Once in a baffling blue moon comes along an impenetrable individual, whose sole ideology is himself. Arvind Kejriwal, the bespectacled enfant terrible of Delhi, wearing a trademark check shirt one size too large, and sporting a wispy mustache above a deviously diffident smile, is one such patented phenomenon: a neta without ideology, whisky without alcohol.
However, the hangover in the political cocktail that landed him in Tihar jail seems to be dissipating as he strategises his big comeback. He has placed Atishi as his trusted timeshare trainee in the CM's chair and scrambled back on ye olde platform: an underdog as the top dog. He is back with a bark and a bite, with aggression directed at Narendra Modi and the Congress. Hatred unites with irony-both Modi and Kejrwial are the lone mass mobilisers and vote catchers for their parties.
Kejriwal's political quest after finding Anna Hazare was to find himself. He obviously liked what he found, because there wasn't anything else there except Kejriwal. The histrionically high octaves about victimhood, the unfurling of the besmirched flag of uprightness, and donning the cap of the neo freedom fighter with an anagram. He took it all, every conscience-cliché, political meme and historical pastiche and wove it all into one ballot basketthe messiah whose welfarism was but an Indira Gandhi trope.
No talk of making Delhi a multi-trillion economy. No chatter about AI and technology. Kejriwal uses the exhortation of self identity by seeking a mass covenant of rhetorical legerdemain: choose a leader who lives, eats, breathes and dresses like you. Choose one of you, for you. After the new genre of Modi hhakts made landfall in 2014, Kejriwal lahs are a new class of electors who cut across castes and communities. It is an army of Kejriwallahs who trounced the Modi machine in the last two assembly elections in Delhi and one in Punjab.
Denne historien er fra September 22, 2024-utgaven av The New Indian Express.
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Denne historien er fra September 22, 2024-utgaven av The New Indian Express.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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