An utter disillusionment with mainstream political parties led Delhi voters to hand over an unprecedented mandate to Arvind Kejriwal – his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) walked away with 67 out of 70 seats. He had promised no less than a political revolution. People not only bought it, they gave him the time and a support to fulfil everything he promised.
A year goes by. Kejriwal did make some dents, but earned notoriety for his foul language, picking up fights with the Centre and his core team members, and a score of defamation cases.
In just a year, he is perhaps the only serving chief minister in the country with maximum defamation cases, filed by prominent names such as nion ministers Nitin Gadkari and Arun Jaitley. Unfazed by all the cases, Kejriwal, however, had sent out a circular in May last year, threatening media houses, with action on publishing defamatory content on him or his government.
Soon after assuming power as the CM, Kejriwal’s two closest political friends – Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav – had to face his ire. He threw them out of the party for alleged anti-party activities. But, more importantly, it gave out as a message – Kejriwal is AAP and AAP is Kejriwal.
People of Delhi, however, were happy when Kejriwal fulfilled two fundamental promises – he gave Delhi households 20,000 litres of free water and a 50 per cent subsidy on electricity bills on power consumption of up to 400 units a month.
However, on many counts, he also failed to deliver, since he was constantly engaged in a battle with the Centre or Lt Governor Najeeb Jung, his team of bureaucrats or the city’s civic bodies.
The Kejriwal government promised regularisation of unauthorised colonies. A person owning a house in an unauthorised colony can now have papers and can sell and buy the property, he had thundered. But, there was no progress on that front, especially after the urban development secretary went on a long leave.
AAP’s manifesto had rattled out 70-point action plan – fast track courts, free WiFi in Delhi, CCTV cameras for women safety, full statehood, 900 mohalla clinics (of which just one is ready), and so on. Instead of taking everyone together to enact his ambitious action plan in the next five years, he involved himself in a fight with all.
This was indeed fuelled by a sudden CBI raid on the CM office in Delhi secretariat, which, however, has yielded no result.
In the last one year, Kejriwal had repeatedly accused the Centre of interfering in the Delhi government, and even called bureaucratsworking with the Delhi government as `B’ team of BJP.
A top bureaucrat with the Delhi government told dna, “We always come as the first target in the constant fight between the Delhi government and the Centre. This may be a reason why many officers working with this government (AAP government) are disillusioned and also feel alienated by the current dispensation.”
A few secretaries, including health and environment, had gone on long leaves. Kejriwal, however, had maintained he doesn’t need officers to get work done.
Nearly, 13 crucial bills, including Jan Lokpal Bill, are stuck for the Centre’s approval, even when the Delhi Assembly had already cleared them, courtesy a bitter relationship between the Delhi government and the Centre.
The AAP government is yet to clear the Swaraj Bill that had promised to make governance local.
Yogendra Yadav says that while the AAP government, in its first year, may have been a shade better than the last year of the former Congress government, it has failed to be a role model of governance that the rest of the country would like to emulate.
“Instead of governance and the ground implementation of promises made for the first year, it has been more of a blame game. The Swaraj Bill never saw the light of the day, there was no regularisation of unauthorised colonies and the Jan Lokpal bill was turned to be a joke,” Yadav said. “If the Jan Lokpal bill initiates enquiries on the Central government employees, how do they expect the Centre to clear it?” he asked.
Kejriwal’s escalating tension with the Centre also cost him the anti-corruption branch –a department that was over by the Centre, after it was with the Delhi government for decades. A major jolt on his anti-corruption poll plank, the fight over the department is now in the court.
A double whammy for the AAP government here was corruption charges against its own leaders. The government was prompt in sacking of a cabinet minister in October on graft charges. Earlier, another minister was sacked for submitting fake education certificates.
Many of the government’s other decisions have been embroiled in court cases, making them dormant.
The decision to end management quota in schools is stuck at the court again, with the judge ruling that only the administrator of the city, the LG in this case, can take a call on the matter.
The AAP government’s decision to get the CAG audit done for Delhi’s power discoms is also stuck in litigation, after the discoms challenged the Delhi government’s decision. One wonders how long Kejriwal will continue to subsidise the power supply.
Despite the critics’ observation, the government’s earned appreciation on its odd even scheme for private cars with a reduction in the traffic on the city’s roads for 15 days.
“One year is too early. We should give them at least another year to deliver on what they promised,” said J Joseph, a Delhi resident, who had voted for AAP last year.
