Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Kejriwal rectifies his blunder' that was published in Newsband

Kejriwal rectifies his blunder

Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation from the post of Chief Minister of Delhi shows how keen he is on projecting his party as a serious national-level alternative to the two principal national parties: Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party.

There are some people who say that Kejriwal is a good crusader but not a good administrator. But both Congress and BJP are neither crusaders nor administrators. They are just corrupt. So we should allow the crusader in Kejriwal to do the job of eliminating corruption after which we can search for an able administrator.

Corruption is deep rooted in our system. It cannot be eradicated in a month. Corruption comes in when the demand for a product or service is more than supply. In a country like Sweden or New Zealand the level of corruption is minimal as the demand is usually less than supply due to their low population factor. Same thing holds in the Middle East. Passing a bill 'may' help but unless the country improves on the supply sector it cannot be eradicated irrespective of who sits in Delhi.

Standing in an election against a corrupted party, and taking over the power with the support of the same group was the blunder that Kejriwal had committed. By giving up his CMship he has rectified the blunder.

If there is one fact and certainty in Indian politics today it is that barring Aam Aadmi Party, all of them, every one of them is in the game for money. They seldom differentiate themselves on the basis of ideology; they have the same sources of funding viz. extortion of small businessmen and donations from larger business houses; or they play on identity politics. Many of the nations’ lawmakers are indeed criminals. The Association for Democratic Reform (adrindia.org) points out that more than 30% of MPs in the Lok Sabha have criminal cases pending against them. Against this backdrop there are no differences between the Congress and the BJP and Kejriwal is right to paint them with the same tarred brush.

Our constitution with so many gaping holes cannot even protect the poor women in the streets. Forget about the looting it allows parties to make.

The AAP was built on a foundation of huge popular movements by Anna Hazare and India Against Corruption, and this makes the party binding to keep Jan Lokpal Bill as its first priority. In fact, corruption is a stumbling block even for solving small and everyday problems. Hence accusing AAP leadership of seeing Jan Lokpal bill only as an ideal issue for own exit from government is cruel.

If the Congress and BJP were serious on having a powerful Lokpal for Delhi, they could have discussed the bill in the House, instead of hanging on to procedures of suspected constitutional validity. In what happened, the two main stream parties are exposed again, proving that any crusader against corruption has reasons to be afraid of being tainted by mere association with them.

Arvind Kejrival is not a conventional politician and so how can we expect his decisions to be conventional? Let us wait and see before jumping to any conclusion.