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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Will political novice Arvind Kejriwal do things hitherto not done?- Sruthijith KK & Nistula Hebbar

Will political novice Arvind Kejriwal do things hitherto not done?- Sruthijith KK & Nistula Hebbar

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published Published on Oct 8, 2012   modified Modified on Oct 8, 2012
-The Economic Times

When Arvind Kejriwal, the rising enfant terrible of Indian politics, raised allegations about the rising fortunes of Robert Vadra on Friday, all of Congress' spokesmen and too many senior ministers went on television to defend party president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law. In sharp contrast to the rehearsed talking points and cultivated anguish that features in nightly debates, this time the emotion was genuine, the anger sharp. "This is not the way," they said collectively.

Kejriwal has shown his disdain for the established ways of Delhi politics. As the player with the least to lose on the arena, he is likely to carry on in this vein, disregarding the rules and upsetting the equilibrium. While this is winning him popular support, it is making the political elite nervous.

"Conventional Indian politics is still conservative and old-fashioned. It has some notions of decorum and acceptable conduct - the political maryada, if you will. That dictates that by and large, you avoid attacking families," said a senior BJP leader, who asked not to be named. "Now this guy (Kejriwal) is a wildcard player. The advantage of having people like him also playing the game is that it will generally keep people on their toes. But the other aspect is that they could also raise allegations without merit, and it will stick because the media will report it as he said, she said, without pointing out that this lacks merit."

Indeed, when ET first reported Vadra's business relationship with DLF in March 2011, which Kejriwal has now repeated with political fervour, opinion was divided in the party on whether or not to take up the issue as it involved a family member who is not in politics, according to people familiar with the thinking at the time. In the end, the conservative opinion that children and families should be left alone prevailed. Now, Kejriwal has converted that into political capital. In fact, playing by his own rules, he forced BJP's hand, which has now demanded a complete probe into the affair.
Kejriwal has announced he will "expose" one more "very powerful person of India" on Wednesday. Capital's politicos spent a good part of the weekend speculating whose turn will be next. Congress or BJP? Mumbai-based leader or Delhi-based? If he yet again raises allegations that are damaging to Congress, will the party's complaint that Kejriwal was little more than the "B-team of the BJP" find more acceptance?

Congress leaders are by and large sticking to the original line that this was a BJP-RSS operation timed for the upcoming assembly elections in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. When Congress president Sonia Gandhi met senior party leaders to finalise the candidate list of Himachal Pradesh, Kejriwal's allegations were not discussed, according to a person who was present.

A senior All India Congress Committee official said that the party "viewed Kejriwal as a maverick in the system" who could "do anything, even things hitherto not done" by Indian political parties. "The next election may turn out to be worse than the 1989 Bofors election in terms of digging dirt," he added. At that time the Bofors scandal took the form of a personal attack on Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. 

When ET published the story on Vadra's business dealings in March 2011, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had sent a notice for suspension of question hour to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar. He also added that exactly 10 years ago, in March of 2001, Congress had levelled the same kind of charges against then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's family members and that the then Speaker had allowed a discussion. Dubey's request was turned down. Dubey says that the party decided not to pursue the matter because "we had already disrupted two consecutive parliament sessions over the 2G spectrum scam, and didn't want to get accused of being an overly obstructive opposition."

Sociologist Shiv Viswanathan said Kejriwal has shown up the "hypocrisy of family". "There is a family of intimacy and there is a family of appropriation. He has attacked the zones of sensitivity, the absolute fortress of Indian culture. This hypocrisy that when it comes to corruption, some are less equal than others. If it is ok to attack Kanimozhi on corruption, why is it not okay to attack Vadra? Kejriwal is saying what has been the tacit knowledge of media for long. Intuitively, in a very middle class way, he is saying our old ways will not work. And I think the other parties will also modernise," Shiv Viswanathan said.

The Economic Times, 8 October, 2012, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/will-political-novice-arvind-kejriwal-do-things-hitherto-not-done/articleshow/16717552.cms


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