Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its supreme leader Arvind Kejriwal are back in news — this time at the expense of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
AAP pulled off a deeply embarrassing sting operation against the Delhi unit of the BJP when Kejriwal released a video on Monday purportedly showing a senior Delhi BJP leader offering a bribe of 40 million Indian rupees INR ($657,540) to an AAP legislator to switch loyalties to help the BJP form a government in Delhi. As per the video, the targeted AAP legislator, Dinesh Mohaniya, was told by the Delhi BJP Vice President Sher Singh Dagar that he could contest election on a BJP ticket and even if he lost he would be given chairmanship of a government-run board.
The significance of this event is huge. This is the first time when the BJP, under Modi, has been hit by a sting operation. It only shows how foolishly complacent the Delhi unit of BJP has been. Only a few days ago, Kejriwal had announced from rooftops that his legislators and party workers should go full steam ahead in launching sting operations to expose the evil machinations of the BJP.
The episode is a rude reality check for Modi who has been so cautious of possible sting operations that all central ministries have been directed to ensure that no one, including journalists, is allowed inside the offices of his ministers with gadgets like mobile phones and tape recorders (in some cases the list of contraband items includes pens which can hide spy cams) to pre-empt possible sting operations.
The sting operation at the local level will inevitably embolden Modi-baiters (who are far too many and whose numbers are steadily growing) to launch similar operations at the national level. That is why the incident assumes such a great national importance. Delhi is under President’s rule since February after Kejriwal hastily kicked the chief minister’s chair, as his eyes were set on the much larger pie, the seat of power in New Delhi for the Indian Union. Elections for the 70-seat Delhi assembly late last year threw up a fractured verdict and the poll arithmetic is such that none of the three main parties — BJP, AAP and the Congress in that order of electoral performance — is in a position to form the government on its own.
For several reasons the BJP is chary of ordering fresh elections in Delhi, a vociferous demand of AAP. One, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in no mood to spoil the taste of his historic victory in May if the BJP loses the Delhi polls, a possibility no one can rule out. Two, though Delhi is a very small state (technically speaking, Delhi is a union territory) and a loss or a win here cannot alter the national political picture, it is such a prestigious state that no ruling party at the center would like to lose. Several times in the past while campaigning for the Delhi assembly polls, the BJP had given the slogan “From Delhi to New Delhi,” conveying that a victory in Delhi assembly can catapult the winning party to winning national elections. Three, the current BJP thinking is that when it can grab power in Delhi by winning over the loyalties of just a couple of legislators from rival parties then why take the risk of fighting a poll battle all over again. Thus both the rival parties — AAP and Congress — are facing the risk of poaching from the BJP. This is despite the fact that for public consumption the BJP’s national leadership has stated time and again that it would not take recourse to “horse-trading,” a much-used term in Indian political lexicon denoting downright purchase of lawmakers from other parties.
The AAP video shows the menace of horse-trading that is covertly going on in Delhi in full steam. In BJP’s calculations, currently its main rival in Delhi is AAP, not Congress. The longer AAP is kept away from power the better it would be for the BJP. If BJP is able to form a government in Delhi by hook or by crook and successfully clings on to power for the next four years, AAP would be completely disintegrated. This is the BJP thinking and AAP realizes the high costs of the ongoing political machinations.
As for the Congress, it has been so badly mauled in the November 2013 assembly polls (winning just eight out of 70 seats) that it has no options but to wait and watch helplessly from the sidelines. AAP’s emergence was solely at the cost of the Congress and despite that Congress party had extended unconditional outside support to AAP to enable Kejriwal form a government and keep the BJP at bay. But unfortunately Kejriwal frittered away the golden chance and resigned after 49 days, biting the hand that fed him. Kejriwal has still not learned his lessons because he is continuing to live in his own make-believe world and not ready to make any compromises. Surprisingly, Kejriwal has been running to President Pranab Mukherjee and the Supreme Court to prevent BJP from coming into power in Delhi but he has not bothered to go to the Congress with a forgive-and-forget message. It is strange that Kejriwal still has not included words like “apology” and “compromise” in his dictionary!
