By Sidharth Mishra

On the first working day of 2022, the city had witnessed a huge jam following the Bandh call given by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) protesting the implementation of the New Excise Policy. It was an indicator of the things to come, we all know what turn the New Excise Policy took, landing a Minister in jail and several named in the charge-sheet of what seems to be a humungous scam.

There are no aggressive indicators this time around and hopefully the city would be free of any jam on the first working day of the year. And if that happens, hopefully the city too witnesses a jam free year. This is quite possible as the same political party is now dominant force in both the state assembly and the municipal council.

However the famous English poet TS Eliot said, “… between the idea and the reality falls the shadow.”  Given the posturing by the two leading political parties of the city – The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), there would be continued jam in the smooth governance of the city. The blame game would continue and the city’s civic health would continue to suffer.

By Sidharth Mishra

If people in Delhi were awaiting a change in their lives following the results of the recent MCD polls, differently interpreted by different television channels, depending on their ideological loyalty, it was not going to happen. At least the uttering of the political people in the week after the elections do not give any indication for change.

Last week there was an unfortunate acid attack by stalkers on a school-going girl. The shameful incident was indication enough for the political motor mouths to once again get into a wordy duel. Aam Aadmi Party national spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that after the arrival of Delhi L-G V K Saxena, crimes have gone up in Delhi.  “L-G saab, you have Delhi Police with you and crimes are increasing every day. Instead of interfering in the work of the Delhi Government, you should concentrate on your work. After your arrival, crimes are increasing in Delhi,” he said in a tweet.

The other prominent face of the ruling party in Delhi government and now also in the municipal corporation, Swati Maliwal said, “Despite a ban, the chemical is as easy to purchase as vegetables.”  In a video uploaded on Twitter, Maliwal said “We have issued notice to the city police over the incident. The attackers should be arrested and given stringent punishment.”  The attackers have been arrested and the law would take its own course.

By Sidharth Mishra

There is this famous couplet from Bhakti era saint Kabirdas which says, “Duvidha mein dou gaye, na Maya mili na Ram (when in two minds you neither get world pleasures, nor spiritual salvation).” The recent attempt by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to emerge as rival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has created somewhat similar situation for him.

The results of the assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and that of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi clearly indicate that while there were not many takers for Kejriwal’s Hindu espousal, there was definite disenchantment in the minority community on the issue. The loss of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) candidates in the minority-dominated wards of Delhi are a clear indicator. If there was any doubt, lesson was learnt when AAP tried to poach on a few Muslim corporators from Congress, who were brow beaten back by the local populace.

By Sidharth Mishra

If there was one proposition of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal, which was rejected lock, stock and barrel, it his claim that his party was ‘kattar imandar’ which when translated into English would be rabidly honest. Though there is no grammatical error in somebody being rabidly honest but language usage wise it’s like an oxymoron.

This attempt to repair the dent in AAP’s image of being an impeccably honest party has come a cropper. Its senior leaders, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who is facing corruption charges in the liquor scam, transport minister Kailash Gahlot, who is in dock in a case of alleged swindling in purchase of buses, and jail minister Satyendra Jain, who ironically is incarcerated in money laundering case, were snubbed by the voters in their constituencies.

By Sidharth Mishra

One of the first reactions of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leadership on their performance in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls has been that the people have rejected the corruption charges against its leaders Satyendra Jain and Manish Sisodia. Those who keenly follow politics of this country would recall that the discovery of fodder scam in Bihar did not really harm the political fortunes of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) strongman Lalu Prasad Yadav.

It took another decade before the RJD government was replaced by the NDA government led by Nitish Kumar in 2005. The vote against Lalu Yadav was not exactly against his acts of corruption but mal-governance and lack of development with Nitish Kumar promising ‘Sushashan’ (good governance). Despite Nitish bringing relatively cleaner and more efficient governance in Bihar, Lalu Yadav’s party did not go out of business.

Arvind Kejriwal’s party which had its genesis in the anti-corruption movement and its leaders claiming to not seek a share in the power structure, today has imprisoned ministers refusing to quit office despite being denied bail by the trial court and also the high court. This was something which the much-maligned Lalu Prasad Yadav also did not indulge in when he was arrested in the fodder scam case.

By Sidharth Mishra

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has lost an election which for it was to win. The is how the results of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls could be summed up on one line. The poor turnout of voters in the first place had indicated towards BJP being pushed onto the backfoot.

More than the anti-incumbency of 15 years, it has been lack of credible leadership at the state level which has harmed the saffron party in the national Capital more than any other factor. From a very dominant performance during the assembly election held in February 2020, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was engaged by the BJP in a cliffhanger in the MCD polls, the latter could have carried the day provided they had a face to project.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cannot be the sole currency for the party to monetise its performance at every tier of our democratic set-up. BJP’s experiments with the regional and caste votes without a credible face has failed them now in two consequent elections.

By Sidharth Mishra

The report says 18% of candidates belonging to the Aam Aadmi Party for the upcoming MCD elections face criminal cases, followed by the BJP and Congress. On the other hand, the BJP has topped the list of ‘crorepati’ candidates, followed by AAP and Congress.

It must have been like swallowing bitter pill for the ADR to come out with this report drawing on the ‘criminal’ character of the AAP. Like several non-governmental organizations (NGOs), ADR too were part of the social sector conglomerate which had supported the ‘India Against Corruption’ campaign of Anna Hazare in 2011, which was spearheaded by Arvind Kejriwal, then a social activist.

By Sidharth Mishra

The Gujarat assembly election are now round the corner. The state faces a triangular fight, or at least the media says so. The media spoke similarly very high about the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) when the assembly elections were held in Uttarakhand and in Goa. They ended up giving miserable performance in the two states.

AAP’s performance was initially tipped to be very good in Himachal Pradesh too. But despite a cheering media, the party itself decided to give up. AAP insiders say that with considerably weakened financial sinews, following arrest of Minister Satyender Jain in money laundering scam, it was not possible for Arvind Kejriwal to fight BJP on two fronts, thus he decided to ‘recall forces’ from Himachal for the bigger battle in Gujarat.

The big battle, as Kejriwal sees it, is his best opportunity to emerge as a challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He had made a similar attempt early in his career taking on Modi in 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Varanasi. This was at the peak of his anti-corruption movement and he managed to poll 2.09 lakh votes against Modi’s 5.81 lakh.