Dear Arvind Kejriwal,
February 8 could not have been an easy day for you.
The BJP won more than twice the number of seats than your party did in the Delhi Assembly elections, and will now form the government in the national capital after a hiatus of 27 years.
I can imagine how challenging the last one year must have been for you, especially your time in prison as a victim of vicious political vendetta.
Before I go any further, I would like to tell you that the morning after you were arrested by the ED in March 2024, I took the day off to visit your party office on Rouse avenue, to express not just solidarity with your party workers, but also outrage at that brazen attack on democracy!
It wasn’t easy to get to your office. The police were carting away your supporters by the busloads at ITO crossing. Even some office goers in the area who were simply sitting by the side of the road and having their mid-morning tea were hauled off in police buses that morning! The road where the AAP office is situated was heavily barricaded, but an enterprising rickshaw driver showed me a way to reach it.
It involved walking through back alleys and ‘taapo-ing’ (jumping over) a low wall. The AAP office was closed and a tense stillness hung in the air. Nonetheless, I managed to interview a few party workers for my tiny little YouTube channel (which has very few subscribers but is nonetheless endeavouring to maintain a record of contemporary Indian history)
You can watch that video here:
In fact, as you may recall, barely ten days later, the opposition parties got together at a Loktantra Bachaao (‘Save Democracy’) rally at Ramlila Maidan, where the leaders of the main opposition parties – including your traditional political opponent, the Congress – spoke out strongly against your incarceration. They left a couple of empty chairs on the stage too – one for you and one for Hemant Soren who was also imprisoned at that time. It was a hope-giving moment to see the opposition come together and challenge the BJP.
It cannot be said that the Opposition wasn’t there for you in your hour of need.
I attended that rally too just because, as a citizen of a (faltering) democracy I felt I was duty-bound to. Besides hearing the speeches of opposition leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi Yadav, Akhilesh Yadav, Kalpana Soren and the late Sitaram Yechury, I also interviewed many people in the audience. I would like to draw your attention to my conversation with one Mr. Devinder in particular, a Delhi businessman. (You can see it around the 3 minute 30 second mark in this video).
He shared how he was worried about the communalism, casteism and economic inequality that is tearing India apart, and how he believed that the Mahagathbandhan can play a crucial role in stopping its deadly march.
Then there was Kali Ram, a farmer from Jind (at the 6 minute 48 second mark) who spoke with clarity and eloquence about the dictatorial ways of leaders like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jing Ping and worried that India is headed down the same path.
He said very clearly in Haryanvi accented Hindi, “I am not representing any particular party, but I am here because I am desperately concerned about our democracy. My humble request to the opposition leaders is to put aside their “niji svaarth” (self-serving greed) and save democracy.”
Did you put your niji svaarth aside for the greater good, Mr. Kejriwal?
I have taken the liberty to ask three questions that are possibly foremost in the minds of many who are genuinely concerned about Indian democracy, whether or not they voted for AAP in these elections:
- Why didn’t AAP and Congress fight these elections together? You could have quite possibly defeated the BJP if you had joined ranks. At least no one would be asking you this question and you could say you did your very best to fight together against a common opponent. It is easy to blame “the arrogance of the Congress” as is your wont, but what about your intent and role in the matter?
- Why did you give the BJP political ammunition by refurbishing your house the way you did? We don’t really know what the inside of your house looks like, but as Chief Minister of a party that is named after the aam aadmi or common man, did you perhaps score a self-goal by spending a few crores improving your own residence while the great majority of your own vote base lives in want and poverty? (One can’t help but remember that old blue Wagon-R of yours…)
- Why did you not define a clear, secular ideological line for your party? It was very clear to everyone observing your Sundarkaand paath and Hanuman mandir trips that you were playing the soft Hindutva card, call it whatever else you may. As Ravish Kumar astutely pointed out in his show on February 8, did you start viewing the Delhi electorate only as Hindu voters, while forgetting that there are many voters – Hindu and otherwise – who do not believe that religion and politics should be mixed? One lesson that has probably become painfully clear, one hopes, is that you cannot beat the BJP at its own game.
You now have time to reflect about your last ten years in power. I hope you will take some of these questions to heart as well.
Rohit Kumar is an educator, author and independent journalist who can be reached at letsempathize@gmail.com
