5 Saal Kejriwal or Bedi Sarkar

Flashback to Dec 3, 2011. The centenarian Calcutta Club was hosting a fiery debate on the Lokpal Bill moderated by Times Now’s Arnab Goswami. The participants represented all major stakeholders; Salman Khursheed (Government), Ravi Shankar Prasad (Largest Opposition), Sitaram Yechury (CPM), Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal (Team Anna/Common Man). I vividly remember a moment from the debate where Sitaram Yechury alleged Arvind Kejriwal for having used inappropriate language against the government. An apologetic Kejriwal replied that he did not remember having done that, but would still like to extend his deepest apology. In times when apologizing in public seems to be a cardinal sin for leaders who go by the mantra “innocent even if proven guilty”, Kejriwal seemed media naïve, raw and above all, honest. 

Come 2015, while Kejriwal seems to have vastly improved if not mastered the art of media handling, ally-turned-rival firebrand cop Kiran Bedi seems to be struggling to strike a fine balance between a firm cop and a socially sensitive CM candidate. Delhi is a city in size but a state politically. In a state where social media penetrations are higher than most parts of India, the political sentiment largely gets decided by the social media and PR strategy of political parties.  Let’s have a look at how these strategies have spanned out over the last few months.

Arvind Kejriwal launched the Aam Aadmi Party in Nov 2012, riding on the huge popularity of Anna Hazare’s Anti Corruption Movement. While some accused him of parting ways with the revered Anna for political mileage, some appreciated his bold move of ‘doing’ rather than merely ‘protesting'. What followed next for AAP was a year of massive team building and campaigning. Enchanted by the movement's popularity and Kejriwal’s seemingly honest intentions, AAP attracted massive attention. Kejriwal said everything that the common man wanted to hear. His allegation of BJP and Congress having a nexus was not very different from a frustrated common man’s rant of “saare neta chor hai.” While Kejriwal went ballistic against Congress and BJP, the rivals had hardly anything to say against the party that had no political track record. This was a disruption that Indian politics had never seen before. In the corporate world, a new entrant in an industry would take a very long time to knock off the leader’s market share. In the 2013 Delhi elections, Kejriwal running a start-up uprooted the decades old organization which had been the market leader for the last 15 years. Surprising even themselves, AAP and Kejriwal formed government in Delhi on Dec 8, 2013. The concept of Corruption Free Governance was selling beautifully.

49 days later, Kejriwal submitted his resignation on grounds of insufficient support for his favourite Jan Lokpal Bill. If this resignation seemed a huge political blunder, he bettered himself soon by announcing AAP’s national ambitions and his personal ambitions of taking on Modi in Varanasi.

What goes up must come down. Kejriwal adopted the same strategy of relentless opposition bashing in a bid for the topmost electoral seat in India. However, the chief opponent this time wasn’t an incumbent scam ridden Congress, but a Modi-led BJP riding on a wave of development in Gujarat. Kejriwal decided to attack the Modi bull by its horns by travelling to Gujarat and 'exposing' that Gujarat hardly has any development. People were already miffed with Kejriwal’s resignation, and suddenly the crusader was being seen as no different from the typical power hungry and society indifferent politician. Consequently, AAP lost 428 out of 432 seats it contested.

By now, Kejriwal was being seen as power hungry, politically naive and the worst of all, a coward and deserter. Shifting focus back to the city that saw him rise to glory, Kejriwal launched a fresh attack on BJP accusing them of delaying the Legislative Assembly elections fearing a loss to AAP. Why the delay actually happened, only the insiders would know, but in all likelihood an immediate Delhi elections would have surely swept Kejriwal’s political career away.

To his credit, not for a moment did Kejriwal go slow on his campaign. From using the 2^nd most expensive advertising medium to ask donations for his financially lacking poor party, to questioning BJP’s funds, Kejriwal started giving it all. But Kejriwal has never been a man to get his media strategy completely right. Here are some major blunders that he committed:

1. Announcing that Delhi wants Modi as PM and Kejriwal as CM. Whether a hack or an ill-conceived ploy, Modi's picture on the AAP website was a big big disaster.

2. The radio ad where a girl claims to be stalked by goons, and not entertained properly by a police station. Delhi Police did not take it too well, and AAP had to take it off. Kejriwal later came with a follow-up where he expressed his gratitude to the police officers, and blamed their poor performance to the lack of modern equipments and technology to their aid.

3. Kejriwal asking voters to accept bribes from BJP and Congress but vote for AAP. This leveled serious ethical allegations against both BJP/Congress and the voters. Again Kejriwal came back with an explanation that just screamed lame.

The biggest chink in Kejriwal’s armour still remains his untimely resignation, which he has been wise enough to publicly acknowledge as a mistake. Of course, it also gives him the advantage of an almost blank political slate, which leaves virtually nothing for the opposition to question. BJP has surely questioned Kejriwal’s subsidies based policies, agitations against the Home Minister, abrupt resignation, but the questions from AAP to BJP have been more and louder. Kejriwal too has not refrained from making good use of his 49 days term, reminding people through highly melodramatic radio ads of low water, electricity bills and reduced corruption. Although to me, Kejriwal comparing his 49 days governance to Modi's 13 years governance record seems like a tail-ender comparing the strike rate of his 8 runs/2 balls innings to an opener's strike rate in an 80 runs/90 balls innings. 

Politics is a dirty business, and in no part of the world will one find politics devoid of corruption, corporate funding, lobbying and scams. If Congress was badly tainted, BJP too has reasons to be pinpointed fingers at. However, now Kejriwal's allegations of corruption are fewer and lesser heard with focus shifting majorly to what won Modi the General Elections- development. From promises of building new colleges, regularizing private schools’ fees, providing cheap water and electricity, installing CCTVs to appointing bus martials; Kejriwal has been picking up all that is wrong with Delhi. Not just that, even “Ab ki baar modi sarkaar” has been matched by “Paanch saal kejriwal”, boosted by a Dadlani jingle.

Meanhwile BJP’s post General Elections strategies have been highly questionable. By not announcing a CM candidate for long, they gave Kejriwal a chance to attack them for the very same reason that BJP had attacked Congress. BJP did finally pull out what first seemed a masterstroke, a product from the same factory that had produced Kejriwal and a far more reputed one. Kejriwal gave the best possible reaction to that, “Had always requested Ms. Bedi to join politics, am glad that she did today." What a turnaround from apologizing to Yechury for a comment that he did not remember making. While Ms. Bedi had plenty to boast about as a cop, her political credentials and affiliation soon came into question. In her defence, Bedi had been a part of Team Anna, but never a part of AAP. Very soon there were murmurs of Ms. Bedi being a ditcher and opportunist by choosing the party already in power at the Centre. After lauding Bedi’s entry into politics, Kejriwal started calling her BJP’s scapegoat in an election that seemed inevitable to be won by AAP. Slowly but surely, AAP was putting the ghosts of the General Elections behind it and was emerging as a super confident party. The radio commercial with Kejriwal’s oath taking ceremony from Dec 2013 is a firm proof of this faith. Not just that, AAP has been confident enough to take on every BJP allegation head on. Kejriwal himself responded to BJP’s radio ad of an old woman venting out her anger at him. Even the recent allegation of alcohol being discovered at an AAP candidate’s house has been strongly responded to on all forums. Whereas BJP has largely remained non-responsive to AAP's allegations. What lies beneath the allegations is another story, but AAP’s strong replies will surely tilt the voters’opinions in its favour. In the social media of politics, often he who says the last word has the last laugh.

Coming back to Bedi, her interview with Arnab Goswami was the first sign of a PR disaster volcano waiting to erupt. Bedi was found unaware and non-responsive to most questions asked by Arnab. For e.g: When Arnab asked Bedi on not taking on Kejriwal directly and instead choosing a safe seat, Bedi’s response was “I did ask. I did not get it.” If that was bad, then the moment where she produced files titled MODI and GOVERNANCE was another dismal low. It seemed like a desperate attempt to display the governance and political credentials of an ex-cop. Just when I thought that the ignominious part was over, Bedi expressed time shortage and left the interview, refusing to answer Arnab’s frantic calls. The time shortage could have been true, but the manner in which she left the interview left behind a sorry impression. 

NDTV, known for its anti BJP allegiance has been incessantly doing its bit in craning Bedi’s campaign car. Bedi’s interview with the now trending Ravish Kumar had preconceived bias written all over it right from the beginning. Even before Bedi’s entry, Ravish had been pinpointing at cars parked along the roads in her high profile locality, wondering if Bedi would get these cars ‘craned’ if she became the CM. Honestly, no car owner would want to park his car outside. The dearth of parking spaces and the overflowing number of cars has given rise to this problem to which “craning” no longer remains a solution. Ravish remained at his sarcastic best, at times toeing the thin line between sarcasm and disrespect while Bedi seemed out of sorts, behaving like an aggressive cop once and then mellowing down as if suddenly reminded of her CM candidature. Suddenly, Bedi seems to be politically naïve and an ill-trained CM candidate, adjectives that till not very long back were associated with Kejriwal. NDTV’s well-timed “End VIP Culture campaign signed by Arvind Kejriwal” seems to be nothing but more fuel added to AAP’s campaign. Another worthwhile mention is Kejriwal’s response to Barkha Dutt’s question on members leaving AAP. His “no comments” response to Shazia Ilmi’s exit was hardly probed by the elite journalist.

The post General Elections Ghar-Waapsi campaigns, regressive comments by the likes of Sakshi Maharaj have given Kejriwal ample points to attack BJP on. Bedi's unwillingness to have a debate with Kejriwal has reduced but not prevented the damage that the debate could have caused. BJP’s desperation can be well judged by their sudden increased artillery in the last few days. Probably BJP has well realized that they need an AAP defeat this season to increase entry barriers for him to the Prime Ministerial post in 2019. From Nirmala Seetharaman’s “Paanch sawaal Kejriwal” to Arun Jaitley, Amit Shah and even Modi’s speeches/comments, BJP finally seems to acknowledge that the game is slipping away from under their noses. Probably BJP should have gone deeper into Kejriwal's manifesto and questioned the numbers backing his 70 point agenda. Suddenly, master campaigner BJP seems to have got its 2015 Delhi Elections strategy horribly wrong. Feb 07^th, in all likelihood might just see the resurgence of AAP and Kejriwal. As Ravi Shastri would say, whatever may be the outcome, pray Delhi be the real winner.