| by B.Raman
( October 9,
2012, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) Shri Arvind Kejriwal of India Against
Corruption (IAC) has to be complimented for drawing the attention of the public
to the alleged wrong-doings of Shri Robert Vadra, the husband of Ms.Priyanka
Gandhi and the son-in-law of Mrs.Sonia Gandhi, the Congress President. By doing
so, he has shown that in the fight against corruption, there cannot and should
not be any sacred cow.
2. At the same
time, all right-thinking people of this country have to be concerned over some
of his political tactics in order to give himself size and shape as one of the
future political leaders of India determined to give the country a clean
administration and corruption-free governance.
3. It is clear
he is a man with political ambitions and a political agenda, who imagines
himself as the Moses of India leading the people of this country to their
Promised Land. How intensely he pursues his political ambitions and agenda
would be evident from the fact that in pursuit of his agenda, he decided to break even with Anna Hazare, his
mentor, but for whom many of us would not have heard of Shri Kejriwal and his
hangers-on. He used Anna as a ladder to climb to public prominence and then
kicked the ladder away.
4.
Simultaneously with his campaign against corruption in high places in which he
enjoys considerable public support, he has launched a campaign for contesting the next elections to
the Delhi Assembly. He has every right to do so and one wishes him well in his
efforts to seek political pastures.
5. At the same
time, any well-informed person will be worried over some of the tactics adopted
by him and his hangers-on in Delhi to seek public support. One would have
expected them to draw up an alternative programme of development and
corruption-free administration and place it before the people for approval.
6. Instead of
doing so, he has embarked on a highly dramatic and high profile agitation to
instigate people not to pay their electricity bills on the ground that the
electricity charges are unfriendly to the poor. He and his hangers-on have also
been unilaterally restoring the power connections of poor people cut off by the
Administration for non-payment of Bills.
7. His tactics
disturbingly remind one of the tactics adopted by the Jammu & Kashmir
Liberation Front (JKLF) and other Kashmiri separatists, at the instigation of
the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), from 1989 onwards. These organisations
instigated the Kashmiris not to pay their electricity and water charges on the
grounds that the rates were exorbitant and that the Government in Srinagar,
which allegedly did not represent the people, had no authority to collect these
charges. Millions of rupees worth of utility charges remained unpaid and
uncollected.
8. The
separatist elements, whether in J&K or in the North-East, and the Maoists
in Central India will be carefully watching the tactics adopted by Shri
Kejriwal and his hangers-on. If tomorrow they do a copy-cat of Shri Kejriwal
and appeal to the people not to pay their charges, what will happen to this
country? There will be fiscal anarchy.
9.While
supporting Shri Kejriwal’s campaign against corruption, the public has to be
cautious about his inflated political aspirations and his tendency to see
himself as ten-feet tall. An over-ambitious political aspirant, however well-intentioned,
can prove destabilising for the country.
10. Shri
Kejriwal is a Moses in a hurry. He should be brought down to earth.
(The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For
China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com
Twitter @SORBONNE75)
 Shri Arvind Kejriwal of India Against Corruption (IAC) has to be comp...){kind=link}