COLD NIGHTS OF THE MUFFLER MAN

The long, hard journey of Arvind Kejriwal - from anti-corruption crusader to now being jailed for corruption

- SONI MISHRA

ON THE MORNING of April 5, 2011, in a lane adjoining Jantar Mantar— the protest hotspot of the capital—a small crowd had gathered for the launch of India Against Corruption’s campaign to demand a Jan Lokpal law. (In the coming days, the number would swell exponentially.) Social activist Anna Hazare—the face of the agitation—was seated on a raised platform, having just begun his hunger strike. Standing on the edge of the stage was a man keen to be out of the spotlight.

When media persons approached the small-statured man with a moustache for information, he jumped off the stage and spoke earnestly about the campaign. The man was Arvind Kejriwal, the architect of the agitation. Kejriwal, already a noted transparency activist and Magsaysay award winner, was still not nationally known. That was about to change in a big way.

The IAC campaign was the precursor to the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party, which happened over a year later, and marked the entry of Kejriwal into politics. The anti-corruption crusader and the man who wanted to transform the system was now inside the system.

From a fervent activist who worked out of a one-room office in the congested lanes of Seemapuri to putting together one of independent India’s most impactful agitations and then registering the most shocking of electoral victories in Delhi in 2013, it was a rapid transformation for Kejriwal. His party went on to win Punjab and has been accorded the national party status. It is also one of the most prominent members of the opposition INDIA alliance, and he is one of its best recognisable faces.