Analysing Kejriwal’s brand of politics

The swearing of Arvind Kejriwal as the Cheif Minister of Delhi for the third term and his appeal to opposition politicians to forget the bitterness that clouded the election campaign has heralded the beginning of a new chapter in the politics of Delhi. The post-swearing in speech at the Ramlila grounds was converted by Kejriwal into a thanksgiving ceremony to the applause of thousands of Delhiites.

The transformation of Arvind Kejriwal from a firebrand speaker against the Congress and the BJP from the days he took a lead role in the Campaign Against Corruption in 2013 under the stewardship of Anna Hazare to the present with his appeal to the Modi government to bless his administration to cooperate with him in the governance of Delhi is a remarkable journey in the chief minister’s political career.

Kejriwal is sending a clear message that he is no more a maverick politician and that he is going to be there for a long haul. All this merits an analysis of Kejriwal and his brand of politics.

Let us first take a look at Kejriwal’s priorities. During the last two years of his second term, Kejriwal gave up his confrontationist attitude towards the Centre and started focusing on the delivery of his promise of providing free water and power to the common man, improving the healthcare facilities through the inauguration of mohalla clinics, improving the quality of education in public schools and free bus ride to women.

Surveys of his governance show that the poor, the lower and middle income groups and even the upper middle class were impressed by his sincerity of purpose and delivery of services.

As for schools, studies have revealed that though the quality of school education has marginally gone up, the physical infrastructure has vastly improved along with changes in curriculum relating to imparting of skills and spoken English capabilities among the school-going children.

It was these aam aadmi-centric policies that helped Kejriwal to return to power by winning 62 of the 70 seats. The Delhi voters were also impressed with AAP’s promise of taking up the issue of fighting pollution on a priority basis in the months to come.

It is a measure of political maturity of Delhi voters that they returned AAP to power though they had rejected it during the Lok Sabha elections.

Among the other significant factors which brought Arvind Kejriwal back to power was his conscious decision to refrain from taking any position on the controversial CAA, NRC, the Shaheen Bagh protest and finally not indulging in any anti-Modi tirade. More than all these, he cleverly strategised not to alienate the Hindu voters and recited Hanuman Chalisa and visited the Hanuman temple immediately after the end of the campaign and after the declaration of results.

Clearly, Kejriwal was driven by his single point agenda of coming back to power by keeping the Hindu voters on his side.

That AAP’s Muslim candidates like Amanullah Khan won (all Muslim candidates won too) with a huge majority of over 71,000 votes, conveys the message that the Muslim voters too decided to support AAP, notwithstanding the fact that Kejriwal did not support the Shaheen Bagh protests.

Kejriwal’s victory at the polls is also an occasion to analyse the other related issues of the role of ideology in politics and his possible role in the Opposition’s fight against Modi. As for ideology, Kejriwal’s strategy was to downplay its role and focus on issues which have a direct bearing on the lives of the people in Delhi.

Pursuit of politics

For him, the priority is taking head-on the problems of the voters and directly connect with their aspirations. Ideology and ideological pursuits, which is a doctrinaire sense, drive the pursuit of politics, did not resonate with Kejriwal.

In fact, in his post-swearing in speech, he spoke of the service of the common man as deshbhakthi. Whether we academic analysts approve it or not, this is what the ordinary aspirational voter expects from politicians. May be, Kejriwal’s brand of politics will appeal to younger politicians in their pursuit of power and office in the days to come.

As regards Kejriwal becoming the new nucleus of Opposition unity, such things do not seem to interest him. With the next round of Lok Sabha elections far away, Kejriwal may be in no hurry to involve himself in the project of Opposition unity. The realist in him has perhaps cautioned Kejriwal against any sense of exuberance in aspiring for a leadership role in the directionless Opposition’s struggle against the Modi government.

Finally, that he talked about his willingness to cooperate with the Central government and even sought Modi’s blessings to make Delhi a world-class city, is a clear indication of Kejriwal’s priorities in the foreseeable future.

It remains to be seen how successful would he be in meeting the rising aspirations of Delhiites, before the media and people’s honeymoon with his government ends.

(The writer is former Professor of Political Science, Bangalore University and former Senior Fellow, ICSSR)