Kejriwal Takes On Demagogue Modi

Kejriwal takes on demagogue Modi
Praful Bidwai
A AM Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal recently did something no politician has done. He made an inspection tour of Gujarat,
polled ordinary people on the state's hyped-up development, and confronted BJP prime-ministerial nominee Narendra Modi with
numerous questions ranging from corruption, to closure of small-scale industries and 800 farmers' suicides.
Mr. Kejriwal punctured Mr. Modi's bloated image, and exposed him as corrupt and venal -- a property dealer who grabs land from
poor farmers and gives it away to the Ambanis, Tatas and Gautam Adani. He highlighted corruption, unemployment, appalling state
of education and power shortages.
Mr. Kejriwal continued his broadside against the Ambanis' Krishna-Godavari (KG) gas deal, and asked how Mr. Adani could
multiply his wealth 12-fold during Mr. Modi's tenure, bypassing environmental and industrial regulations. He accused Mr. Modi of
transferring a free public hospital built after the 2001 earthquake to the Adani group, which has become a for-profit business.
Mr. Kejriwal hit Mr. Modi where it hurts -- big-time corporate cronyism. He and other AAP leaders also recently declared
communalism more dangerous than corruption.
True, AAP is still not zeroing on the 2002 pogrom, nor questioning the temporary, dubious respite (misnamed clean chit) Mr.
Modi got in the Zakia Jafri case. But nor is any other party.
Yet, no other party has assailed Big Business's capture of India's political system like AAP. In the recent past, only the Left criticised
the collusive KG gas-pricing arrangement, within a Parliamentary framework. AAP is raising it on a broader terrain.
This is a strategic shift. AAP is no longer solely targeting the United Progressive Alliance. It recognises the UPA is on the run and its
main target must be Mr. Modi. This, hopefully, marks a departure from the trajectory that India's anti-corruption movements have
followed since the 1970s, when they joined the Hindu Right against the Congress.
If Mr. Kejriwal bases his anti-Modi campaign on solid evidence (available in plenty), focuses on the absence of rule-of-law under Mr.
Modi, and his undermining of institutions, including the judiciary and police, he will inflict far more damage on the BJP than AAP's
electoral victories can.
One must hope that Mr. Kejriwal will contest the Varanasi seat. Yet, AAP's real value lies not in the number of Lok Sabha seats it
wins -- which may not exceed 10-to-15 --but in its ability to puncture Modi's manufactured, superhuman 56-inch chest image.
That's why Mr. Kejriwal must not make reckless statements accusing the entire media of corruption and threatening to gaol
journalists. This can only antagonise honest journalists and potential supporters.
AAP has its flaws, including allergy to ideology, lack of emphasis on secularism, poverty and inequality, and absence of a political
vision. But it's a product of specific social-political circumstances: long-term decline of the Congress and the non-emergence of a
credible Centrist or Left-leaning alternative. AAP's capacity to evolve into a Left-leaning force shouldn't be dismissed.
AAP can cause a major shift in the coming election's outcome by taking on giant corporations and targeting Mr. Modi as their chosen
representative. The election is extremely delicately poised: just 30-to-50 of the Lok Sabha's 542 seats can be a game-changer,
especially in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Although the BJP appears set to emerge as the largest party, nobody expects it to win a majority. If it can be stopped at 160-170
seats, Mr. Modi probably won't lead the new government. Many potential allies would find him too polarising and prefer another
leader.
But if the BJP reaches the 190-210 mark, Mr Modi could stitch together a bare majority with other parties joining or lending
outside support, including the AIADMK, Telugu Desam, other Andhra/Telangana parties, and a few rag-tag groups.
Regrettably, the BJP's traditional opponents aren't well-placed to fight it -- certainly not the Congress. Some senior Congress leaders
aren't willing to contest. The party's leadership crisis is grim. Sonia Gandhi is withdrawing, but her son is no substitute.
The BJP's principal Cow Belt opponents -- Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party in UP, and Janata Dal(United) and Rashtriya
Janata Dal in Bihararen't in good health. Their social bases are shaky. They are plagued by dissension. They lack imaginative
policies.
The SP could lose some of its Muslim support because of the Muzaffarnagar riots. The BSP is unable to extend its social base. The
JD(U) is on the defensive as the upper castes move away from it. The RJD's revival is jeopardised by internal strife.
More important, the deeper social processes that sustained these parties -- including Dalit aspirations for self-representation, and
the Forward March of the Backwards -- seem to be running out of steam. These parties can no longer trigger an emancipatory social
mobilisation. They aren't fighting the BJP ideologically.
The Left parties, a bulwark against communalism and icons of radicalism, are in poor shape. Traditionally, their electoral politics
was based on grassroots people's mobilisations. Now they are groping for an electoral strategy detached from mass mobilisation.
Their attempt to put together an 11-party national front has come a cropper, with the AIADMK, BJD and SP walking out. Former CPI
general secretary A.B. Bardhan terms this a big mistake. The Left's tally of 24 Lok Sabha seats is forecast to fall.
The Left faces trouble in its major home states. Having fared badly in the 2009 West Bengal Lok Sabha election (down from 35 of 42
seats to just 15), and routed in the 2011 Assembly (down from 235 of 294 to just 62 seats), it's turning to identity politics.
The Communist Party-Marxist (CPM), singed by the departure of its Muslim face Abdul Rezzaq Mollah, is fielding an
unprecedented 10 Muslims (of 32 candidates). But it has no credible strategy against Mamata Banerjee.
In Kerala, the CPM refused to give the Kollam seat to the RSP, which walked out of the Left Democratic Front after 35 years. Worse,
a diffident CPM is backing five independent candidates, four of them Christians, instead of fighting these seats itself. This doesn't
spell much hope.
The writer is an eminent Indian columnist.

E-mail: bidwai@bol.net.in

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Kejriwal takes on demagogue Modi

The writer is an eminent Indian columnist.

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