JOIN USThe “muffler man”, as Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is popularly known, is back in action in Delhi Secretariat after cementing his place in politics with a memorable victory in the Assembly polls.
In his first public address as the city’s eighth chief minister, the 46-year-old leader made it clear that the anti-corruption drive has not ended after he quit as the chief minister on February 14 last year.
By renewing his call to people to record on mobile phones any government servant seeking bribes and sending the clip to him for action, Kejriwal has again shown that creating fear in the minds of the tainted will be his biggest weapon in curbing corruption.
This time, he seemed wiser as he did not promise results overnight. He was cautious not to set a deadline for passing the Jan Lokpal Bill, over which he was forced to quit within 49 days of assuming office in his first innings. Now, he has assured to pass the anti-corruption law at the earliest. In the just-concluded polls, Kejriwal, who was dismissed by rivals as a “non-actor”, has wiped out the Congress and decimated the BJP. The AAP has 67 seats and the BJP has three in the 70-member House.
The Congress’ wipeout is a sweet revenge for Kejriwal who was challenged by senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal in 2011, not to criticise the political system as an outsider but to join it to cleanse it from within.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award winner and former Indian Revenue Service officer came into prominence from the anti-corruption agitation launched by 75-year-old activist Anna Hazare in support of Jan Lokpal Bill in 2011.
Kejriwal was part of Team Anna, along with Kiran Bedi, Prashant Bhushan and others. He was a civil society representative member of the committee constituted by the government to draft the Jan Lokpal Bill, following the campaign for introduction of the legislation.
Born on August 16, 1968, in Hisar, Haryana, to Gobind Ram Kejriwal and Gita Devi, Arvind is a mechanical engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.