is toying with soft Hindutva today, it may move to soft secularism, semi-hard nationalism and so on, forgoing a niche, which it could have broadened otherwise. Clearly Kejriwal’s ambition is not tall enough to face the rough and confrontational politics that propelled a modest activist to a constructive power player.

R Narayanan  Navi Mumbai

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