Table of contents

Somnath Bharti: Misogynists parading as moral police?

AAP must dump Somnath Bharti and look to Yogendra Yadav AAPs aurat problem: The patent misogyny of mango men Excess baggage: Five reasons for Kejriwal to get rid of Bharti 04 06 08

AAP: Not-so-aam anymore?

AAPs Delhi theatrics: More arrogant netas than aam aadmi? Betrayal of hope: The 4 mistakes AAP, Kejriwal have made in Delhi Three cops and two ministers: AAPs strange brinkmanship AAP will die like a meteorite if it doesnt curb its anarchy: Guha Financial woes: why AAP simply cannot alienate the moneyed-middle-class 11 13 15 17 19

Kejriwal, the anarchist: Flawed hero still

AAPs Delhi dharna: Is it fair to call Kejriwal an anarchist? All rage, no plan: Why the Centre is losing to Kejriwal in Delhi AAP Dharna: Welcome the anarchy if change is your goal Bitter divorce: Why the media is so upset with Kejriwal 22 24 26 28

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

Somnath Bharti: Misogynists parading as moral police?

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

and look to Yogendra Yadav

The reality is that Indias youngest political party is an amorphous project. The party, a big tent, has many heads and speaks in different voices. For now, it is a three-faced party.
Dhiraj Nayyar, Jan 23, 2014

AAP must dump Somnath Bharti

or some observers of Indias newest political phenomenon, the events of the past week have only proved that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is an anarchist project. The reality is that Indias youngest political party is an amorphous project. The party, a big tent, has many heads and speaks in different voices. For now, it is a three-faced party.

hapless Ugandan women and tried to browbeat the Delhi Police no masters of virtue themselves into acting against the women without as much as a warrant. The same man who went to AIIMS to bully doctors. The very man who threatened to spit on the faces of Harish Salve and Arun Jaitley. It was because the Union Home Ministry refused to suspend the cops who had defied Bharti that Kejriwal took to Raisina Hill in a dangerous and unnecessary game of brinksmanship with the Delhi Police. Only the utterly nave would believe that Kejriwals latest dharna was about gaining control of the Delhi Police; if indeed it was why did he give in with the concession of two police officers proceeding on leave? The fact is that one section of AAP personified by Somnath Bharti genuinely believes only in a politics of vigilantism, blackmail and brinksmanship. In the end, such a politics will only create the same kind of cynicism as the system AAP rages against the kind which revolts against the minister is always right attitude. Unsurprisingly, Kejriwals Bharti-prompted actions evoked disgust from a section of his own party. Captain Gopinath, one time army officer turned serial entrepreneur and now a member of AAP, was not impressed. In its rise, AAP attracted educated self-made professionals like Gopinath, Meera Sanyal and V.Balakrishnan. AAPs anti-corruption pledge, its humble beginnings (particularly limited money) and its promise of change from mainstream politics made it a magnet for decent people from all walks of life, including Indias hugely successCopyright 2012 Firstpost

It is the face of Somnath Bharti, anarchist and vigilante; the face of Captain Gopinath, the selfmade Indian and modern free-marketer; the face of Yogendra Yadav, intellectual, sensible and pragmatic. AAPs leadership, Messrs Kejriwal and his National Executive, must choose which face they want to adopt. Their choice could determine whether, in the years to come, AAP shines or fades away. This week Arvind Kejriwal opted to don the mask (or should one say mantle) of Somnath Bharti, IIT graduate, lawyer and giant killer of Kiran Walia and Arti Mehra, two stalwart politicians of the Delhi Congress and BJP. Yes, Delhis Law Minister who led a mob against some

ful private sector. It seemed like a party which would prioritise merit over all else; a party that would stand for equal opportunity and a party which would rid India of the worst excesses of the State. Gopinath and Co may have lived with AAPs backward-looking policies of populism, which only entrench state control and corruption, as a temporary electoral compulsion. But the spectre of mob rule and street justice may be a bridge too far for this wing of the party. It would be a great loss for Kejriwal and AAP if he were to sideline the views of Gopinath and Co. They could inject some reality into AAPs economics and enhance the partys credibility among young and urban voters. In between the faces of Bharti and Gopinath is the serene Yogendra Yadav, Unlike members of the arrogant Bharti wing, Yadav retains his humility and is willing to admit that the party may be making mistakes. He is the thinking AAPian, in a party inhabited by rampaging do-gooders. At least, he is honest enough to admit that the party doesnt yet have a comprehensive national policy agenda, not least in the realm of economic policy where he insists that the party cannot revert back to 1970s style socialism.

He is willing to concede that the party may be over-extending in its hurry to establish a national footprint in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014. For the moment, he seems to be the only fountain of pragmatism, introspection and realism in a party heady with its success in Delhi. Kejriwal would do well to heed to Yadavs wisdom as he plans for the future. Unfortunately, Kejriwals base instincts of an activist-in-a-hurry seem to make him inclined to the Somnath Bharti wing of the party. Kejriwal is probably too smart to plunge whole hog into the mindless anarchism of his fellow IIT graduate. That's why he withdrew his dharna with a seemingly minor concession from Home Minister Sushil Shinde. But as long as Somnath Bharti is the face of AAP Kejriwal wants to project (rather than Gopinath or Yadav), he runs the risk of implosion in rapid time. Perhaps its time to change face to save face.

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

The patent misogyny of mango men

Somnath Bhartis raid was not just racist -- there is a patent misogyny embedded in the AAPs politics. The party has assaulted women for political gains, denied the crime and then declared themselves protectors of their victims.
Lakshmi Chaudhry, Jan 22, 2014 (Child and women development minister) Rakhi Birla and (law minister) Somnath Bharti were fighting against prostitution, drug addiction and protection of women," said AAP leader Sanjay Singh in an unwitting and revealing slip of tongue. Despite the hot counter-accusations of media lies, the fact remains that Bharti's late night raid in Khirki was indeed against the protection of women.

AAPs aurat problem:

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Such a targeting goes against the sense of security and human rights of all women in general, and of single and working women in particular. Television footage of the incident including Shri Somnath Bhartis own detailed statements, CCTV footage from AIIMS and the complaints by the women themselves, clearly indicate that Shri Somnath Bharti endangered the women and instigated the crowd to violate their human rights, by branding them as prostitutes and asking the crowd to catch them. Yet the male stalwarts of the party had the gall to pretend otherwise. In his interview with Barkha Dutt, Kejriwal opted for brazen denial, claiming "Somnath Bharti does not have anything against the women" but was upholding the laws against drug and sex trade. He instead kept the focus on the corruption and collusion of the Delhi police, repeatedly shoving the Ugandan women under the rug and out of sight. The implication of his argument, however, is unhappily clear: It is entirely alright for one group of men to invade the private residence of a woman, drag her out of a car, and force her to take a urine test -- without a warrant or any other legal authority -- to teach another group of men a lesson. In the AAP worldview, women are not citizens or even human beings in this context, but easy targets to be assaulted, harassed, terrorised, and then brushed aside on national TV. Just collateral damage in the war between AAP and the Delhi police. Women are not just expendable in the AAP scheme of things, but also conveniently invisCopyright 2012 Firstpost

In the midst of the political melodrama unfolding on Delhi's streets, watching one AAP honcho after the other make patently disingenuous statements, one unnoticed but important fact became clear: The Aam Aadmi Party is indeed just that. A party for the common Indian man. The aam aurat is an afterthought -- useful but ultimately irrelevant. As women's rights groups noted in their letter to Arvind Kejriwal, Somnath Bharti's raid was a brazen, illegal and misogynistic assault on women:

ible, even fictional, when required. Hence, the AAP leadership opted for that other reliable political trick: blame the media. "The Somnath Bharti incident is a creation of the media. The police botched up the investigation," said Kejriwal, sounding not unlike Akhilesh Yadav who accused the media of publishing "false reports," and insisted, "The media should apologise to me, to Netaji (Mulayam Singh, his father) for their reports on Saifai." Kejriwal's tirade in the midst of the dharna -accusing media owners of conspiring against AAP -- was just more of the same. AAP may not have learnt how to govern but they certainly learnt the first principle of political spin: bad news is always fake news. No matter how great the crime, how damning the evidence, the trick is to simply refuse to face the facts. It is exactly this audacity that Kejriwal has attacked over and over again, holding press conferences, waving documents and videotapes to damn the mighty. Yet when it was his party's turn to acknowledge the unpleasant reality of Bharti's misdeeds, the response was no different or any less shameful. When in doubt, deny, deny, deny. Never mind if it requires denying women their humanity or their rights. But the worst of AAP's many gendered sins was the mendacious attempt to reframe the assault on women as a chivalrous attempt to protect them. The centerpiece of this particular travesty is the so-called letter from the Ugandan Commission to the Delhi government. "The Ugandan High Commission wrote to us with an instance of how women are brought to India and forced into the sex trade. They thanked us, claimed a bare-faced Yogendra Yadav in a press conference, destroying in an instant a lifetime's worth of credibility. The letter, of course, turned out to be an internal communication to Ugandan intelligence services about a case entirely unrelated to Bharti's raid or even Khirki. But why stop there when you are on a roll. Yadav went on to claim, "We also want to make it clear that we treat the accused women as victims of this whole system, and women who are involved in any kind of sex racket are victims of the system and not criminals." And surely the best way to help such victims -- or rather suspected victims, since there is no evidence yet of

prostitution -- is to harass and intimidate them, and violate their basic legal rights. This is a bit like punching a woman in the face and then preaching against violence against women. Many have been obsessing about the racism of Bharti's raid, but to do so is to overlook the patent misogyny embedded within the party's political strategy. Over the past week, AAP assaulted women for political profit, then denied their crimes in service of expediency, and finally declared themselves protectors of their own victims. This is the aam aadmi party, after all.

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Kejriwal to get rid of Bharti

Somnath Bharti, AAPs portly, hyper-aggressive law minister, is rapidly becoming the pied piper of the Aam Aadmi Party, in danger of leading its leadership over the cliff to its destruction.

Excess baggage: Five reasons for

FP Staff, Jan 23, 2014 Bharti's legal woes offer AAP the perfect excuse to dump him. And if Mr Kejriwal still needs a good reason to do so, here are five that prove that the AAP would be better off not dragging Bharti along with them if they are serious about their ambitions of garnering mass support on a national scale. Firstly, the law minister has to actually follow the law. After the events of the recent past, Bharti has lost all credibility when it comes to upholding the law. As Firstpost columnist Dhiraj Nayyar pointed out: "The fact is that one section of AAP personified by Somnath Bharti genuinely believes only in a politics of vigilantism, blackmail and brinksmanship. In the end, such a politics will only create the same kind of cynicism as the system AAP rages against the kind which revolts against the minister is always right attitude." Bharti's recent actions go completely against the grain of the ideology AAP is attempting to project: one without reckless vigilantism, corruption and coercion. Secondly, loudmouths are bad news, literally. Political leaders have no choice but to be mediasavvy and self-disciplined in this 24X7 news era: this is something AAP leaders are clearly yet to learn - especially Bharti. It was this Monday when Bharti courted controversy yet again with a quotable quote. Bharti said that he would want to spit on the faces of BJP leader Arun Jaitley and senior lawyer Harish Salve. "I want to spit at the faces of BJP leader Arun Jaitley and senior lawyer Harish
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omnath Bharti, AAP's portly, hyper-aggressive law minister, is rapidly becoming the pied piper of the Aam Aadmi Party, in danger of leading its leadership over the cliff to its destruction.

Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal today met Lt Governor Najeeb Jung and discussed the controversy surrounding Bharti, who is under attack for allegedly heading what was essentially a mob in a midnight raid on a private residence in south Delhi. The meeting came a day after various women rights activists and Delhi Commission for Women sought action against Bharti for allegedly taking the law into his hands. Bharti has quickly become a massive liability for the party which is already suffering after its badly-choreographed dharna in Delhi. The AAP is, of course, attempting damage control. The party has reportedly advised Bharti to be "careful and humble" while making public statements. But there is a silver lining in all this bad news.

Salve to tell them to mend their ways... I warn you, the public is going to hound you and beat you," the minister reportedly said. He was reacting to Jaitley and Salve's criticism of the Aam Aadmi Party government for their unilateral action against foreign nationals and holding a dharna outside Rail Bhawan. The AAP, which has made a virtue and electoral selling point out of a more enlightened kind of politics, cannot have its leaders making such irrational, bombastic statements. Thirdly, mob politicians are political deadweights. Somnath's antics contributed to the public sympathy being aligned with the Delhi Police, which takes some doing. The dharna became a sprawling mess which possibly irreparably damaged the AAP's reputation - a mess further worsened by Somnath's foray into a brazen, illegal and misogynistic assault on women. Fourthly, aam aurats are watching. The raid proved that the 'aam aurat' has become less than an afterthought in the AAP's scheme of things. A targeting such as that carried out by Somnath goes against the sense of security and human rights of all women in general, and of single and working women in particular. Television footage of the incident including Shri Somnath Bhartis own detailed statements, CCTV footage from AIIMS and the complaints by the women themselves, clearly indicate that Bharti endangered the women and instigated the crowd to violate their human rights, by branding them as prostitutes and asking the crowd to catch them. The AAP risks losing the aam aurat vote: and the only action that can retrieve those votes is coming down heavily on Somnath's actions. Lastly, it is time for the AAP to soothe the middle class feathers which were ruffled by Somnath's actions. The Economic Times did some basic number crunching and discovered that AAP's online donations declined sharply the day after Somnath

Bharti's midnight shenanigans were revealed in the media, and continued to drop as Kejriwal went on his dharna. Kejriwal is in danger of losing his most enthusiastic constituency. There is nothing wrong with being pro-poor, but alienating regular middle class folks will undermine the underpinnings of his brand - built on the back of the lokpal movement. The sight of angry men invading houses and surrounding cars is the ultimate middle class nightmare - a big reason why they didn't support Kejriwal's dharna -- which instead made them lose faith in Kejriwal's leadership. Sacking Bharti will go a long way in sending the message that Kejriwal has learnt from his mistake.

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

AAP: Not-so-aam anymore?

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

arrogant netas than aam aadmi?

Though the party kept the specifics painstakingly common man protester-like - sleeping on the roads, braving the cold etc - the partys language had developed a disturbing amount of anger.

AAPs Delhi theatrics: More

y noon yesterday, news television screens were filled with visuals of a Delhi we have been familiarized with over the past year. Though these were scenes of extreme disharmony - a mob of excited people pressed against yellow rails that form a police barricade, deafening slogan chanting, stray curses caught on the camera and police men in helmets and combat jackets trying to keep the barricades in place with identical deadpan expressions on their faces - not too many months back, there was a strangely uplifting quality about it.

Piyasree Dasgupta, Jan 22, 2014 society response to the political class deflected from its all-too-familiar track, was when a lot of us realised with alarm that this time we were pitted against a political movement that many of us had endorsed as an alternative to the older political mechanisms we treat with suspicion and dismissal. This realisation, that might have rung yesterday across drawing rooms, newsrooms and cafeterias with youngsters glued to Twitter on their smartphones, might have been the biggest price the Aam Aadmi Party paid yesterday with their shocking show of hubris. It is important to note here that the overwhelming support that AAP garnered in Delhi and across metros was because its leaders scrupulously stayed away from a display of Indianpolitical-ego but also scathingly criticised the same. But this is exactly what Kejriwal and some of his leaders displayed in their protest on Tuesday. Though the party kept the specifics painstakingly common man protester-like - sleeping on the roads, braving the cold etc - the party's language had developed a disturbing amount of anger, that now seems more like audacity than legitimate disgruntlement. "CM kaun hai Dilli kaa?" a groggy, irritable Arvind Kejriwal asked reporters in the wee hours of Tuesday. And immediately his claims about the much criticised police establishment seemed vacuous and the party's protest seemed like a fight for personal pride that was being fought on the roads of Delhi. There were several ways Kejriwal could have saved the situation - for himself and his party.
Copyright 2012 Firstpost

It was the closest visual representation of the helpless anger that many of us were seized with - against governments, against police, against every institution of civilization that we pay taxes to enjoy the benefits of. The scene unfolding on news TV screens, yesterday, was uncannily familiar, be it the slogans - "Delhi Police hai hai' and the response it managed to elicit, and extreme shock at the audacity of political establishments. The only point where the narrative of the civil

Since there was no clear evidence of drug usage by the Ugandans arrested, Kejriwal could well have apologised on behalf of state law minister Somnath Bharti and his party, and clarified that Bharti's actions stemmed from concern for the repeated complaints he had received from the locals of Khirki Extension. After all, for a party that makes such tall claims of humility, an apology shouldn't have been difficult. But Kejriwal made the mistake of placing the party before the government, and decided to back up his party colleague, instead of hauling up an errant minister. Then again, he made the mistake of clubbing still-justifiable allegations against the Delhi Police (where they failed to nab rapists and didn't lodge a complaint of domestic violence) with one where the police was entirely on the right side of law. Again, Kejriwal failed to make the transition from the now-comfortable revolutionary avatar to that of someone who holds an important public office. In an interview to Rajdeep Sardesai, Kejriwal had said a couple of days earlier, "There's so much sloth in the police. So much corruption. The moment you crack the whip one some of them that the others start falling in line." Had he been talking about the Danish woman's rape or the case Rakhi Birla had taken up - that would have still made sense. In fact, last year only, all of us were ready to hang the Delhi Police for its many failures. But what he was trying to do, was use the slips by the police to cover up a slip by his minister. The following protest just magnified the inappropriate nature of this forced association. Finally, it took the Congress to save the day in Delhi. The home ministry refused to give into Kejriwal's demands. Instead of suspending the concerned SHOs, two of them were sent on a 'holiday'. Kejriwal had to beat a retreat. And soon after, they hastily declared that a big victory in favour of democracy had been achieved. The party should understand that support for it did not grow in an unthinking rush of emotion - every action of their revolutionary modus operandi had been scrutinized, weighed against the excesses of the competing political entities

and then endorsed. In an excellent article, written in the form of an appeal in The Economic Times, Saubhik Chakrabarty speaks to the business honchos who have joined AAP. "Old style politics means most party notables owes their living to the party leadership and therefore they go along most times. But you don't need Kejriwal the way traditional political worthies need their leaders. You can, therefore, raise your voice and say this is not what you signed up for", he says. The Congress also emerged a better political outfit from all this by refusing to withdraw support in the face of extreme provocation. Manish Sisodia had openly alleged that money collected from drug and sex rackets reached Sushil Shinde. Congress could have taken offence and withdrawn support and it wouldn't have looked illogical. Only, it stayed put, making sure Delhi is not thrown in the middle of another election. And it also lent legitimacy to its allegations that AAP cannot shoulder the responsibility of governance and is hence trying to wiggle out of an uncomfortable situation. If Kejriwal and company has grown a disproportionate sense of entitlement, it is shared by all those who supported the party initially. AAP's supporters are likely to have a greater sense of entitlement to answers and convincing explanations than backers of any other party. There is one kind of aam aadmi who don't mind saying sorry if they are wrong. There's another kind, abundant in India, who will stomp over your foot in crowded buses, wheeze past you dangerously in cars on busy roads and spit on freshly watered roads nonchalantly. Which aam aadmi has Kejriwal been talking about all this while?

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

Betrayal of hope: The 4 mistakes AAP, Kejriwal have made in Delhi

For the time being, he is an administrative failure and the street drama is a cover up.
G Pramod Kumar, Jan 21, 2014 ly different. As in the case of VP Singh, people have been too eager and kind to Kejriwal, but what he has failed to realise is that they are also perceptive, demanding and more importantly, unforgiving. They dont distinguish between his inability to practice the diabolical art of politics, which the Congress and BJP are adept at, and his inability to translate the civiil society ideas of democratic governance into everyday administration. Irrespective of the circumstances, failure to delver is still failure. For the time being, he is an administrative failure and the street drama is a cover up. In hindsight, the AAP storyline was set for failure the moment it fell for the Congresss design of concealing its electoral debacle with fake humility. For the Congress, that was the only way to divert attention from its monumental loss. By offering AAP unconditional support, even when nobody asked them to, the Congress hid the terrible wounds of defeat and extracted some reflected glory from the AAP. VP Singh rose to power on Bofors, an euphemism for big ticket corruption, but never delivered on his promise while Kejriwals dream run was driven by his larger tirade against the same malady. VP Singh seemed to have shown India the possibility of an alternative, but ended up being an anti-Congress substitute, while Kejriwal boldly declared that he was the alternative to not just the Congress but the BJP as well. It took about a year for VP Singh to fail; but Kejriwal looks set for a more rapid failure, notwithstanding the fact that the political circumstances are certainResisting this temptation was AAPs number one mistake. This was an event co-created by the Congress and the media and the AAP should have had the strategic sense to resist it because it was not in their plan of things. The moment they succumbed to somebody elses plan, they were on the wrong path. Mistake number two was their inability to adapt to the changed plan. They should have taken time to train their legislators and potential ministerial candidates on the skills of administration thats in in line with their philosophy of inclusive governance.
Copyright 2012 Firstpost

he principal victim of the lawless protest underway in Delhi is not Indias first civil society government, but the hope of millions of Indians because that is what propelled Arvind Kejriwal to leadership and power. Today, right in front of their eyes, this great Indian hope is dying down quickly - perhaps the biggest let down since the death of similar hope and excitement that VP Singh evoked more than two decades ago. The triumph and failure of heart over reason.

If sovereign nations (e.g. Maldives, East Timor) can seek external support for drafting constitutions and even development planning, why can't a set of greenhorns with incredible responsibility to live up to their promise seek help? Its really surprising that the party, which claimed to have had extensive consultations in drafting their policy documents, failed to train their key leaders and legislators in the art of governance and administration. Indoctrination without the means for implementation is a recipe for disaster. Mistake number three is its obsession with selfrighteousness. Right from day one at the office, the party made horrible mistakes, mostly out of inexperience and eagerness to create impact, which played out as recklessness. Unprepared, new to administration and overzealous to look different, they still didnt have a plan to build the ship as they sailed. They fell into every trap set by the Congress, the BJP and the media. Making popular executive decisions too soon, instead of taking steps for system reforms and strengthening, are stupid short cuts. Sting operations to fix corruption in an over populated country and belittling oneself by fighting with the police in public is madness. More than a month into the office, Kejriwal is yet to unveil any step for systemic changes.

Mistake number four is the worst - the plain trickery of concealing its failure with its only tool to succeed - namely agitation. This is a moral failure and no worse than the politics of mainstream parties that the AAP wanted to take on. And what it doesnt realise is that this failure will also mark the beginning of their end unless it changes course fast. Its still not too late. The AAP should realise that playing to somebody elses script is drawing it to dangerous depths. Kejriwal should step back, take a break from the media and seek help. Break down the big ideas of democratic and inclusive governance that the AAP professed into implementable tasks. A tiny city-state of around 18 million people is as big as Australia to govern. As I had written earlier, hope is the most potent weapon against hopelessness and the path to transformation and results. This is a maxim that permeated from the organisational leadership training in the West to the development sector and civil society movements across the world in the last decade. Letting people down on this unselfish desire is nothing but treachery.

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

AAPs strange brinkmanship

AAP always had an ambitious and radically different governance agenda.
Seetha, Jan 20, 2014 hen the Aam Aadmi Partys Arvind Kejriwal took over as Delhis chief minister, most people were won over by his speech after he was sworn in. The problems are many and complex and I have no magic wand, he said. Those words were interpreted as an acknowledgement that the days of activism are over.

Three cops and two ministers:

the Delhi Police. In both the cases, for once, the Delhi Police was in the right and Somnath Bharti and Rakhi Birla clearly indulging in overthe-top vigilantism. The suspension of three policemen is not going to make the Delhi Police more responsive to people overnight; nor can Delhi Police be brought under the state governmenta valid enough demandimmediately. The confrontation could have been defused, perhaps with more sober voices within AAP (and there are many, especially former bureaucrats) finding a face-saver. But when even an otherwise apparently sagacious Yogendra Yadav justifies the ministers activism as well as the dharna, then something doesn't add up. AAP always had an ambitious and radically different governance agenda. The passage of the Lokpal Bill was one item on this list. The setting up of mohalla samitis was another. The announcement of free water was to be accompanied by actions to provide piped water to the poorer localities. Facilities in government schools were to be improved based on the reports of inspection committees of volunteers. Many of these excited the aam aadmi and would have made a difference to their lives. Every new government is given time to prove itself. Some mistakes are allowed for some time. The AAP government has, admittedly, got a more hostile press than other new governments have but that is partly to do with the fact that it is also playing to the gallery most of the time. No one forced it to claim it would announce free water in X hours, halve power tariffs in Y days and order CAG audit of power discoms in Z. The general public, though, was well-disposed towards the government.

What happened to that sober, responsible image? Was it just a sham? That is the question Delhi-ites are mulling as they see their chief minister lead a dharna for the suspension of three policemen, give a rabble-rousing speech in which he accuses the Union home minister of taking bribes and then sit on the road to clear files. And one thought just refuses to go away has the crisis been deliberately ratcheted up? In his speech outside Rail Bhavan today, Kejriwal may have claimed that the dharna was for all those Delhi-ites who were regularly harassed by policemen, but theres no getting away from the fact that this was an ego battle for AAP following the face-off two of its ministers had with

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

So why would a government consciously jeopardise a bold agenda of governance for the suspension of three policemen? It is not just the dharna. Over the weekend, Kejriwal has given several interviews, in all of which he says his government is quite ready to quit office. 'Sarkar ko kal girna hai, to aaj gir jaaye' (if the government has to fall tomorrow, let it fall today); 'we are not hungry for power' were two recurring themes in the interviews. These are not words that someone who is determined to usher in change will use, even if it is in response to questions. So. Has the AAP government realised that administration and governance are more complex than they appeared from the outside? And that it doesnt have what it takes to dig in for the long haul? Is the current brinkmanship with the Central government deliberate? Answers, anyone? Seetha is a senior journalist and author.

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

doesnt curb its anarchy: Guha

An opinion poll conducted by CSDS for the Lokniti-IBN poll survey has revealed that 54% of people across the country have heard of AAP and of those 97% are from Delhi.

AAP will die like a meteorite if it

FP Staff, Jan 21, 2014 ill AAP be able to repeat its fairytale story in Delhi at the Lok Sabha polls later this year? even 4 percent is. But this is bound to expand over the next 3 months." Yadav was also quizzed about the party's dramatic 10-day dharna, after some policemen refused to comply with the order of its Law minister Somnath Bharti to go into a house in Khirki village and arrest its inhabitants on charges of drugs and prostitution. Their demand is that Delhi police be brought under the control of the Delhi government. But is this dharna designed to send a message across India, or to make a point only in Delhi? Yadav said, "It is simple. There is an absurdity written into the law which is that the government in Delhi has no power over law and order unlike any other state. This absurdity is not just recognised by AAP, but it is there in Congress and BJP manifestos as well. So we are doing what we were mandated to do." But not everyone has is happy with AAP's actions, or its way of going about it. Some say that what the AAP is doing is nothing but anarchy. Kumar Ketkar, editor of of daily Divya Marathi, said on CNN-IBN,"The anarchic nature of Anna, Nirbhaya movement helped AAP. So they feel anarchy is the way to power but it won't work for them. They will lose support because of their dharna." Most panelists on the CNN-IBN panel were of the opinion that AAP was quite simply, wrong. Swapan Dasgupta was of the opinion, "It is an NCR phenomenon. It is a campaign of old fashion class struggle politics."
Copyright 2012 Firstpost

An opinion poll conducted by CSDS for the Lokniti-IBN poll survey has revealed when it came to awareness of the party, though 54 percent of people across the country had heard of AAP, 97 percent of that number are from Delhi.

The poll has found that if the votes were carried out now, AAP would get 4 percent of the national vote share with 48 percent vote share from the national capital. Apart from Delhi, AAP has some sizeable gain in Haryana. Does this mean that AAP is only a NCR phenomenon? AAP leader Yogendra Yadav during a debate on CNN-IBN said, "The figures are very encouraging. As an organisation we have a fairly limited presence in other parts of the country and we have had barely any campaign whatsoever. I have done sephology and I understand how big

Ramachandra Guha too was of the same opinion. "Poll shows that 50 percent knew of this party. Today whats happening in Delhi today will play out very badly across India. Yogendra Yadav should rethink the steps taken by his party," he said. "They can sustain if they curb their anarchism, otherwise they will die out like a meteorite," he said. To this Yadav said, "We will introspect. What is happening in Delhi is something very specific because of absurdities written in structure of government and that can change only through contestation. This government may have delivered more on its promises that the other governments in power. I would say style is an issue. But we also need to ask substantive questions." Manini Chatterjee, Editor, National Affair of The Telegraph was of the opinion that AAP was getting involved in vigilantism. "It wasn't the larger question of Delhi police but an ego battle because some Delhi cops refused to barge into a house and AAP asked for them to be sacked, but the home minister has not done that. I think many in Delhi are very scared now. Will vigilantees decide who is correct?" she questioned. Sociologist Dipankar Gupta advised AAP to take it easy. "If AAP does well in Delhi they should be happy that they are not losing ground. AAP has quite a job in its hands. They would be better advised to play things slowly and cautiously and govern Delhi as the best as they can," he said and added, "AAP may have jumped the gun here, but the way police reacted may have given a reason for AAP to react this way." While the party may have conquered Delhi, there major competitor in the national elections is Narendra Modi. Will AAP be able to eat into the BJP vote share? Dipankar Gupta said, "The opponents of AAP have been saying that they are good for the streets but not good for government. What they want to do is a long drawn out process, but they trying to hurry things up. This giving reason for people to think that Modi will be better." Manini Chatterjee too was of the opinion that

while some expected them to be a check for Modi, their actions may be a deterrent. "There is a feeling the only way to check votes for Modi will be Arvind Kejriwal. But what they are doing in Delhi is wrong. And modi might actually gain more votes." Sandeep Shastri was of the opinion that in the Delhi polls a large chunk of their votes was from people who neither supported Congress nor BJP. "For a takeoff from where they are now and make a dent in politics they would need to get into the vote banks of the Congress and the BJP," he said. "At the present moment the AAP is damaging the Congress more than the BJP," Shastri added. Swapan Dasgupta was of the opinion, "They are likely to be a decisive factor, but as of today they would not get more than 20 seats." However, Manini Chatterjee said, "They are a refreshing breeze right now, but they may also be a dangerous gale that will wreck systems."

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Financial woes: why AAP simply cannot

alienate the moneyed-middle-class

Although this may not necessarily reveal mass scale disillusionment or even indicate a funding crunch for the party, it is indeed a troubling indicator of just how unpopular Kejriwals actions have been.

ejriwal may have called it a victory of democracy and the people when he announced his decision to end his dharna against the Delhi police, but the truth is that however he chooses to paint it, he has, in just two days, caused considerable damage to the carefully crafted image of the Aam Aadmi Party.

FP Politics, Jan 23, 2014 threatened with minor effort to change things. They are part of the system and benefit to run corrupt system) and insist that they sit with the 'real' aam aadmi, the truth is that Kejriwal simply cannot afford mass scale disillusionment from the middle classes that uncharacteristically turned out in droves to vote for them in Delhi. And the proof as they say, is in the pudding. In this case, the rather large and now increasingly wobbly pudding of online donations. The Economic Times has done some basic number crunching and discovered that AAP's online donations declined sharply the day after Somnath Bharti's midnight shenanigans were revealed in the media, and continued to drop as Kejriwal went on his dharna. According to the report, "On January 17, the day when news of Bharti's activism in Khirki Extension on the midnight of January 15 hit the newspapers, the party collected just Rs 1.6 lakh, down fromRs 4.45 lakh the previous day. Since then, as the party and Kejriwal came out on to the streets raising various demands and evoking imagery of protests in the days before the anti-corruption movement became a political party, donations have remained low." (For more data and a table showing the decline of online donations click here) Although this may not necessarily reveal mass scale disillusionment or even indicate a funding crunch for the party, it is indeed a troubling indicator of just how unpopular Kejriwal's actions have been, and points to the need for more carefully thought out and executed planning if AAP is to make any kind of serious impact in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Raiding houses on
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In, first, backing the audacious actions of his law minister Somnath Bharti who practically led a vigilante mob into the house of four Ugandan women and threatened them, before heading out on what seemed to be a completely pointless and arrogant dharna, Kejriwal has managed to anger a crucial constituency of his support base - the moneyed middle and upper classes who have been donating generously to the party coffers. The same people who were welcoming the 'new political alternative' just days ago are now deriding the 'anarchist' and 'vigilante' actions of the Aam Aadmi Party. And though AAP may call their detractors over the last few days 'elitist' (Party spokesman Ashutosh tweeted, "Elitist establishment feels

flimsy 'moral' grounds and then disrupting day to day life is a surefire way to get on the wrong side of middle class sentiment. All of a sudden, all over the country, the largely homogenous middle class is viewing the Aam Aadmi Party with alarm. One also wonders - doesn't the capital that AAP claimed was poorly governed, need governing? As Firstpost editor Dhiraj Nayyar pointed out, Kejriwal's mistake is that of the knee jerk activist. He is endorsing the politics of Somnath Bharti at the cost of other more sane voices like Yogendra Yadav or even Captain Gopinath who are much more appealing to the urban middle class. It is still not too late for AAP to 'change face'. But whether Kejriwal will realise this in time and then be able to do enough to reassure the middle class is another story altogether. He has barely any time to lose with Lok Sabha elections just months away.

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Kejriwal, the anarchist: Flawed hero still

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

AAPs Delhi dharna: Is it fair to call Kejriwal an anarchist?

Everyone except the leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) insist that he was indeed an anarchist. One television anchor even fished out a dictionary and read out the meaning.
Mahesh Vijapurkar, Jan 21, 2014

oliticians often accuse media of distorting something they said by putting it out of context, or plainly denying what they said, even if it had been caught on news cameras. Right now, the buzzword across television channels and newspaper headlines is that Arvind Kejriwal is an anarchist. This time the media are in the wrong.

anarchist, then I am an anarchist. He did not proclaim what he was. But the A-word is guiding the public discourse as well as determined the focal point of news coverage though what he had actually said, and I watched him live say was something different. It was in the manner of saying if you insist, so be it, in a resigned way in which arguments are sought to be ended. In this case, it only fuelled it further. A smart agitationist, he has started to capitalise on it. It suits him to play that role with enthusiasm and hold the established parties the Congress leading the UPA-II and the BJP aspiring to form a government to ransom. Now he has said that lakhs would flood the Rajpath despite the schedule for the Republic Day, the Armys dress rehearsals for which would start from tomorrow.

Everyone except the leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) insist that he was indeed an anarchist. One television anchor even fished out a dictionary and read out the meaning. Kiran Bedi pulled out The Rogets Thesaurus to drive home the same fact. It was the quad erat demonstradum QED - moment. Because he himself had said it. That is utterly unfair to Kejriwal. Those who heard him on television soon after he started his dharna was something else. He said in Hindi, Log kehta hain my anarchist hoon; chalo maan leta hoon my anarchist hoon. Only The Indian Express seems to have caught the essence and quoted him : If people call me an

This has put everyone in a pickle. You cannot expect anything less than that from an anarchist. Anarchy is explained as absence of any form of political authority, political disorder and confusion, and an absence of any cohesive principle, such as a common standard or purpose. Kejriwal is up to everything contrary to it. That he slept in the open on the street in biting cold despite being a chief minister at once brought weight to his agitation which neednt have been initiated had police officials been suspended by an administration other than what he controls the Centre. That single gesture at once makes him part of the crowd again and expanded the logic. They say this is anarchic,
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but it is what a democracy is all about - where people demand what is justly theirs. He is emphasising the participatory nature of democracy, the hallmark of his public-sourced party. Shiv Viswsnathan, who describes himself as a social science nomad, had this to say, He is hyphenating protest, participation, and empowerment, and, as an experiment, its first symptoms are often disorder. Anarchy brings out the Victorian in our media and a certain piety in our politicians. The latter, that is entrenched politicians, he argues, feeling superior, have brought out their false opposition which Kejriwal is trying to break. In all likelihood, the Centre may break him on the pretext of law and order, which would be an ironic travesty of democracy. The present face-off is between the earlier smug and now agitated or nervous? governors and the governed who have rediscovered power. Raman Narayan, a lawyer now in Coimbatore, has written in Law Quest, Mumbai Universitys law departments journal to a congruity of the source of the authority of the Indian Constitution We, the people and the object, a government of the people for the people. Despite this laudable principle, there is a widening gap between the governors and the governors. He cites what the commission to review the Constitution brought out. Governments and their processes resist the fundamental article of democracy and it amounted to a breach of the constitutional faith from which flow all the institutional ills. The foremost need was to place the citizens at the centrestage and demonstrate this prioritisation in all manifestations of governance. In this context, it is not Delhi which has been besieged by Kejriwal and the AAP but anger of people at having been besieged for too long. It is now a bid to cap the tyranny.

Therefore, when established parties talk about how coming to the streets instead of governing, it exposes a vile wile. They are talking of not creating public ripples on even crucial issues that concern public issues on a larger canvas but keep them hidden by slow movement of files and use of subterfuges. Since these are on a case-by-case basis, everyone is expected to remain quiet in such a process. He is jeered for his ways and asked to get back to governing. It is as if governing is keeping the offices open and little besides. The demand that officers be suspended comes from the fact that Delhi is seen as being ruled by the Delhi State when the police force is actually in the tutelage of the Centre. Congress and its predecessor governments had sought its transfer to the state but Kejriwal now wants it done here and now. The homilies to Kejriwal to go govern also betray the misunderstanding of those who are governors of what constitutes governing. Governing, in the newer context, is fair and equitable conduct of those who reign but are amenable to be reined in when needed. The face-off is one of such public actions to rein in the authorities. Here corruption and insensitivity are sought to be bridled. Since it cannot be done by moving files, people are asked to move to the streets. So, with the essential qualifier, if that is anarchy, so be it.

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

is losing to Kejriwal in Delhi

Other than fuming and fumbling and unleashing the police on him, there seems little that the Centre has done in response to a Chief Minister who continues to play the outsider.

All rage, no plan: Why the Centre

Pallavi Polanki, Jan 21, 2014 Ghanshyam, an autorickshaw driver, didn't vote for the Aam Aadmi Party, but is full of admiration when he speaks of Kejriwal spending a night on the streets of Delhi. "He has created history. Never before has a chief minister slept on the pavements, that too in winter...why didn't the police take action in Malviya Nagar? Everybody knows the police is hand in glove the criminals," Ghanshyam said, as he drove through the rain on a chilly Tuesday morning towards the site of Kejriwal's sit-in protest in Central Delhi. Kejriwal's dramatic sit-in protest against the Centre for not suspending those Delhi police officers who failed to take action in two separate instances, one involving a controversial "raid" in Malviya Nagar by the law minister, has entered day two. The BJP is calling it a mock-fight between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. The Congress is calling it a gimmick, an elaborate exercise to force their hand into withdrawing support to the AAP government in Delhi. The Centre is calling it an anarchist plot that is hurting Indias reputation. And the media is calling it irresponsible, shaking its head in disagreement with Arvind Kejriwals latest piece of political theatre. While everyone seems to have an opinion about the unprecedented scenes that are playing in Delhi, a solution to end this impasse is yet to emerge. Having spent all of Monday raging against him and attributing motives to his protest demonCopyright 2012 Firstpost

oor Jahan said she walked four hours from her home in Old Delhi to meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to complain against the officers at the Jama Masjid police station.

The police, Jahan said, are refusing to register a complaint after her mentally- ill son was beaten to death by local thugs two weeks ago. Jahan, who works as a domestic help, said she saw Kejriwal's protest against the police on TV at her employer's house last night and decided to meet and complain to him about how she was being harassed by the police. "I will tell him how the police is threatening me instead of filing my complaint against those who murdered my son. I've lost my only son and now I am afraid for my life too," Jahan said, breaking down as she took out a photograph of her teenage son. When it comes to complaints against the Delhi Police, Kejriwal knows there is enough and more rage in Delhi's aam aadmi.

stration, does the government, the Congress and the BJP who in a rare show of unity agree that Kejriwal is bad news for them now have a plan on how to deal with the unpredictable AAP leader? Other than fuming and fumbling and unleashing the police on him, there seems little that the Centre has done in response to a Chief Minister who continues to play the outsider, who doesnt think twice about spending the night in the biting cold on the streets of Delhis VVIP zone, surrounded by his cabinet ministers and his band of followers. Kejriwal after a full day and night of being in the eye of the storm continues to control the situation and going by his fiery statements on Tuesday morning he and his deputy Manish Sisodia (Delhi Education Minister) are making, they are continuing to set the agenda for everyone else to follow. Far from softening his stand, Kejriwal has only upped the ante since he began his sit-in protest on Monday morning daring the Home Minister and calling on the people of Delhi to take the day off and join him in large numbers. With less than a week to go before Japans Prime Minister, the chief guest for Indias 65th Republic Day parade arrives, and state Congress leaders unwilling to pull the plug on AAP government just yet, the Centre does seem to be caught between a rock and a very hard place at the moment.

Should they continue to wait and watch while Kejriwal runs, as some are suggesting, AAPs Lok Sabha election campaign from the very heart of Capital - opposing the Centre and fighting for control of the Delhi Police? Or should they forcibly evict him from the site and withdraw support to his government, which many others are suggesting, is exactly what Kejriwal wants. For now, it would appear, Kejriwal finds himself in a win-win situation. The government, on the other hand, bankrupt on ideas and devoid of imagination, will do what it does best - sit on the situation till the circumstances force an outcome.

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

anarchy if change is your goal

Theres nothing unjustified or unreasonable in the AAPs demand the state government needs to exercise control over the local police.
Akshaya Mishra, Jan 21, 2014 he tide, it appears, is turning against the Aam Aadmi Party. Snooty intellectuals have started using the words anarchy, vigilantism and arrogance to describe the public conduct of the party. The middle class, at least the section of it speaking to television cameras, has started pining for the good old pre-AAP days when evil co-existed with the lesser evil in a happy compromise. The media have started raising the governance question the all-consuming obsession of our times - and the chaos vs order debate has started dominating prime time space. The writing on the wall is clear for the AAP: it is losing the support of the very forces who think they made the party big. The intelligentsia is clearly unhappy with the AAP. But the good thing about the leaders of the Kejriwal-led outfit is they care two hoots about its opinion. They treat it with certain degree of disdain and brazenness, which one, as a closet anarchist, finds satisfying. Now, lets begin with the big question in Delhi and let one play the Devils advocate. When a chief minister has no powers to suspend even a lower level police official, what business does he have being in that position? How can you expect him/her to ensure safety and security for citizens of Delhi? Remember everyone going hammer and tongs against previous chief minister Sheila Dikshit for the poor safety scenario in the national capital? The AAP had made a big issue of it and its stand had found great support among the media talk-

AAP Dharna: Welcome the

ing heads of all denominations and the middle classes. Her statement - My own daughter feels unsafe in Delhi - was received with sarcasm. Her plea that the chief minister needs to have control over the police was treated as an excuse for inefficiency. Theres nothing unjustified or unreasonable in the AAPs demand the state government needs to exercise control over the local police. There seems to be huge objection to the way they are going about it anarchic makes it look ominous enough. The wisdom goes thus: instead of staging a dharna and blocking traffic, they should have petitioned to the Government of India maybe followed it up with a polite reminder two months later and yet another still two months later to hand over the local police to the Delhi government. Since they are in government, and thus in a responsible position, they have to follow the procedure and be patient. Isnt it this same lack of patience for rules and formalities we were applauding whole-heartedly a year ago? Again, if we expect people in power to follow rules and decorum, whats the big fuss about change all about? The question being asked should be whether the elected government of Delhi should have the powers to manage its affairs entirely. Unfortunately, the entire debate so far has been about the recklessness of the AAP, not its intent. It has not helped that they have not been docile enough. Lets touch on the more fundamental aspect of the issue on hand.

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

One has to be utterly foolish to presume that drugs trafficking or flesh trade flourishes in a locality without the knowledge, or even connivance, of the local police. This applies to other crimes too. The locals, by didnt of their proximity to the den of crime, know more about the players involved. They, of course, are aware of the patronage extended by the local police to such activities. Now, if they want crime stopped in their locality, who do they approach? The neighbourhood policeman is not an option. It is now clear that even the government they elected is not even an option. The laid out procedure in such cases is tardy and ineffectual. As experience shows, finally, nothing comes out of it. The net loser is the ordinary citizen. Doesnt this need to change? Isnt safety of men or women part of governance?

When people take action to clean up their surrounding on their own, it becomes vigilantism. They are indulging in unacceptable behaviour, not approved by rules. Why dont we make the rules to suit their interest? The AAP, by making the demand for more power, is actually staying true to its commitment to the masses. If it sees a political opportunity in it, theres no point blaming it. No one approves entirely the way it is going about its job. However, it deserves to be understood better.

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

media is so upset with Kejriwal

The gloves are off. But the media needs to ponder, is it really their battle to fight?
FP Politics, Jan 23, 2014 Like Shailaja Bajpai pointed out in her editorial on The Indian Express, the fact that mainstream media's response to Kejriwal's protest seemed premeditated right to the words they would use to describe the chaotic nature of the dharna, was evident from the completely antithetical tone of their reportage when it was called off and when the day's events were being discussed during prime time debates. Bajpai writes in her column titled 'Prime Time Sleep-in': "TV news, caught off guard by the sudden termination of the police protest where the AAP and Delhi Police ironically shared common ground outside Rail Bhavan, initially were with the AAP: Kejriwal has his way (CNN-IBN, Headlines Today) as Centre gives in to AAP (NDTV 247)... By the time the news channels rolled out their big guns at 9 pm, the mood had turned cynical: Total climbdown by AAP (Times Now) was the most extreme judgement." The question that Bajpai raises in the column is somewhat echoed by media critic Sevanti Ninan in her column Not a worm's eye view, in Mint today. Bajpai points out how by changing stances radically, television news media subjected the viewer to a slightly dubious news viewing experience. While the initial tone suggested that Arvind Kejriwal had indeed wrung out a decision in his party's favour, the tone of news debates later suggested that it was Congress which came out looking better and had willingly let the AAP end the protest with somewhat of a face-saver. Given that it's rather difficult for television news channels to churn out different arguments simultaneously, unless of course it hosts a raucous debate with invited guests, how does the viewer glean the real proportions of an issue?
Copyright 2012 Firstpost

Bitter divorce: Why the

ome time shortly after day-break on 20 January, an English news channel reporter, huffing and puffing, caught up with a bleary-eyed, muffler-swaddled Arvind Kejriwal and asked him what he has to say about allegations of anarchy against him. The Delhi Chief Minister, who had spent the night sleeping on Rajpath, first declared he didn't mind being called an anarchist since everything he had done had been in the best interests of Delhi.

Then slowly as more reporters swarmed around him, Kejriwal cried out indignantly, "Kya ho kya gaya hai media ko?" After a few seconds of shocked silence, which the CM seemed to share with the reporters, he cried out the exact same words, only in a higher pitch. Amid the chaotic scenes unfolding on Delhi streets and TV anchors spouting a new catchphrase every second, this one fleeting moment of strained silence embodied what lies in the core of AAP's increasingly souring relationship with the mainstream media. Some would call it Kejriwal's naivete about the mechanisms of media, but the mainstream media's metaphor-heavy response to Kejriwal's last dharna points at a baggage of misplaced expectations placed between the two.

Chances are he knows he can't and hence his faith in the medium diminishes a little with it. Like Ninan points out in her article, though television reporters, in tones that best represent hypertension, pointed out that several metro stations had been closed down and Delhi was infuriated, the city's residents when questioned on camera didn't seem to betray such high levels of anger. In fact, Delhi was not as angry as TV journalists in Delhi were. Ninan also questions in her editorial that though the media was quick to brand Bharti, and Rakhi Birla, vigilantes, they didn't bother to look up the legal provisions available in India, many of which seem to be in favour of Bharti's actions. Ninan observes in her article: "As for media indignation over the midnight raids which led to the sit-in, how many of the journalists going on about vigilante ministers forcing the police to raid without warrants have looked at the minutiae of the laws involved? Sections of the Delhi Police Act, the Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act, and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act all have provisions to this effect." It is probably slightly difficult to not get swayed by a high tension situation unfolding within inches of you while reporting. And unlike print, or other mediums of news, the immediacy of television doesn't give the reporters at site to process a chunk of information and a multitude of incidents to produce a completely unaffected version for the viewers. But the extraneous rhetoric that is steeped on the reportage, in way of tickers, banners, etc are manufactured in the confines of an edit room where precision is not a luxury, but a necessity. How then does one explain a ticker #AAPDrama running on one news channel and 'Dharna or Drama' being flashed on another one? Like Ninan asks, "Why does this anarchic form of governance bother the press more than it does the people?" Kejriwal, at one point, during his several interviews, said, "AAP didn't succeed because of the media, it succeeded despite it." While one might call it an overestimation of sorts, there is some

grain of truth in it. The vehement reaction of the media seemed more like a hurried cover-up tactic than genuine anger at the events unfolding in Delhi. Interestingly, when Kejriwal won, the same houses had showered the party with plaudits after plaudits, something that even AAP seems to have gotten used to. The mutual disenchantment, therefore, started when Kejriwal was faced with the idea of governance in its real gigantic proportions. Almost at the same time that he realised that this would be a rough road, he has also realised that his position now doesn't make him answerable to the media anymore. Nor does he need the media to sustain a government which has the mandate of the people, and not only of the media. While close to his win, AAP never tired of thanking the media for its support, the party, CM included, now repeatedly refers to the times when the mainstream media has indeed written it off as a gimmicky outfit of activists looking for prime time recognition. The crux of the problem is, both AAP and sections of the media have come to expect that the other will be nice to them, unconditionally. Both seem to have a misplaced sense of right on the other's success. At one point in the media coverage of the protest, the reporter of a popular English news channel asked AAP supporters blithely, "Kejriwal bol raha hai ki Republic Day ko maaro goli, protest chalega (Kejriwal said that to hell with Republic Day, the protest will be on). What do you have to say to that?" The AAP leader being questioned answered coldly, "You are lying. He never said Republic Day ko maaro goli." Realizing she has indeed made that one up, she jumped on to some other question. The AAP leader answered, "What's the point of asking me. You will anyway make up lies like you did just now." The gloves are off. But the media needs to ponder, is it really their battle to fight?

Copyright 2012 Firstpost

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