The arrest of Arvind Kejriwal throws up three sets of questions – legal, moral and political. The legal case goes something like this: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is accused of receiving ₹100 crore in kickbacks from a cartel of businessmen in return for a liquor policy that gave undue benefits to private vendors. The AAP has repeatedly challenged the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the fact that no money has been recovered despite multiple raids. The ED has argued that the money was funnelled into the party’s Goa campaign. The courts will have the last word on the specificity of guilt and innocence.
The public morality questions tie to the larger debate around electoral bonds. Now, other than the Communists, no party can claim moral superiority on the principle of the bonds. The largest chunk of money may have gone to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), yes, but that is the cynical truth about power, politics and business. Corporates will put more money on winning horses, so to speak. In the Kejriwal case, the electoral bonds have entered the debate because of the testimony of an accused-turned-approver in the Delhi liquor scam. Sarath Reddy’s company Aurobindo Pharma bought ₹22 crore worth of electoral bonds for different parties before his arrest in November 2022. At the time the bulk of his bonds were for the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), still in government in Telangana and a small amount ( ₹4.5 crore) was given to the BJP. After his arrest and spending six months in jail, Reddy became an approver in the case in June 2023. In November 2023, Reddy’s company and its subsidiaries bought ₹50 crore worth of bonds for the BJP taking the total value of bonds for the ruling party up to ₹59.5 crore.
Again, this is not the only example of eyebrow-raising details in the electoral bonds data. Whether it’s the Trinamool Congress (TMC) being the largest beneficiary of the much-raided lottery king of India or the Congress receiving ₹110 crore from Megha Engineering’s subsidiary, the questions thrown by the data make for a long list. The pro- and anti-arguments on electoral bonds go well beyond the BJP. But in Kejriwal’s arrest, his lawyers will have to prove and the court will have to determine if there is any link between the approver status to Reddy, his testimony against the chief minister (CM) and the BJP’s interest in seeing him behind bars. As legal arguments go, it’s a stretch, but the beleaguered CM will use the case to further his brand as a victim.
This takes us to the last set of implications, political and electoral.
There are many takers for the theory – and I am one – that by not electing an interim/replacement CM (like Hemant Soren did before being taken into custody) while he is in jail, Kejriwal is daring the Lt Governor to recommend President’s Rule. This will help him build on the persona of being an anti-establishment figure with shades of his agitational avatar.
There are two obstacles to this effort, though. Delhi is a state whose people endorse and support both Arvind Kejriwal and Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi as reflected in the distinctly divergent results of the assembly elections and the Lok Sabha polls. That is the reason why, for several years, Kejriwal pivoted and stopped criticising the PM personally. In one interview with me, he even likened Modi to his elder brother. Now, by making the BJP and the PM his direct adversary, Kejriwal is enforcing a choice on the voters that they may not want to make.
But as the cliche goes – what does not kill you only makes you stronger.
The main challenge for the AAP and Kejriwal now is to stay united – not just in Delhi, but also in Punjab – till the assembly elections in the Capital. That’s roughly a year away. Sushil Kumar Rinku, the lone AAP Lok Sabha Member of Parliament from Punjab, has already left for the BJP camp along with an MLA. The AAP has explained Kejriwal’s wife Sunita being the face of public interventions by saying she is the only one who is able to meet him daily and thus bring back his missives. But will a party whose main leaders are behind bars – Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, Satyendra Jain and now Kejriwal himself – be able to hold itself as one in this ad hoc arrangement?
Kejriwal has always enjoyed a recall and profile disproportionate to his electoral numbers. That’s because he represented an idea that the ordinary citizen saw as new and fresh. The problem today is an anti-corruption crusader standing accused of corruption. And all those he breezily branded as corrupt in the infancy years of his politics may be enjoying a moment of schadenfreude.
Kejriwal’s challenge is to reinvent himself as an idea.
Will Kejriwal be diminished or emerge stronger?
Honestly, it depends on the next hand he plays.
Barkha Dutt is an award-winning journalist and author. The views expressed are personal
Barkha Dutt is consulting editor, NDTV, and founding member, Ideas Collective. She tweets as @BDUTT. ...view detail
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Andrew Mitrovica
Mort Laitner
Rami G Khouri
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
visit website
