By Sidharth Mishra
Around 2011-12, when the Manmohan Singh government was facing a plethora of corruption charges, largely on the account of allocation of 2G spectrum and hosting of Commonwealth Games, then Congress spokesperson Janardhan Dwivedi had famously said, “Congress had said earlier also that all such cases should be investigated and enquired properly and law will take its own course.”
Among the cheer-leaders of the anti-corruption campaign were a few social sector activists namely Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia. This campaign propelled them to the seat of power in the national Capital, unseating a very successful and fairly clean chief minister Sheila Dikshit. While Dikshit is credited with building infrastructure which is sustaining the national Capital today, the charges against her in the alleged Commonwealth Games scam came a cropper.
It’s just been a decade and now the duo of Kejriwal-Sisodia are themselves being investigated for corruption. One of the senior ministers from their team, Satyender Jain has been languishing behind bars for some time now in a money laundering case. Unlike the Congress in 2011-12, the Aam Aadmi Party has not shown the political finesse of saying, “law will take its own course.”
Kejriwal’s and Manish Sisodia’s journey into Delhi’s politics incidentally started from across the borders from Ghaziabad, a satellite city of the national Capital. Like several others from the then emerging new middle class, following the liberalization of economy, Sisodia lived in a cooperative group housing society in Vasundhara locality. He owned a low-income group (LIG) flat and flaunted it as an asset of an honest man.
One is not very sure if he still owns the 700 square feet LIG flat but his journey from there to the elite Mathura Road bungalow has been fast-paced. This bungalow, which was raided by the CBI, doesn’t belong to the Delhi government pool. It was loaned to Delhi government in 1998, when Sheila Dikshit was elected for the first term as the Chief Minister of Delhi. She later shifted to Motilal Nehru place bungalow in 2003, which was vacated by then Lieutenant Governor Vijai Kapoor on the renovation of Raj Niwas being completed.
Thereafter the Mathura Road bungalow did not have a prominent occupant until Sisodia came to occupy it in 2015 on becoming Deputy Chief Minister. By then the Aam Aadmi Party’s philosophy of Spartan living of the politicians had been overtaken by the trappings of power. Sisodia came to occupy the same bungalow which was once occupied by Dikshit and against whom he had brought a plethora of charges.
That he treated himself differently is evident from the fact, he did not move out of the Mathura Road house even after Civil Lines Bungalows to house Delhi government ministers were built. His other colleagues stay in these government quarters.
While the law would take is own course, there are several indications that Manish Sisodia is on a sticky wicket. First the reversal of the excise policy to ward of heat it had generated, and then blame the former Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal for the faults in the policy showed weak-kneed attitude.
A government should take well-reasoned decisions on drafting and implementing a policy and should have the wherewithal to defend it too under adverse situations. Sisodia and his leader Kejriwal faltered on both the counts. In the battle of perceptions, it’s the ability to stand by one’s decisions is the best bet rather than flaunting a certificate from a foreign country.
The Delhi model of education and health are flawed models. The failure to the health model to rise to the challenge of Covid, showed how weak it is. About the mirage called education model some other day.
(First published in www.newindianexpress.com)
