Delhi Kejriwalled: Lessons for Modi

Bharatiya Janata Party spokesmen are trying hard to convince their constituency that the party’s obliteration from Delhi doesn’t symbolize Narendra Modi’s return journey from a political peak, but India’s communal forces don’t need a bigger sign to believe that an ordinary man has singlehandedly halted the saffron juggernaut.
Aam Aadmi Party’s victory with 67 seats in the house of 70 marks the restoration of the nation’s faith in secularism, equality and probity as much as it has debunked the myth that Modi is unstoppable.
AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal has reserved a place in history books as a leader who, without any corporate help, crushed anti-minority and corrupt forces whose agenda has been to polarize India by whipping up passions of gullible masses so that their dream of a Hindu Rashtra (nation) could be realized.
The BJP is in a state of disbelief and justifiably petrified because the AAP momentum has the potential of destroying its prospects in other states (Delhi results can have a dramatic effect on Bihar).
Dry-mouthed BJP leaders must be woken up to bitter reality and told the reasons why 95.7 percent of Delhi seats, with 54 percent of total votes, consigned “the party with a difference” to the dustbin of history.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the chief architect of India’s communal polarization, sold Modi as a genuine politician who meant “business” and nothing else. Voters were inveigled into believing Modi meant growth and stability and the end of corruption. People believed lies that billions in black money stashed in European banks would be brought back to India and that the country would be on a par with any developed western country.
During his poll campaign, Modi screamed: “Hang me if I don’t bring back the black money within 100 days.” Months have passed and those who were told every Indian would get Rs1.5 million credited to their accounts are yet to get sweet text messages from banks announcing deposits. It was all a well-thought-out election gimmick and the nation fell for it. Now, the reason why the government was dilly-dallying over the issue has come to light. The names of the country’s richest businessmen brothers, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, the main financiers of the Modi campaign, figure high on the HSBC list of secret account holders.
The much tom-tommed nuclear deal with the US too didn’t help Modi. According to experts, the Modi government diluted the compensation clauses of the deal on which the previous Congress-led government was not prepared to compromise. The operationalization of the 2008 nuclear agreement with the US had been stuck on these very clauses that safeguarded the interests of the victims in case of accident under the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act, 2010. Experts have therefore described the new dealings as a sellout.
The Modi administration, in its utter wisdom, attempted to exploit Barack Obama’s visit to India to boost the image of Kiran Bedi, BJP’s chief ministerial candidate. The nation saw the worst abuse of power when the government decided not to invite Kejriwal to the Republic Day parade while ensuring that Bedi hogged all the limelight, even on national TV. This was cheap by any standard. It was not for nothing that the US president felt the need to remind Modi about the Article on the right to religious freedom in India’s Constitution. The prime minister’s apologists need to understand why Modi’s first-name-basis “friend” said last week the “acts of intolerance” experienced by religious faiths of all types in India in the past few years would have shocked Mahatma Gandhi.
It’s a time for deep introspection for Modi who unremorsefully let loose his colleagues to insult the principal minority with highly provocative statements recently and then expected Delhiites to endorse his political sickness.
Indians saw a new low in politics when Union Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti told voters that they must choose between “Ramzadon” (those born of Ram) and “haramzadon” (illegitimately born). The main targets of her vitriolic attack were two minority communities — Muslims and Christians.
As if this was not enough, BJP leader Sadhvi Prachi urged every Hindu woman to produce four children. The idea was to swell the number of Hindus in the country to the point that there is no space left for the minorities. A few days later, defending her statement, she again stoked a controversy by saying that she had asked Hindus to produce four children and not 40 puppies.
Nothing could be more shocking than this because this showed she and her likes consider a woman just a womb and a pair of ovaries duty-bound to help them achieve their agenda.
“A lion doesn’t have one child. We also need four children in each family. One will fight the enemies on the border, give one to saints, and give another to Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP),” she added. She did not stop here. Lashing out at Asaduddin Owaisi, a rising Muslim leader, she told him that all Indians are Hindus and if he cannot accept it, he must move to Pakistan. The saffron farce continued: VHP patron Ashok Singhal claimed two days ago the practice of untouchability was to blame on “oppression by Islamic invaders.” Any right-minded Indian would expect the premier to discipline such venomous party members and supporters. But, to the utter chagrin of the common man, Modi preferred to stay silent.
Christians also have their fair share of harassment and persecution at the hands of saffronites. Several churches in Delhi have been vandalized recently. This was followed by a brutal crackdown on a peaceful protest. Throughout the country, a hate campaign against the minority is in progress. Human rights and civil society groups have documented the death of two persons in 2014, killed for their Christian faith. Nothing has changed after Modi took over the reins. Prices are going through the roof. Administrative corruption has not ended. Minorities don’t feel safe. No action is taken to control recurring communal violence. India’s relations with Pakistan have touched a new low. Politicians accused of rape and murder, supervising extrajudicial killings and financial corruption are being given key slots.
The BJP, along with all its advocates, needs to realize that the party gave a shameful performance in the center because Indians are feeling cheated.
Modi had haughtily claimed that the opinion polls were the work of “bazaru” (cheap) pollsters. He was wrong. Kejriwal’s broom (his vote symbol) did not sweep Delhi clean because he is a superman. It happened because Kejriwal doesn’t believe in hate politics; his supporters have no room for communalism; he has zero tolerance for nepotism and bribery; his party believes in inclusivism; he doesn’t want to demonize a particular religion or a community in order to get majority votes.
Delhi has shown India the right way to peace and progress.