- February 16, 2017
- 7 mins
Aap Ki Loot: Arvind Kejriwal’s Impropriety
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Preface: In the land of the blind, the one eyed has to be the king; in the kingdom of immorality, even a pretension of probity is a ticket to sainthood.
No political party with even the thinnest of histories can get away with the kind of faux pas that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Arvind Kejriwal are easily allowed to get away with. Even after suffering successive massive defeats after their Delhi election performance, Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP hasn’t shied away from creating large controversies at frequent intervals. While the AAP and Kejriwal were allowed to set high sail till now, their current misdemeanors seemed to have irked the main stream media as well.
In December 2015, Arun Jaitley filed a defamation case against Arvind Kejriwal and 5 others (Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh, Raghav Chaddha, and Deepak Bajpai) against allegations made by these people indicating his and his family’s alleged involvement in certain irregularities in the DDCA (Delhi & District Cricket Association). In the court, Arvind Kejriwal was represented by noted lawyer Ram Jethmalani, who has billed Arvind Kejriwal to the tune of Rs 3.42 crore. Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party now wants Delhi’s taxpayers to pay for Arvind Kejriwal’s personal grudges. Does a political battle of people holding constitutional office become the matter of state? The simple answer is, NO!
Putting Things in Perspective: Arvind Kejriwal and his gang at AAP have been attempting to siphon Delhi taxpayers’ money by trying make this a case against the Government of Delhi and not against Arvind Kejriwal as an individual.
If a government is party to a case, they have every right to employ and pay for the advocate of their choosing. However, in this case the allegations made by Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP members were made to the media in their personal capacity. The allegations had nothing to do with Arvind Kejriwal’s official duties. The allegations were not made on the basis of any report submitted to the Chief Minister of Delhi by any government authority. The allegations were made on the basis of “personal investigations” carried out by Arvind Kejriwal and his crew. The Delhi government had not filed any FIR, they hadn’t received any report, and they hadn’t directed any enquiry. It is but obvious that the case is against Arvind Kejriwal, as it is understood that he has issued the statements in capacity of a politician and not as a public officer. Even legal luminaries such as Soli Sorabjee, Aryama Sundaram, KTS Tulsi and many others have called this a private case. Infact, Arvind Kejriwal’s own lawyer, Ram Jethmalani, doesn’t want the Delhi Government to pay for his fees.
Does calling yourself Aam Aadmi (Party) give you the right to load all your expenses on the real Aam Aadmi? Kejriwal has 7 defamation suits against him. Should he employ Ram Jethmalani as his lawyer, is the Delhi taxpayer expected to pay for all those cases as well? And what if Kejriwal loses the case against Arun Jaitley. Will the 10 crores that Arun Jaitley, within his rights, demands from Arvind Kejriwal, be burdened upon the Delhi exchequer as well? What’s next? Should the Delhi taxpayer pay for Arvind Kejriwal’s laundry bills next?
Hiding Facts to Fool People: In a petition filed in the court, Arvind Kejriwal himself urges the court to merge both the criminal and civil defamation cases by calling them as private in nature. Completely knowing that the Delhi Government is not liable to pay Arvind Kejriwal’s bills, on 21 December 2016, the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, Manish Sisodia directed the General Administration Department (GAD) to pay the legal bills of Ram Jethmalani. What is significant is that the direction states that the GAD should give the compliance at the earliest, preferably within a day. Manish Sisodia also says that the file need not be sent to the LG for approval.
What clearly emerges from Delhi Government’s handling of the issue is that the AAP were all along aware of the impropriety involved but still willingly chose to use every trick in the book to force Delhi taxpayers to pay for their emperor’s high-octane political theatrics.
Conclusion: A habitual offender and a master of shoot-and-scoot strategy, Arvind Kejriwal and his party’s defense is unlikely to cut much ice. Kejriwal’s repeated attempts of misusing Delhi taxpayers’ funds for self-promotion in contravention of the Supreme Court’s guidelines displays his trickery and hypocrisy and further reduces his standing in public life. Only a few days back the AAP government attempted to misuse government funds by trying to spend 97 crores of taxpayers’ money to pay for their advertisements. Claiming probity and integrity as his hallmark when he entered politics, Arvind Kejriwal’s and AAP’s moral halo stands shattered because of their continuous treachery for self-aggrandizement.
Righteousness also demands equal probity on part of the righteous. AAP has become a stale joke. The entire episode smacks of the same ideological debauchery that the AAP is so fond of alleging its rivals to be guilty of. Arvind Kejriwal may very well win a few seats in Delhi but he has already lost the ideological ground that he has propped himself on. This flight of Icarus is fast approaching the sun. We shall see how long the glue of deceit holds the wings of the false angel.
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- TAGS: Aam Aadmi Party, Arvind Kejriwal
