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Journalism of Courage
From a journalist to a social activist to the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and Arvind Kejriwal’s closest confidant, Manish Sisodia is an unlikely politician who in a short span has emerged as the face of the Aam Aadmi Party government’s most successful policy, education.
On Sunday, more than seven months after Lieutenant Governor Vinai Saxena recommended a CBI probe against him over the Delhi excise policy, Sisodia was put under arrest.
In the long battle of nerves between the AAP government and the Lt Governor in Delhi, this is the biggest blow to the Kejriwal regime.
While Sisodia has found himself in the eye of the storm before in the decade or so that the AAP has been around, it’s the first time that he is facing allegations of corruption. A case has also been lodged against him over the AAP government’s ‘Feedback Unit’, which allegedly collected intelligence on political rivals.
Sisodia has been fighting back, and before he reached the CBI office for questioning on Sunday, he released a photo with his mother and made a halt at the Raj Ghat.
He has also been at the forefront in attacking the Centre, alongside Kejriwal, on several issues, including the Modi government’s jibes against the AAP over the ‘freebie or revdi culture’. Earlier known to be a soft-spoken leader, he has been in a new, combative avatar battling the allegations.
The excise policy, over which Sisodia was arrested Sunday, was among the several policy changes overseen by him during his stints in the AAP governments of 2013, 2015 and 2020, while holding crucial portfolios (more than 15 at one point; Kejriwal holds none).
Originally from Hapur in Uttar Pradesh on the outskirts of Delhi, the 51-year-old Sisodia studied at a government school, before doing his diploma in journalism from Bharatiya Vidya Bhawan. He was working in the media, both in television news as well as radio, when around two decades ago, he came in contact with Kejriwal.
He slowly turned into a social activist like Kejriwal, and they worked together in NGO Parivartan, raising issues such as availability of ration, electricity bills, and the Right to Information. They did extensive work especially in the slums of East Delhi, and formed a bond that lasted as they moved from activism to the India Against Corruption movement of Anna Hazare, to active politics.
Even as other comrades fell away, many of them accusing AAP convenor Kejriwal of concentrating power in his hands, Sisodia stayed loyally by his side.
While many see him as the right-hand man of Kejriwal, others say that may not be an accurate description. “I am not sure that adequately describes the relationship. Sisodia sir has handled the working of the government singlehandedly on more than one occasion, alongside looking after the party’s political affairs. There is implicit trust between the two, and he is known as someone who is able to give a roadmap for the CM’s vision, and also provide him with a polite dose of reality when needed,” a member of Sisodia’s team who did not want to be named earlier told The Indian Express.
How much Kejriwal trusts Sisodia is also evident in the portfolios the latter has been entrusted with over the years — Finance, Education, Health, Home, Vigilance, PWD, Planning, Urban Development and Land & Building. He was also given the responsibility of the departments held by Satyendar Jain, when the latter was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate over alleged hawala transactions.
Sisodia is also the face of the AAP government’s much-vaunted “revolution” in Delhi government schools, both in terms of infrastructural overhaul and introduction of concepts such as Happiness Curriculum and Mega PTMs.
Before the raid at his house last year, AAP leaders including Kejriwal had tweeted a photo of the front page of The New York Times, with a story on the change in Delhi government schools since the AAP came to power.
The Opposition, however, accuses Sisodia and the AAP government of painting a false picture of the “progress” in Delhi schools. In 2021, Delhi BJP leaders had alleged corruption in the construction of school classrooms in the city and filed a complaint against Sisodia and Jain with the Anti Corruption Branch.
Later, the Delhi Lokayukta had asked the government to respond to allegations that the building work done by it cost over twice what it should have.
The allegations and raids against Sisodia had come ahead of the AAP trying its luck in the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections, and months after it had swept Punjab in a landslide. Till date, all election campaigns by the party have placed education, and the work done by Sisodia in Delhi, at the centre. In campaign speeches in different states and cities, Kejriwal repeatedly says: “Mujhe nafrat phailani nahin aati, mujhe rajneeti karni nahin aati, school banane aate hain (I don’t know how to spread hatred, or to play politics. I only know how to build schools).”
Sisodia is the second high-profile AAP minister to be arrested after Jain. While the Kejriwal government’s education policy is identified with Sisodia, Jain used to handle Health, its other showcase policy, centred around mohalla clinics.
The party has underlined this repeatedly, saying it is a target of the Centre. Soon after the raids against Sisodia, Kejriwal had pointed at his No. 2 in the Delhi Assembly, and asked: “Does he look like a thief to you?”
