Does fighting corruption in Delhi really means the fight against corruption -mango people self proclaimed leader ?

Since he came out with his sensational allegations against Robert Vadra four days ago, most of our public and private discussions have been taken over by Arvind Kejriwal, India’s most visible corruption-crusader and politician-in-waiting.


Before he makes part-II of his allegations-reloaded later today and the nation gets sucked further into the vortex of the Kejriwal storm, we have a few hours to ask a few questions about his politics and crusade against corruption.





It’s abundantly public that Kejriwal has political ambitions and he wants to pursue his anti-corruption agenda through politics. Which means he will have to form a party, fight elections, get election commission recognition as a national party based on his vote-share, and ultimately assume power. In simple terms, fight and win elections or perish.



He is certainly justified in taking to politics and doing everything to win when his NGO attempts and the Jantar Mantar antics failed to work at scale. Never mind his (earlier) avowed aversion to politics; people change and move on. And as pop-philosophers say, one should never be captive to one’s past.



He is also justified in making corruption as the central piece of his political game, for the outrage it generates in millions of the Indian middle class. He is also justified in accusing politics as the fountainhead of corruption and projecting himself as the man out to fix it. He is certainly entitled to his formula to win elections.


But that is exactly where he needs to be questioned. Does corruption in India mean only congress? Does corruption mean only what happens in Delhi? Are we too naive to fall for a guy who seems to be in a hurry to fix Indian politics? Some political observers say the minimum incubation period required for such a political enterprise is 10 years. Kejriwal obvious will not want to wait that long.


First, his tirade against the Congress.


This may sound like what the frothing furious three of the Congress—Jayanthi Natarajan, Manish Tiwari or Salman Khurshid—say, but true.



Kejriwal’s single-most important achievement in his corruption crusade, particularly with the Vadra allegations, is that he has singled out the Congress. Perhaps the Congress knew about what was cooking and that is why they alleged a conspiracy right from the word go.


Except for some loose shots aimed at the BJP here and there, he has been training his guns exclusively on the Congress although in every single big scam at the centre, whether it is the 2G or coalgate, the BJP is not above suspicion.


Is this anti-Congressism his politics? Is his Vadra “expose” a cheap act of political opportunism as the Congress alleges?



The second edition of his proposed expose today will give us more evidence on that. But even with the momentum of activism he has displayed so far, it is safe to assume that he is going target the Congress for his political capital. He certainly doesn’t want to form a party and wait for a decade to work his way up. What better way than hitting out at the ruling party which is drowning in corruption scandals and dirty deals.
It’s still not clear who his accomplices are in this political game. It certainly cannot be just him; as a fledgling movement, politically it will be stupid to play it alone. Is it the BJP or the Left? Or both? Is he playing a revised version of the short-lived VP Singh game? One may have to wait for a few more days.



Despite his feeble attempts to prove otherwise, he is certainly far too soft on the BJP. The allegations against Nitin Gadkari, made by one of his activists, have petered down and he doesn’t say much against Narendra Modi although the latter has been trying to block a Lokayukta in his state for years.

Neither does he try to expose the BJPs alleged links to 2G or the coal scams, or the past son-in-laws.