CAPITAL DUEL
Strikes Well Staggered
AAP still has big political plans . But BJP has its ways to check the rival ’ s ways .
by Pragya Singh
LAST week , a posse of policemen — answerable to the Union Home Ministry , not Delhi government — interrogated the deputy chief minister , Manish Sisodia . Their subject : chief secretary Anshu Prakash , who has charged ruling Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP ) leaders with assault during a meeting on February 19 . Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has alre ady been through a lengthy police grilling in the matter .
For all the questions and answers , the matter refuses to go away or arrive at a logical end . If public memories of le affaire Anshu Prakash were fading , intermittent police interventions regurgitate it on TV screens . The sequence of events is unreal : in most states , police are at the beck and call of ministers but in the capital it is just the reverse .
AAP leaders don ’ t hunt for words before concluding that these Q & As appear scripted . “ This was a well-orchestrated scheme put in place soon after AAP came to power ,” says party leader Ashish Khetan . “ The BJP and Congress are constantly trying to prove that we are no different from other parties — that ’ s exactly what they say after every incident .”
The AAP , ruling over symbolically potent Delhi , sees itself as the sole challenger to BJP ’ s cross-country rise . Bereft of control over policing and services — the latter now in L-G Anil Baijal ’ s domain — they changed course to stay relevant . It came to power on the anti-corruption plank but now sticks to water , electricity , schooling and the like . “ Everybody knows that other parties don ’ t want to hear about the work we are doing especially in education and healthcare ,” says Khetan . The AAP government raised the budget for edu cation in 2016-17 to 23 per cent , when the national average was 15 per cent . This year , it all otted 12 per
To AAP , these fights are all about BJP ’ s idea of power : anyone who defeats the party should bite the dust .
cent to health . “ The problem is not that the AAP runs mohalla clinics and schools or has lowered electricity and water dues . The problem is the Congress and the BJP never did these things ,” says JNU professor Kamal Mitra Chenoy , who worked with AAP in 2014 and 2015 . “ The AAP is standing up to the BJP and Congress and also poses a political threat . Hence I feel that perhaps the chief secretary incident was first planned in theory then implemented in practice . Else , why would they question Sisodia months later ?”
The way power is structured , the L-G in Delhi is answerable only to the Union , while a decision on distribution of powers in Delhi was rese rved by the Supreme Court six months ago . Meanwhile , the BJP avoided a near-miss in the 2017 Gujarat polls , and now there ’ s talk of Opposition coalitions . Kejriwal has reached out far beyond Delhi , to star actor Kamalahasan in Tamil Nadu , for example , and the AAP wants to contest in Haryana next year . “ Whatever the AAP says , the BJP doesn ’ t influence police probe . Everyone caught doing wrong defends himself — that ’ s what the AAP is doing ,” says
PTI
PROBE Delhi Police at deputy CM Manish Sisodia ’ s residence , May 25
BJP national spokesperson Anil Baluni .
Between the two parties , more than just seven Lok Sabha seats of Delhi are at stake . To the AAP , these fights are about the BJP ’ s notion of power : anyone who defe ats them must be made to bite the dust . “ These controversies would make AAP supporters think , ‘ maybe we should vote for them only in Delhi ’ or ‘ maybe we shouldn ’ t vote for them ’,” Chenoy says .
To hold the February meeting late at night , in a city accustomed to the cloak and dagger , was a misstep . What the AAP had been saying until then — how their advertisements to mark four years in power took a week for bureaucrats to clear , how notices issued in December to deliver rations to doorsteps were pending even in February — seem , in retrospect , to be better chess moves .
That said , the police investigate the AAP with great keenness . Not long ago , a dog was dragged to court — the AAP ’ s Somnath Bharti ’ s pet . The idea was to see if Bharti had set his pet on his estranged wife . The animal , it turns out , didn ’ t att ack despite expert prodding . The court concluded in Bharti ’ s favour . Maybe , if AAP-style investigations are launched for each complaint , the general standard of policing would improve for all Delhi . O
20 OUTLOOK 11 June 2018