The dream has come to an end. The promise of making India corruption-free died prematurely. People, who sold the dream to us, appear to be as power hungry as the others. They have used the word ‘honesty’ as a tool to grab power. In other words, they have fooled us in the name of fighting corruption. Yes, the Aam Admi Party (AAP) led by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is on the verge of collapse. Infighting, nepotism and above all failure to provide good governance have already robbed the party of popular support. Today, the four-year-old party is simply struggling to survive. Many bigwigs, having clean reputations, who joined the party during the fight against corruption, have already left the party or being sidelined by the power-hungry group led by Kejriwal and company. The movement, which spread like a wildfire all over the country, is not even in existence these days. One after another charges are being levelled against the Delhi Government. On its part, the said government has simply adopted an ostrich-like approach. Any allegations against the government invariably met with the response that the complainants are more corrupt. So they have no right to raise fingers at the Kejriwal government. This is a strange logic. If the said logic is going to be accepted as a norm, no allegations can be made against anyone as nothing or no one is perfect in this world. More, AAP was entrusted with the responsibilities to amend the previous mistakes committed by its predecessors and set a model of good governance. But sadly the Kejriwal government failed miserably on both counts.
It was not a close-guarded secret that Delhi is not a full-fledged state. Everyone knows it. AAP also knew it. But from the day of coming to power, the party has started cribbing about lack of authority to provide good governance. It took the matter to court too. But even after the court ordered that the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi will have to work under supervision of the Lieutenant Governor, through various forums AAP is virtually challenging the verdict. So it is no wonder that the party which is in no mood to adhere the direction of the judiciary, manhandled the chief secretary allegedly in presence of the chief minister. Though the party is denying the allegations, the fact remains that APP’s aggressive attitude is simply opposite to its promise of good governance. Instead of providing the same, the party is indulging in highhandedness to create an atmosphere of fear among the bureaucracy. Is this the way of good governance? Besides, if AAP’s version of the story is to be believed, the question which every right-thinking people would raise is that what prompted the chief minister to summon the chief secretary to his house well after midnight to discuss an important issue like rationing system? Clearly, the issue cannot be settled with a meeting between the chief minister and one government official. It needed a thorough discussion among all concerned to ensure that poor people are not denied the benefits of welfare measures initiated by the government. Kejriwal should keep it in mind that confrontationist attitude may get him power once, but people will not repeat the same mistake over and over again.
