Arvind Kejriwal is on an indefinite fast in Delhi since last 7 days to protest against the water and electricity charges. Sadly, the media coverage has been very low this time. Even the people are not flocking around him in large numbers, as they did on earlier occasions. Is the Kejriwal magic fading away? At one time before Modi’s arrival on national scene, people drew comparison between Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi, over the suitability for the next prime minister ship. So what has gone wrong in the last few months? We analyze the 5 main reasons why Kejriwal is losing his sheen…!
Break away from Anna Hazare
Even though Arvind Kejriwal devoted himself to social causes by giving up his job much before, he was shot into limelight only during his association with Anna Hazare while negotiating with government on the Lokpal issue. People considered him to be the main strategist behind Anna’s every move. His calm media briefings, good vocabulary and intelligent remarks brought him closer to hearts of masses. They started seeing in him the future leader of India, who was ready to fight for their cause till the end.
But things turned ugly, when the discord between Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal started appearing in the media. They both went through rounds of denial and refusal on all such matters for some time, but could not sustain for long. The important point on this journey of break-up was when it was alleged that Kejriwal had visited Anna in his village to ‘return’ an amount of Rs. 2 Crores, which was apparently with him, received as donations for the movement. Unfortunately, whenever matter of such large amount of money comes into discussion, people’s mind gets polluted with various wild possibilities and the sanctity of the subject gets lost. Subsequently, they put up a brave face and fasted jointly in Delhi, but it ended up without any result and with a highly unexpected declaration of a political outfit for the movement. Thereafter, within few days, they both declared parting of their ways on ideological issues, while respecting each other.
So, it raises questions – was the aura created around Kejriwal was because of his association with a clean character like Anna Hazare? Kejriwal has no substance in himself to be a leader of masses? These questions can only be answered in coming few months.
Too many expose in short time
In October 2012 Kejriwal was the hero of media. He nonchalantly exposed scam after scam on a weekly basis. His opponents got very nervous and compared his exposes with a weekly vegetable market, out of despair. During those days, he was able to sufficiently build up suspense over his next target. He took on the mighty and powerful people like Salman Khurshid, Robert Vadra, Nitin Gadkari and many industrialists in quick succession.
However, all that hype fizzled out slowly, as very few of these allegations had sustaining power in the court of law. People were disillusioned about the authenticity of the claims made by Kejriwal and company. It lost its seriousness and became more of an entertainment exercise for the media and people. Seeing the situation, the politicians also gradually became less wary of Kejriwal’s expose. In this context, Beni Prasad Verma came out with a stunningly wise comment on Kejriwal. He said, ‘One must not bark every day… instead one should roar once in a while.’ How true…!
Political Ambitions
Unfortunately, in India, people have developed an aversion to politicians. It is because, today we find very few politicians who are morally and ethically correct in their behavior and dealings. Most of the politicians are embroiled in some controversy or other. In this backlight, when Kejriwal announced his political ambitions, it came as a blow to his supporters. Some of them immediately started visualizing him as a power hungry, corrupt politician.
People raised genuine questions about the source of funding of his party, how he was going to get clean candidates, can he win elections without money and muscle power etc. So, the image carefully built up as an apolitical social outfit took a serious beating. Some people also questioned his views and ideas on crucial policy matters of national interest, which are not revealed explicitly till now.
Focus on anti-establishment
If we really look at Arvind Kejriwal and his contribution all these days, his name is synonymous with expose. That is why, Digvijay Singh once twitted that both Arvind Kejriwal and Rakhi Sawant were similar in the sense - both wanted to expose but without any substance. His work is focused only on revealing the wrong doings of people in power. He has undoubtedly brought in glaring public domain many issues which otherwise would have been dormant.
But, beyond a certain point, people question your credentials. When a person plays with fire he risks getting his hands burnt. So also, the entire government machinery worked overtime to look for any lapses on part of Kejriwal in fulfilling his obligations as an upright citizen of this country. And they found out about his pending loan repayment to the government, while he was in service. However hard he tried to justify his actions, a seed of doubt was sown in the minds of people. And with that, the halo around his image was cracked. People started looking at him like an ordinary man.
Moreover, he focused so much on the anti-establishment that he did not give prominence on his vision for the country, his policies to make thing better, his ideology on various national issues etc. It was more like a communist phenomenon, where you oppose everything existing without naming how you are going to correct it.
Insensitivity of Public
The people of this country have becomes slightly insensitive in the last few months. Whether it is because of daily incidences of rape cases being debated on national media, or huge amount of corruption cases happening around in every possible area, or an utter helpless situation where the people are fed up with misrule of government and the opposition not being ready to provide an alternative…the fact is that people have become highly insensitive and learnt to be more tolerant. Today, very few eyebrows raise if a new case of gang rape is mentioned, or another case of multi Crores corruption is discovered.
The immunity of people has risen so high that they have actually started enjoying these news items out of their frustration. The media is making the hay while sun shines and pushing all bad news day after day on prime time. The government is cashing in on the apathy of people and brazenly carrying on with their dubious tasks unmindful of public reaction.
In such a scenario, therefore, it was but natural that people show very less interest in Kejriwal’s hunger strike as well. His current fast has almost become like only a family affair, with some AAP leaders sitting around him and posing for the camera. The media is conspicuous by its absence or poor coverage. It took the government 13 days to break the fast of Anna Hazare in August 2011. God knows how many days it will take for the government this time. Whether they will make any attempt to break his fast at all, is also doubtful.
One thing is sure… the nation is losing one intelligent strategist… who is fading into oblivion because of some wrong steps taken by him…! 
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