Captain GR Gopinath on AAP

Arvind Kejriwal's convoluted logic about dharna rings hollow

Blog | Captain GR Gopinath | Updated: January 27, 2014 13:23 IST

New Delhi:  (Captain GR Gopinath founded Air Deccan and is considered a pioneer in the low-cost airline sector.)
Arvind Kejriwal has said that he has read the constitution and it does not say anywhere that the Chief Minister cannot stage a protest.

This thought then crossed my mind - by the same convoluted logic, can the Prime Minister join the mob and blockade the Metro or state secretariat if there are perceived injustices or misdemeanours by Kejriwal's government? After all, the constitution does not say the PM can not do a 'dharna' and hold the Delhi State hostage?  (Read constitution, dharna by Chief Minister not unconstitutional, says Arvind Kejriwal)

Just as spin doctors and party faithful in traditional parties defend their party supremo's collusion in scams or antics of their Chief Ministers, the suave defenders of the faith in AAP are at pains to justify and convince the rest of the world that their actions are based on the 'moral code of their cult' and therefore are neither suspect nor open to a third-party review. It is the same delusion and hubris through the ages  - " I'm the State," said Louis the XIV.

If you give a blind test to some historian from planet Mars by presenting him with the transgressions of our parties in the last few years including that of AAP in the last one month alone, without putting any label to them of their parentage, he will be hard put to distinguish one party from the other.
 
The sample narrative may run in this manner.

Minister in a scam causes thousands of crores' loss in spectrum allocation. Party defends him. The prime minister says the matter is under investigation so no need to sack him. There may be cases of corruption but you have to defend coalition partners. Stability is more important. It is a compulsion of "coalition dharma."

Chief Minister of an Eastern state storms into a police station and personally orders the release of an arrested party hoodlum. And next day arrests a professor and cartoonist for criticising her.

Courageous bureaucrat cancels irregular and illegal land allotment of close relative of the President of a party.  But the party dismisses bureaucrat as an opposition stooge who has political ambitions. Refuses CBI enquiry and says State will order its own investigation and brazens it out. 

Chief Minister inducts MLA into cabinet who was involved and indicted in several cases of assault, extortion and also in a murder case. Says criminals can serve the state and people, as he's elected.

Land allotted to war heroes misappropriated by shameful ministers and bureaucrats and sanctioned by a Chief Minister whose mother-in-law is also a beneficiary. The Chief Minister says mother-in-law does not qualify as my relative, she has acquired it in her own right. The Prime Minister says no need for CBI inquiry. The State is investigating. The Supreme Court raps centre and orders CBI probe.

The Law Minister,  upon getting a phone call from some residents, mobilises a large mob which is enraged at the alleged moral degradation of our people and furious that foreigners are polluting decent neighbourhoods with immoral drug trafficking and prostitution.  Minister and mob in self- righteous and uncontrollable anger raid and humiliate the suspected women. The Law Minister dons the role of a 'super cop' himself and directs the police to arrest the women. The police refuse, pointing out that he's breaking the law, they should be allowed to do their job independently, and an unseemly altercation ensues between the police and the minister.

The Chief Minister, mad with rage that the police did not obey his Law Minister,  goes on a mass protest leading his party cadre against the centre which is the fount of all evil.

Many respected and eminent people from across the country , including fans and admirers of the Aam Aadmi Party  and Kejriwal's former mentor,  former Supreme Court Judge Santosh Hegde, have pointed out that the Law Minister has crossed the line of law as well as decorum and should resign pending investigation. Pat comes this reply - the party has conducted its own internal investigation and the Law Minister has done no wrong. (Blog: Arvind Kejriwal must acknowledge, rectify mistakes, writes Justice Santosh Hegde)

So this is the understanding we are expected to accept - AAP is a party with a moral compass that cannot be questioned. "We will do an internal probe behind closed doors and pronounce who's guilty or innocent. The people have elected us. So we can take law into our own hands. The institutions are corrupted. This is all media hype and politically motivated." (Somnath Bharti won't resign as Delhi's Law Minister: AAP)
If AAP, chosen by the people with so much hope and so much promise, lets us down, I believe it will be post-independent India's biggest tragedy.