Arvind Kejriwal: India's Julian Assange

An irritated senior journalist wondered aloud "who is this Kejriwal (Arvind)" one evening. He was irritated, after Kejriwal dragged son-in-law of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Ranjan Bhattacharya, during his recent expose. How can anyone stand at a street corner and abuse all, he asked.

Arvind Kejriwal: Photo courtesy G. N. Jha

He is not alone in wondering who and what is Kejriwal.

The Congress wants to know the source of funding of the Kejriwal run India Against Corruption (IAC). The BJP would like to believe him being a Congress agent out to divide the Opposition space. The Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries believes him of working at the behest of corporate rivals.

The likes of Kapil Sibbal, P Chidambaram condemn him of being an anarchist. Anna Hazare may be wondering that Kejriwal, a thug, took him for a ride. The NDA convenor Sharad Yadav believes that Kejriwal represents an upper caste conspiracy against the Indian democracy, which guarantees "social justice and equity to all".

So, Indian political spectrum, which is hegemonic in nature, is itself not clear what and who Kejriwal is. But a lot of people and not only the politicians are giving their judgements on Kejriwal's motives.

Is Kejriwal an Indian fidayeen who is out there to wake up the dormant and regressive Indian political establishment?

Julian Assange: Photo from Wikipedia

If a Kejriwal parallel is to be searched outside India, Julian Assange pops out for the efforts he did by releasing tons and tons of classified files in public domain.

Kejriwal's first victim was Robert Vadra and his land dealings in the Congress ruled Haryana. Vadra is a sacred cow for most of the media houses for having married Priyanka Gandhi, daughter of Sonia Gandhi and a heir to the Gandhi-Nehru legacy, including political dynasty.

Ask Kejriwal how did he get documents to implicate Vadra in the alleged land scam in Haryana and pat comes the reply that he had to do nothing.

"A news channel reporter came and game me all the papers, saying that his organisation will not broadcast it," Kejriwal says.

Next expose came on BJP chief Nitin Gadkari; but this time a woman IAC activist claimed to have the evidences to link the leader in a quid pro quo relations with the riling Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra.

Ask Kejriwal that his Garkari expose was a dud and fizzled out for lack of substance, he would tell instantly that a TV channel would soon broadcast a story on Gadkari with more serious charges (NDTV did later) but he could not highlight these things for lack of supporting evidences.  

Kejriwal's third expose targetted Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries for its bullying tactics against the Central government. In the corridor of power, people always talked of the influence of Ambani on governments at the Centre irrespective of which party headed them.

Ambani purportedly represents a culture wherein everyone is bought over within the government to favour his corporate interest.

Interestingly, India is a country where a man (Dhirubhai Ambani) who worked in the Gulf for a petroleum company sets up the largest private business house. Further, India is also a unique country where a man (Nitin Gadkari) who used to ride a scooter not long back is heading a sugar and power company with thousands of crores of annual turnover. The list is inexhaustive.

The common factor in all the three exposes had been the fact, that everyone knew about them but did not dare to bring them in public domain. So, Kejriwal is more than an investigative journalist. Therefore, it will be suitable to suggest that for the moment we can pause to suggest that Kejriwal is India's Julian Assange.

But Assange crusaded against secretive information. Kejriwal takes his inspiration from Tahrir Square (the melting point of Egypt's historic revolution led by the people).

Ask Kejriwal: "You are being blamed for spreading too much of negativity and anger among the people. But you have neither infrastructure nor operational capabilities as commanded by the hero of 1974 total revolution Jay Prakash Narayan, so, where is the alternative and how the resultant vacuum would be filled".

"I concede that I have not been able to put in place an organisation so far. But the people will give the alternative when the time comes," Kejriwal says in a clear testimony that the Egyptian revolution is playing high on his mind.   

      

So, Kejriwal is more than what Assange is, at least if his ambitions are taken into account. But Kejriwal's action so far arguably clubs him with Assange.

Further ask him "your critics say that you took Anna Hazare for a ride". "So, after I drafted the Jan Lokpal Bill, I approached Prashant Bhushan and then I went to Anna and then I made him to sit on multiple fasts and then I thought that the time has come for me to go alone to launch a political party; I wish I could plan like this," Kejriwal says with sarcasm clearly evident.

So, why is Anna not with you?

"Anna says that politics is dirty and it should be cleaned from outside. I believe that it should be cleansed from inside," Kejriwal explains reasons for the Guru-Shishya parting ways.

But there are hints within the team Kejriwal of its belief that the Congress had been working on Anna for some months and they eventually succeeded.

So, the modest two-storied office of the PCRF (Public Cause and Research Foundation) at Kaushambi in Ghaziabad near Delhi hums with teeming flow of youth swearing in the name of Kejriwal. Their mobile phones keep ringing, with their contacts in various cities proposing to reveal more damaging facts, while others offering to join the IAC.

Kejriwal, who lost 16 kg of weight in a short span of time and was insomniac for a while before being rescued by Vipasana Yoga, is a rallying point for a fast growing "crowd".

"Few years ago people used to say, that India is going to dogs but now there is a sense that change is possible," Kejriwal says in a reminder of Barack Obama's 2008 elections campaign.

But four years later, least appears to have changed in the US despite Obama heading the country. Kejriwal has a long way to go to grow out of Assange, in whose shadow he is incidentally operating in.