Arvind and Anna: The protege and the estranged guru, linked by IAC stir, split by politics

Kejriwal has been at the receiving end of Hazare’s criticism ever since the duo had a falling out over the former’s political plunge in 2012. In December 2017, Hazare, who was once described by the AAP chief as his “guru”, even said, “I hope no Kejriwal comes out of my movement again.”

However, what Hazare described as “my movement” was essentially scripted by Kejriwal, who decided to make the activist the face of the 2011 protests under the India Against Corruption (IAC) banner, which shook the foundations of the then Congress-led UPA government.

An IAC activist recalled how Kejriwal and ex-IPS officer Kiran Bedi had travelled to Hazare’s village Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra to convince him to join the IAC movement and become its mascot.

As an activist, Kejriwal had initially maintained that he would “never join politics”. The shift in his stand angered Hazare, who called politics “full of dirt”. In September 2012, the two parted ways, and a month later Kejriwal founded the AAP.

In less than a decade since its inception, the AAP has turned out to be one of the most successful political experiments in post-Independent India, while Hazare, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 1990 and Padma Bhushan in 1992, largely faded from the public consciousness.

Although he remains a popular face in his native Maharashtra, Hazare’s later attempts, including in 2018, to revive a nation-wide movement for an “effective Lokpal”, sank without a trace. In fact, Hazare’s periodic outbursts against Kejriwal have made more news than his calls for protests on various issues in the last few years.

Opposition parties see Hazare’s politics as being allegedly aligned with that of the BJP and RSS and have often accused him of launching various agitations to “benefit” the right-wing party. Stung by his scathing letter, Kejriwal also promptly replied that his political rivals were “firing from Anna’s shoulders”.

Hazare’s supporters, such as Vishwambhar Choudhari, despite their uneasiness over his tirade against the Opposition parties reject the accusation that he is a “BJP-RSS frontman”.

“Annaji is not an RSS or BJP man,” said Choudhari, a long-time Hazare associate. “But it’s true that lately BJP leaders like Devendra Fadnavis and Girish Mahajan are trying to influence him,” he added, echoing the views held by a section of the AAP leaders.

“It is quite evident that he (Hazare) is made to issue these statements from time to time to show Kejriwal in poor light. But these remarks have no political relevance. In fact such personal attacks end up helping the AAP, case in point is Kumar Vishwas’s grave allegations against the party ahead of the Punjab Assembly election,” said an AAP leader.

Even Choudhari disapproves of Hazare’s sharp criticism of Kejriwal on the liquor policy and feels that the activist should speak on other bigger and graver dangers facing the country.

Hazare has always been a passionate advocate of liquor prohibition. While developing Ralegan Siddhi, the drought-prone village in Ahamednagar district, into a green, “model” village, he even used violence against alcoholics, formed vigilante squads to police the village to stop liquor consumption, and even supported the tying of alcoholics to electrical poles as punishment.

Earlier this year, he vehemently opposed the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)-led Maharashtra government’s proposal to sale wine (Maharashtra is a major wine-producing state) in supermarkets and walk-in stores with an area over 1000 square feet, even threatening to go on a fast-unto-death, which forced the government to put the policy change to the backburner after the BJP rallied in Hazare’s support.

Choudhari said Hazare has been consistent in his anti-liquor stand. “He is a Gandhian and he opposes liquor sale. But he doesn’t have to pick on Kejriwal alone. Every other state is doing this,” he said.

The two-page letter that Hazare shot off to the Delhi CM Tuesday betrays the former’s festering hurt over the Kejriwal team’s bid to break away from the IAC to form the AAP ten years ago. “On September 18, 2012, when ‘Team Anna’ met in Delhi you spoke about entering politics. You forgot that forming a political party wasn’t the aim of our movement. We had formed a bond of trust with people and I was of the opinion that we should go around the country to awakening and educating the public. The country needed such a pressure group, no matter which party ruled the country. Unfortunately, this did not happen…Now, looking at the liquor policy of Delhi government, it has become clear that a political party formed by harming a historic agitation is following the steps of other parties. This is indeed sad,” Hazare stated.