Anna-AAP clash: Kejriwal should have patched up with his guru

No one seems to have weakened Arvind Kejriwal as much as Anna Hazare. This is arguably one of the greatest ironies of contemporary Indian politics that two strong-willed men, common in their cause for clean governance, now find themselves locked in a destructive mode.

The latest attack by Hazare on bureaucrat-turned-social worker-turned-politician Kejriwal was followed closely by an ink attack on Kejriwal by a former BJP worker from Maharashtra. This episode has hurt Kejriwal’s image like never before, with accusations of money mismanagement and a court case relating to an alleged multi-crore ‘Anna Sim card’ scam.

Exclusive video footage from December 2012 aired on Times Now on Tuesday shows Hazare asking Kejriwal about “money collected in my name” from the public during the Jan Lokpal Movement in Delhi. “The money was collected in my name,” Hazare is seen repeating in the video during an argument about the money collected and the manner in which it was spent.

Kejriwal and his band of followers who established the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to fight the December 2013 Delhi Assembly polls and emerged as a factor to reckon with couldn’t have asked for a worst crisis, barely two weeks before the polls.

As things have turned out, Hazare, sitting far away in his village Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra, has succeeded in robbing Kejriwal of his electoral momentum. Through a letter to Kejriwal on November 17, he has demanded an explanation on the use of his name on some election campaign material and the money collected through the sale of SIM cards issued in his name during the India Against Corruption movement, about which he had been named in a petition filed in court. “Since I have nothing to do with this, I don’t want to be dragged into any such case,” Hazare said while speaking to journalists at his village on Tuesday.

Hazare has also objected to Kejriwal’s promise to the electorate that he would introduce the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly if elected to power. An air-dash to Ralegan Siddhi by senior AAP leader and Kejriwal’s emissary Kumar Vishwas failed to placate Hazare.

What is it that has gone so miserably wrong between Hazare and Kejriwal who jointly spearheaded the 2011-12 Lokpal movement which shook the nation rather memorably? An answer to this lies in Hazare’s personality and his past as an anti-corruption crusader.

Recall that very enduring image of live TV telecast of Hazare taking position, seated all alone in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s samadhi on Independence Day, 2011 to demand a stronger Lokpal bill in parliament.

The government of the day had trembled and questions were asked, what if this old man refused to vacate the samadhi grounds and sat indefinitely as a part of his protest? The other leaders of the movement, including Kejriwal, were seated quite some distance away from Hazare, letting the veteran Gandhian shine under the spotlight without any competition.

From that rarefied altitude of personal glory, Hazare today has been reduced almost to a non-entity sitting in Ralegan Siddhi. Of late, he has been getting national attention only when he attacks Kejriwal, not when he describes his former lieutenant “as a good, honest man”. Thrown to the sidelines, Hazare has reduced himself to a nuisance factor by failing to gracefully sort out his differences with Kejriwal.

The fact is that in all of his campaigns – be it the holistic development of his once poverty-stricken village in Maharashtra or against corrupt sugar cooperatives in the state – Anna Hazare was always in command.

He was always at the focal point of his campaigns – there was never any second-in-command Kejriwal by his side. Hazare, throughout his life, has been self-driven; never a team player and has always held ground on his own terms.

The Jan Lokpal movement was the first of its kind for Hazare that elevated him to the national scale. Although Hazare was the face of this movement, it was Kejriwal who was driving it as the architect of the movement.

After the movement withered away and Hazare’s fasts became more of fiascos, the two leaders parted ways and the India Against Corruption/ Jan Lokpal movement split vertically. Hazare returned to his village and Kejriwal went on to create the Aam Aadmi Party to fight the Delhi state assembly polls.

The fact is that while Kejriwal continues to be at the centre of action in Delhi, Hazare had been reduced to leading a retired life in his village. The centre of gravity in his universe has shifted to his former protégé who continues to call him “Guru”, but otherwise has little to do with him any longer.

Hazare disapproved of Kejriwal’s joining politics because he considered the system of political parties contrary to Gandhi’s vision. Left alone to pursue his own plans and programmes, it wouldn’t be wrong to presume that Hazare felt used by Kejriwal and cheated of his place in history by the very person who calls him his mentor.

As Kejriwal has said in press interviews, numerous attempts have been made by rival political parties to influence Hazare against others in the movement. Recall the manner in which Swami Agnivesh, a prominent member of Team Anna, was expelled from the group after he was caught on video leaking confidential team discussions, allegedly to Union minister Kapil Sibal, during the peak of the Jan Lokpal movement.

Given this larger background, shouldn’t Kejriwal have paid more attention to managing his strained relationship with Hazare by frequently spending time with him and by striking and strengthening the common ground on their areas of agreement?

How did Kejriwal miss out on this part of his strategic planning?

Was it too difficult for the brilliant Kejriwal to see that the shifting power centre from Hazare to himself would undoubtedly ruffle feathers in the Hazare camp and these needed to be soothed from time to time?

A man of steely will and firm determination, Kejriwal will need to fall back on his extraordinary brilliance and presence of mind to patch up with Hazare. At least till the Delhi elections get through.

Once the election results are out and Kejriwal has his share of seats in hand, the Aam Aadmi Party founder would have embarked on a new post-Hazare, post-Jan Lokpal chapter in his closely-watched public career.

(With Inputs from Satish Dhumal, Ralegan Siddhi)