All rage, no plan: Why the Centre is losing to Kejriwal in Delhi

Noor Jahan said she walked four hours from her home in Old Delhi to meet Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to complain against the officers at the Jama Masjid police station. The police, Jahan said, are refusing to register a complaint after her mentally- ill son was beaten to death by local thugs two weeks ago. Jahan, who works as a domestic help, said she saw Kejriwal’s protest against the police on TV at her employer’s house last night and decided to meet and complain to him about how she was being harassed by the police. “I will tell him how the police is threatening me instead of filing my complaint against those who murdered my son. I’ve lost my only son and now I am afraid for my life too,” Jahan said, breaking down as she took out a photograph of her teenage son. When it comes to complaints against the Delhi Police, Kejriwal knows there is enough and more rage in Delhi’s aam aadmi. Ghanshyam, an autorickshaw driver, didn’t vote for the Aam Aadmi Party, but is full of admiration when he speaks of Kejriwal spending a night on the streets of Delhi. “He has created history. Never before has a chief minister slept on the pavements, that too in winter…why didn’t the police take action in Malviya Nagar? Everybody knows the police is hand in glove the criminals,” Ghanshyam said, as he drove through the rain on a chilly Tuesday morning towards the site of Kejriwal’s sit-in protest in Central Delhi. [caption id=“attachment_1351321” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kejriwal has been on dharna since yesterday.PTI[/caption] Kejriwal’s dramatic sit-in protest against the Centre for not suspending those Delhi police officers who failed to take action in two separate instances, one involving a controversial “raid” in Malviya Nagar by the law minister, has entered day two. The BJP is calling it a ‘mock-fight’ between the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party. The Congress is calling it a gimmick, an elaborate exercise to force their hand into withdrawing support to the AAP government in Delhi. The Centre is calling it an anarchist plot that is hurting India’s reputation. And the media is calling it irresponsible, shaking its head in disagreement with Arvind Kejriwal’s latest piece of political theatre. While everyone seems to have an opinion about the unprecedented scenes that are playing in Delhi, a solution to end this impasse is yet to emerge. Having spent all of Monday raging against him and attributing motives to his protest demonstration, does the government, the Congress and the BJP – who in a rare show of unity agree that Kejriwal is bad news for them – now have a plan on how to deal with the unpredictable AAP leader? Other than fuming and fumbling and unleashing the police on him, there seems little that the Centre has done in response to a Chief Minister who continues to play the outsider, who doesn’t think twice about spending the night in the biting cold on the streets of Delhi’s VVIP zone, surrounded by his cabinet ministers and his band of followers. Kejriwal after a full day and night of being in the eye of the storm continues to control the situation and going by his fiery statements on Tuesday morning he and his deputy Manish Sisodia (Delhi Education Minister) are making, they are continuing to set the agenda for everyone else to follow. Far from softening his stand, Kejriwal has only upped the ante since he began his sit-in protest on Monday morning – daring the Home Minister and calling on the people of Delhi to take the day off and join him in large numbers. With less than a week to go before Japan’s Prime Minister, the chief guest for India’s 65th Republic Day parade arrives, and state Congress leaders unwilling to pull the plug on AAP government just yet, the Centre does seem to be caught between a rock and a very hard place at the moment. Should they continue to wait and watch while Kejriwal runs, as some are suggesting, AAP’s Lok Sabha election campaign from the very heart of Capital - opposing the Centre and fighting for control of the Delhi Police? Or should they forcibly evict him from the site and withdraw support to his government, which many others are suggesting, is exactly what Kejriwal wants. For now, it would appear, Kejriwal finds himself in a win-win situation. The government, on the other hand, bankrupt on ideas and devoid of imagination, will do what it does best - sit on the situation till the circumstances force an outcome.