Opinion Tavleen Singh writes: In Delhi, this was no election, but a referendum on Kejriwal

Personally, I saw him as sly, sneaky and duplicitous even in those euphoric Anna Hazare days when he first became a public figure, as the man who was by the side of the one who was fasting to death to end corruption. But at election time, when I travelled into rural parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh ,I realised that millions of ordinary Indians had invested their hopes and their faith in him. I will never forget a village in Bihar which was inspired to start its own campaign against corruption that was led by a man they called ‘our Kejriwal’.

The first time I saw Kejriwal at close range was on the Assi Ghat in Benares where he sat looking gloomy under a banyan tree just outside my hotel on some kind of fast or protest. He had come to take on Narendra Modi. This I saw instantly as delusions of grandeur because here was a man whose only political experience was a few weeks as chief minister of Delhi and who was already hoping to become prime minister. Warning bells should have rung loudly then but the people of Delhi continued to invest their trust in him. They forgave him for abandoning them the first time and gave him two more chances.

When he won resoundingly five years ago, he promised them everything that they longed for. Clean air to breathe, clean water in the Yamuna, clean politicians and a clean slate on which to write a new chapter in this city that has nearly always been betrayed by its political leaders. He started off well. Schools improved so much that I constantly met people who said they had taken their children out of private schools because government schools were now so good. I have seen some myself in the New Delhi constituency, where I vote, and can vouch for this. I have also visited a few ‘mohalla clinics’ and found them clean and impressive. So, what went so wrong that when he was arrested and sent off to Tihar Jail, there was not a single protest in his support?

Ambition and narcissism are the two words that come to mind. He forgot about Delhi to try and refashion his image as a national leader. Suddenly, he wanted to win elections in Gujarat, Goa and everywhere. After he won Punjab, the ambition and narcissism soared to dangerous levels and the only people who seemed not to notice this were the sycophantic ministers who surrounded him. Ordinary voters noticed. When all his senior ministers ended up in jail, he appointed a sycophant so servile that she ruled in his name as if she were keeping the seat of Delhi warm for Ram himself.

Meanwhile, Delhi deteriorated and deteriorated. As a citizen of Delhi who has spent my childhood and nearly all my growing years here, it breaks my heart every time I see how poisonous the Yamuna’s waters have become and how high those mountains of garbage that have replaced landfills. As someone who lives in a Delhi village, I cannot begin to describe adequately the filth that I step into every time I come out of my house. Squalid bazaars and filthy streets are everywhere and out of them rise shiny new samples of private investment like hotels and fine office blocks.

These are things you see in every Indian city, as I am often reminded by readers of this column. But it is only in Delhi that we had a man who portrayed himself as a leader so different that he brought with him the promise of an India in which the poorest and most humble of our citizens could hope that their voices would also be heard. When that leader built himself a magnificent new residence fitted with all the things that ordinary Indians cannot dream of in the one-room tenements that is the average Indian home, all hope was lost.

In last week’s referendum, if there is one person who has lost completely, it is Kejriwal. What he has proved is that he is just like other politicians. And no symbol of hope, a new political culture or a new dream.