“We lost Punjab because we didn’t do our homework properly. Probably we overestimated our appeal with the voter. We lost Rajouri Garden because people of Delhi seem to be not happy with our performance so far. We realise we have to pull up our socks and get to work more diligently to earn their respect and trust once again.”
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has always claimed his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is not like the run-of-the-mill corruption-ridden, family-oriented political outfits that Indians have grown up with. It is, therefore, only natural to expect an honest assessment of a failure and an equally honest admission of it. But if you thought the above words were actually uttered by Kejriwal, you have another think coming!
Instead, the boss of the “party with a difference” blamed the electronic voting machines (EVMs), bribery by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress Party and even the Election Commission of India (ECI) for being a “rubber stamp” of the ruling party at the Centre for the AAP’s defeat in the assembly elections over the past several weeks. No fault of his or his party’s, all the blame lies with his rivals.
AAP’s arrogance was so extreme that its treasurer Raghav Chadha even challenged India Today television saying he would quit politics if his party did not get at least 80 seats in the Punjab assembly elections, and if it did, the channel should stop broadcasting. (AAP won 20, but Chadha is still in politics, no harm done!)
The anchor of another English television channel was interviewing Kejriwal. It went somewhat like this (not verbatim because much of the conversation was in Hindi):
“So what do you think went so wrong in Rajouri Garden that your party’s candidate was not only defeated but also lost his deposit?”
“We had reduced power tariffs by half and we have been giving free water to the citizens. We have embarked on a major health initiative through the ‘mohalla clincs’. All this is known to the people.”
“Yet they rejected you. So tell me the one thing that you think you should have done differently so as to gain people’s confidence.”
“On the very first day of assuming office we had declared reduction in power tariffs and also announced free drinking water…”
“Yes, I know that. But what I am asking you is, what is the one thing that you think went wrong and the people voted against you.”
“Let me ask you one question. Can you tell me one thing that the BJP in their ten years’ rule did right in the municipal corporations of Delhi?”
“No, you are still not answering my original question. You are trying to answer a question with another question,” the anchor remarked somewhat frustrated and moved on to other allegations - and there are many - against Kejriwal.
If only Kejriwal had been frank enough to simply say something similar to what the opening paragraph here had said! A genuine admission of mistake is rare in Indian politics be it the Congress, the BJP or any other party. But Kejriwal had the golden chance to be different, to proffer that new paradigm, but frittered it away to prove he and his party are cut from the same cloth as these others. 
Although the Congress government under Sheila Dixit had acquitted itself well - getting elected three consecutive times is proof of that - it fell victim to the saga of corruption that the Manmohan Singh government at the Centre had degenerated into and lost the fourth attempt in 2013. Narendra Modi was chief minister of Gujarat and although he was emerging as one of the candidates for prime ministership in 2014, he was never the force that he eventually turned out to be. 
Kejriwal’s promise of a corruption-free government coupled with people-friendly reforms and development was like a breath of fresh air for Delhi’s citizens. There was much goodwill going for him even when he formed a minority government. If, as promised, he were to concentrate on good governance, there was no way the opposition could have found favour with the people.
But Kejriwal, ever the rebel, forgot he was now sitting on the other side of the fence. For the first time in its history India saw a chief minister striking. And strike he did in no uncertain terms, rallying thousands of people on to the main square in front of parliament. He even threatened to disrupt India’s Republic Day parade which was due in a few days’ time. In a topsy-turvy way Kejriwal obliterated the dividing line between the ruler and the ruled!
In spite of these shenanigans, the people of Delhi gave him an unheard of majority - 67 seats out of 70 when Kejriwal returned to fight the assembly elections in 2015. (Please note that EVMs were very much in use then and they had not given Kejriwal any reason to complain.) There were about 443mn eligible voters in India in 2015. Of this, Delhi’s share was a mere 7.05mn. The AAP won 4,878,895 votes, meaning a little over 1% of the total Indian electorate. But Kejriwal thought he had won all of India! His ambition knew no bounds. Only Prime Minister Modi was a worthy opponent for him. Or so he presumed.
And then began a non-stop, no-holds-barred attack on Modi. In the bargain Kejriwal found himself facing the law in a series of defamation cases, including one filed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley because the AAP chief alleged that the BJP leader and his daughter had made money out of Delhi’s cricket association. Curiously, Kejriwal wants the people of Delhi to pay for his defence. His argument: “I was doing it to protect the interest of the cricket-playing youth of the city.” 
How does alleging - without hard evidence mind you - someone of siphoning off money be in the interest of Delhi youth? And if indeed there was evidence, wasn’t it incumbent upon him to file cases against the culprits? By now Kejriwal has earned a dubious reputation of being a spit-and-run specialist, but unfortunately he chose the wrong target this time. Jaitley, a seasoned lawyer of the Supreme Court, was in no mood to let things drift. He filed both a criminal and a civil suit. If Kejriwal loses the first, he could be jailed for up to two years. And if he loses the second, he, along with his five other co-accused, will have to shell out Rs100mn in damages.
For someone who wanted the taxpayer to foot the bill of his defence lawyer, the question being asked is: who will pay if the court convicts Kejriwal?
Kejriwal had also allegedly used Delhi taxpayers’ money to advertise his government’s “achievements” in far-off Goa and in Punjab in the run-up to the assembly elections there. In fact he went one step further and promoted himself in Kerala and had taken out a television advertisement when an elderly Muslim man was lynched by a Hindu mob in Dadri in Uttar Pradesh. The total bill for these acts was a whopping Rs970mn which the lieutenant-governor is asking the ruling party to reimburse.
The citizens of Delhi have another chance to make their choice known. The civic elections are due later this week. The three corporations (MCDs) have been under the BJP for the past decade. The debate is about which of the three was more corrupt and more mismanaged all these years. The BJP itself acknowledges this. The party has denied poll tickets to every one of its sitting members, something unprecedented in Delhi’s history.
This is a situation that Kejriwal would have otherwise exploited to the hilt. It was corruption in the Congress Party that propelled him to power in 2013. It is corruption in the BJP that should help him now. In the normal course of things it should be a cakewalk for Kejriwal. But unfortunately he is fighting anti-incumbency of the worst kind. The Rajouri Garden result is a pointer to that. If eventually candidates of the AAP lose these elections, it will be for no fault of theirs. It will be the sins of Kejriwal visiting his candidates.