Arvind Kejriwal made a political career out of hurling corruption allegations against career politicians. Kejriwal’s political graph shot up with each “expose” aired at press conferences with Prashant Bhushan, his chief collaborator in those heady times. But on Sunday it was Kejriwal’s turn to face the music when Kapil Mishra took a page out of his political playbook and claimed that he was witness to the Delhi chief minister allegedly accepting a Rs 2 crore bribe. The crusader, who pledged to rid Indian politics and governance of corruption by campaigning for the institution of the Lokpal, now looks hardly distinguishable from the very establishment figures that he targeted earlier.
AAP has questioned why Kejriwal would accept a “bribe” in Mishra’s presence, for which the latter has no credible answer. The irony is hard to miss. Mishra led the Kejriwal brigade that shouted down Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav when they revolted, soon after the Aam Aadmi Party’s landslide victory in the 2015 Delhi assembly polls. Mishra quickly became Kejriwal’s blue-eyed boy and a ministerial berth soon followed. The genesis of AAP’s troubles can be traced to the big gamble it took in Punjab.
The party projected the impression that it was headed for a big win and focussed its political resources, much of it diverted from Delhi, on Punjab. The results of the Punjab polls belied AAP’s expectations and allowed a number of malcontents like Kumar Vishwas and now Kapil Mishra to emerge out of the woodwork. Kejriwal’s best hope for coming out of this hole is to improve his government’s performance in Delhi. As for the promise of alternative politics once held out by AAP, that dream died the day the party pitched Kejriwal above itself and its founding ideals. With Kejriwal losing his aura, AAP has lost its confidence and nerve.
