Is Arvind Kejriwal a harbinger of a new ‘Indian politics’?

-Shreya Roy

Arvind Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal, the ‘aam admi’ who is an  Indian social protester working under the banner of his party India Against Corruption has whipped up a storm, leveling serious corruption charges against some of the country’s senior most politicians. He shows the people of India on how the opposition parties along with the ruling party are also part of ‘power setup’.

Robert Vadra

Kejriwal raised issues against Robert Vadra, Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law dealing with DLF. Kejriwal said that amount of unsecured loan given by DLF to Vadra , which he had earlier claimed to be Rs 65crore was actually 85crore & also raised a question in Vadra’s assets from Rs 50lakh to Rs300cr. Vadra was unhappy with somebody making a controversy out of light & wrote on his Facebook page ‘mango people in a banana republic’. Later on Kejriwal responded to it & tweeted ‘evidence pouring in from mango men from across the country. Mango men would prove to be nemesis for the powerful.’ So a reminder to politicians – ‘having power’ is not really ‘being powerful’.

Salman Khurshid

Kejriwal also demanded action against Union Law Minister Salman Khurshid for alleged malpractices in his NGO. According to him Kurshid’s family run NGO Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust  which has been involved in embezzlement of funds of Rs71lacs. His wife has been accused of embezzling funds meant for disabled persons. Khurshid thereafter threatened Kejriwal saying that he has so far been wielding a pen & now it’s time to replace ink with blood. This is how our democratic country runs with super powers of our politicians. The fact is clean politics does not involve ‘money power’.

Nitin Gadkari

Kejriwal recently exposes the vast business empire of BJP leader, Nitin Gadkari. He said that Gadkari’s blooming business is clashing with farmers’ interest. He alleged that Gadkari had colluded with former State Irrigation Minister & Congress leader Ajit Pawar to get the land allotted to his NGO in violation of Govt. rules & in an area where agrarian crisis was at its height & suicide of farmers were maximum. He was also charged against the Irrigation Scam of Maharastra. On expected lines Kejriwal is obviously a dirty word among the powerful.

Currently Kejriwal is on top of the situation & credibility of Congress is at its lowest. If Kejriwal’s mission to make corruption a national issue fails, the blame will largely go to Congress – and even to the BJP.