Is Narendra Modi doing an Indira Gandhi? Jung is just a front for PM's proxy war with Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s bruising political battle in the city-state of Delhi is in reality as much with PM Narendra Modi as it is with Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung. On the chessboard of Delhi’s politics Jung seems merely a pawn whose manoeuvres are an expression of the Modi government’s intent, interpreting the Constitution and the statutes to checkmate and circumscribe Kejriwal.

Such shadow politicking is also reminiscent of the political culture which prevailed during the decades of Congress dominance. Then governors in states indulged in political machinations at the behest of the Centre, knocking off Opposition governments from their perch or clipping their wings to impede their effective functioning.

In much the same manner, Jung appears to have been spoiling for a fight from the very beginning. Within barely a fortnight of the Kejriwal government being sworn-in, Jung rejected its request for a magisterial inquiry into a rape incident. He insisted an inquiry should be held under former IAS officer SP Gaur, whom the Liberhan Commission had indicted for his role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid. Gaur was then the commissioner of Faizabad, of which Ayodhya is a part.

Rejection of the plea for a magisterial inquiry was illustrative of Jung’s mindset: from the outset he seemed keen to trigger a conflict over the jurisdiction of the Delhi government and limit it. As he needled the Kejriwal government, rejecting its decisions or imposing his own in turn, Jung was cheered on by BJP leaders. Some of them as practicing lawyers sought to provide legal heft to their support of Jung’s interpretation of the Constitution and the statutes.

However, most recent views offered by independent legal luminaries have interpreted Lt. Governor’s actions as an overreach of the authority vested in him. Disregarding these opinions, the Home Ministry issued a notification upholding Jung’s interpretations, not realising it had, out of political expediency and partisanship, overturned the provisions of its own 2003 Bill which had sought to grant full statehood to Delhi.

Then again, as it was true of the Congress in the past, the BJP appears isolated in the political realm because of its support for Jung. No political outfit outside the NDA camp has endorsed the BJP’s actions and interpretations, not even the Delhi Congress chief, Ajay Maken, whose party’s support base AAP has weaned away. In fact, a clutch of leaders, from the CPI (M)’s Sitaram Yechury to JD (U)’s Nitish Kumar, have looked askance at Jung turning into an activist governor.

This isn’t the first time that Jung has taken his cue from the old Congress playbook. For instance, he had kept the Delhi Assembly in suspended animation for months last year. This too was the technique the Congress had perfected in its heyday – splitting parties to muster a majority before reviving the Assembly. Jung remained indifferent to compelling evidence of attempts to buy out or pressure MLAs to leave their outfits. If the Assembly was ultimately dissolved – and a fresh election called – it was due to the subtle pressure the judiciary mounted on Jung.

This is why Jung is popularly perceived to be acting on the instructions of the Centre, his actions looked upon as politically motivated.

For all his talk of cooperative federalism and periodic reminders about the Emergency, Modi’s disdain for, and hostility toward Kejriwal mirrors that of Indira Gandhi for Opposition chief ministers. Yet, in contrast to her, Modi has been accommodating, or has refrained from meddling in the affairs, of other Opposition chief ministers. This could be because he needs the support of their parties in the Rajya Sabha, where the BJP can only hope to attain a majority after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. In contrast, AAP is not represented in the Upper House to which Delhi will send its fresh quota of three MPs only in 2018.

Modi’s own psychology is revealed in his exceptional treatment of Kejriwal among all the chief ministers. For a person who hadn’t lost an election since the Gujarat Assembly election of 2002, and after winning a decisive majority in the Lok Sabha for the first time in 30 years, the loss in Delhi must have been a cruel cut. Indeed, the Delhi debacle did shatter the aura of invincibility Modi enjoyed – and diminished him to an extent.

The Delhi defeat also challenged Modi’s idea of power. He doesn’t, as seen over the last one year, perceive himself as first among equals, but a veritable giant among pygmies. This perception of his self extends beyond his party. He thinks of himself as the Chosen One, anointed by fate to change the country’s destiny.  

In this sense, the Delhi debacle is rude contradiction to his exaggerated perception of the self. A chappan chhati defeated by a puny man, an alpha male bested by a person with a persistent cough, a political hawk vanquished by a fledgling. Modi must recover his loss of esteem. But there is no electoral contest around the corner where he can fight and triumph over Kejriwal.

So, for the time being, Kejriwal has to be needled, shown his place, portrayed as one who’s not even a full-fledged chief minister. This is Modi’s, and the BJP’s recompense, their recovery of their potency.

Modi does not forgive or forget those who challenged him, evident from the manner in which civil society activist Teesta Setalvad has been hounded. Similarly, Modi will not forgive Kejriwal for challenging and vanquishing him in Delhi. His government will not cooperate with Kejriwal. It will instead lay out a constitutional trap through the L-G, trap and tame Kejriwal, and ensure the popular memory of his extraordinariness, achieved by defeating Modi, fades away quickly.

Ironically, the Modi government’s pinpricks play to the advantage of Kejriwal, who has made an art of not conforming to the dominant middle class notions of politics. His has aimed at playing the rebel, the outsider, forever engaged in raging against the system. his rhetoric is about the underdog fighting against the powerful; trying to change the system geared to serving the privileged. And because the system has to be changed, some of its laws have to be defied. Change, otherwise, isn’t possible, he argues.

Kejriwal’s is the psychology of the outsider, who believes he is wronged or misunderstood because he doesn’t speak the language of the insider. It is his outsider image which has such an appeal for the subaltern classes. Their support for him explains why AAP registered a four per cent increase in its vote-share in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, in defiance of the Modi wave.

But as soon as the outsider grasps power, might he not become the insider, assimilated into the system’s child? Responding to this question, political psychologist Ashis Nandy said in an interview to the Business Standard , “When you come in as an outsider and then try to become an insider, you sacrifice your appeal right there. The Mufflerman should remain like Spiderman, an outsider. I am not saying he should be a complete outsider because that is suicidal. But he should have one foot outside.”

Kejriwal doesn’t even have to strive to put his one foot outside the system – Jung and the Centre have already ensured that with their attempts to circumscribe him. Kejriwal’s refrain, obvious in his tweets, is: the corrupt have united to sabotage clean governance. Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay may think he is bringing Kejriwal a notch or two down by declaring, “One fails to understand the mindset of Arvind Kejriwal as no Chief Minister can be expected to stoop so low as to raise constitutional issues at a party rally (it was of three-wheeler drivers) and condemned constitutional authorities and decisions there.” But this is precisely what the outsider is expected to do – break the shackles of propriety to thumb nose at the elite.

The more the Modi sarkar, BJP and Jung appear to be ganging up on Kejriwal, the more it will work to the latter’s benefit. If Modi wants to win, he has to rethink his strategy to get the better of Kejriwal. The crisis Jung has escalated in Delhi only ends up portraying the Centre, and therefore Modi, as arrogant and intolerant – and in a battle whose outcome will, most likely, be settled in the courts and not ballot box.

Ajaz Ashraf is a journalist from Delhi. His novel, The Hour Before Dawn, published by HarperCollins, is available in bookstores. He can be reached at ashrafajaz3@gmail.com