Hard Look: Sting In The Tale

But in the 49 days his 28 MLAs governed Delhi, never was there a dull moment. They asked people to sting and controversially subsidised water and power. They stood in conflict with the Central government, with the image of a chief minister sleeping on the road on a winter night beamed across the country.

One year and 48 days later, Kejriwal took office again, wiser and with an unprecedented number of legislators. The start by the government, with 44 days gone, has been measured, more practised and less frenetic. But again, there has been conflict — this time from within. Their brief sojourn in the Delhi government, some AAP leaders told Newsline, was almost viewed as setting up the party for the future.

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“People had given us 28 seats because they were hopeful, but there were doubts if we could govern. So, we had to announce things and live up to our promises as quickly as possible, even with the Congress weighing us down. There was always this sense that we were going to be brought down,” a leader said.

So, the decisions came thick and fast. Electricity bills were halved and water subsidised. People walked around with mobile phones as weapons, buoyed by the power of the sting and a hotline number.

In 49 days, the set-up was complete. And even though there was a large Lok Sabha-sized blip in the middle, come 2015, it was successful. After a campaign that repeatedly recalled its previous tenure, the AAP rode to power again with 67 seats. However, in the one month since, many think that an opportunity has been lost on either side of the internal divide.

“When we took office as the Delhi government for the second time, we knew that we had the luxury of time and space. Therefore, decisions were measured, but many steps that we have taken have been revolutionary. Politics is constantly about earning goodwill and, at a time when the government is doing good work, the party has become the centre of all news debates,” a senior leader said.

In his speech to the National Council, where Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav were voted out of the National Executive amid allegations of dissent and hooliganism, one of Kejriwal’s primary laments was that his government had been playing second fiddle.

He spoke of electricity rates being halved and 20,000 litres of free water, stopping demolition of slums and even tackling “the ration mafia” with e-ration cards.

“But all that is being covered by newspapers or the television media is our internal battle,” he said. Many leaders point out that if in the last government, they spoke about “swaraj”, it is this government’s early tenure that has sought to bring it into focus.

“This is the first time that anyone in India has said that something as important as the Budget will be a bottom-up process. People talk about ‘swaraj’ and devolution of power, but we have said that people will decide what will go into the Budget. Our MLAs are speaking to residents all the time and local issues are being resolved faster than ever before. Ordinarily, this should have captured popular opinion, but our public battles have taken the sheen away,” a leader said.

For those in the Kejriwal camp, one of the primary arguments to remove Bhushan and Yadav has been that “focus must return to the Delhi government”, even if the party faces flak in the short term.

“The mistrust has existed for a very long time and, mostly, it was a question of when and how the parting of ways would happen. There are five years to rescue public perception,” a leader said. In the 1,782 days of office they are left with, it is only work that will do it.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM CM SPEECH

In his speech to the party’s National Council, Arvind Kejriwal spoke of several decisions of his government that had been eclipsed because of the rift within the AAP. Highlights of what Kejriwal said in his speech

Our biggest promise was that we would halve electricity rates. We have halved electricity rates. Our second promise was that we would give every family 20,000 litres of water free. We have fulfilled that promise as well.

Many of you are social activists, who have worked for people of jhuggis in your areas. We have also fought a lot for this. When governments used to run bulldozers, we lay down in front of them. In one week of coming to power, we passed an order that in all of Delhi, no slum would be demolished.

We all fight against the ration mafia. We know that the ‘rationwala’ keeps all the ration cards at his house and then takes ration on their names. Am I right? On February 19, Manish Sisodia held a meeting with the food commissioner and, yesterday, we inaugurated the e-ration card service. Now, you will not have to go to an office. You can go online and print your ration card. Laminate it and there is your ration card.

We had said that in buses, we would have marshals. We had said that if any woman is misbehaved with, the marshal will catch him and throw him in jail. In all of Delhi, in all buses, the proposal for security marshals has been passed. Marshals are now going to be trained. And I think that in a month, to protect women, marshals will be appointed.

We often say that when we have to go to the SDM for a certificate, we have to pay money. Now you don’t have to go to the SDM for certificate, you can do it all online, sitting at home. So for a birth certificate, death certificate, you don’t have to pay money. This will happen in a week or a week-and-a-half.

When our government was made in Delhi, there were very few e-rickshaw licences. The last government had given 600 in six months. We have allotted 25,000 licences.

To 200 private schools that were taking undue fees, we have sent notices. One school’s principal, against whom there was a sting, an FIR has perhaps been lodged and she is going to be arrested soon.