Tumse na ho payega: What Kejriwal's radio ad seems to tell Modi about controlling Delhi Police

The fact that Arvind Kejriwal and the Delhi Police aren’t exactly the best of friends, doesn’t quite qualify as ‘breaking news’. From Somnath Bharti sparring with the police and ordering the arrest of a group of Ugandan women in Khirkee Extension, to the Kejriwal government demonstrating on the streets against its own police, AAP and Delhi Police have had a tumultous past. Something that has spilled over to the present too it seems. The latest addition to the never-ending saga of hate, is an AAP leader’s allegation that the Delhi Police tried to run him over. AAP leader Dilip Pandey told reporters yesterday, “I was speaking to the media. Suddenly, a worker pushed me and said ‘careful!’ A speeding police car was behind me and almost on me. God protected me and prevented someone’s nefarious plans from succeeding. The car crossed us and then stopped ahead.” The Aam Aadmi Party promptly threatened to launch a stir against the Delhi Police. They lost no time to make their grievance very public too. So out came an ad on radio, where Kejriwal asks Prime Minister Modi to make sure that the Delhi Police functions. And if he can’t rein them in, Kejriwal asks him to give AAP government full power over the Delhi Police. [caption id=“attachment_2359504” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal.[/caption] The Indian Express quotes Kejriwal as saying in the ad: “Sir (PM) aap to jante hi hain, Delhi Police pe Delhi government ka kisi tarah ka koi control nahi hai. (You know that the Delhi government has no control over Delhi Police). Lawfully, it comes under you and you have not been able to give time to Delhi Police. Aap to desh ke PM hai, aapko pura desh sambhalna hai. (You are the country’s PM and you have to run the country). Delhi Police par kisi ka control nahi bacha hai. (Delhi Police is out of control).” In a deeply patronising tone, Kejriwal seems to be pointing out that PM Modi has failed to keep a watch on Delhi Police, as a result of which, they are running amok. In the garb of a suggestion, Kejriwal issued an ultimatum to Prime Minister Modi. He said in the advertisement, either you beat the police in shape, or give over the control to the Delhi government. While Kejriwal could have written to the Prime Minister through official channels, if he really wanted the PM to look into the matter, he chose a much  more  public route in the way of a radio commercial. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that this new advertisement is one that, with great tact, puts the blame of Delhi’s law and order situation on to the Modi government. Meanwhile, no one can point a finger at the Kejriwal government, since with the commercial he suggests that he would have done everything possible had the matter been in his hands. In the same breath, the advertisement also emphasises Kejriwal’s old stand on Modi - that he is a power hungry autocrat. The content and tone of the advertisement is a not-so-subtle effort to underscore the belief that Modi is an autocrat who is unwilling to cede power or share responsibilities with an eager state government. The advertisement comes at a time when the city is still reeling under the shock of a young girl getting stabbed to death in broad daylight in the Anand Parbat area in Delhi. Kejriwal doesn’t forget to scrape that wound in his ad too, mentioning that no one in that area ever remembers seeing a police patrol van. Alongside his allegation that the Modi government is power-hungry, the ad intends to suggest that it takes women’s safety lightly too. With one commercial, AAP  has touched several raw nerves. The AAP government had always maintained that not only are the Delhi Poilice defiant (he recently called them thullas), they basically dance to the tunes of the Centre, run by a rival party. In 2014, an AAP supporter put out this video, exhorting people protest the ways of the Delhi Police, which is allegedly under BJP’s control. While the police is up in arms against Kejriwal for referring to them as ’thullas’, this ad comes as a defiant dismissal of their protest and a counter-attack mounted to target both the police and the Modi government.