does-aap-want-the-delhi-govt-to-be-dismissed

The Supreme Court of India will likely take up Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s bail plea next week. It has been about three weeks since Kejriwal was arrested, but he has not yet resigned as the Chief Minister. 

 

Reportedly, he’s “running the government from jail”, at least that is what the Aam Aadmi Party claims.

 

Constitutionally and legally, Kejriwal may not be wrong in continuing to be the Chief Minister from behind bars because the Constitution of India is silent on the issue. 

 

Obviously, the framers of the constitution may not have visualised such a situation that a sitting Chief Minister may go to jail.

 

It is an issue of moral grounds. Given the high moral ground the AAP and Kejriwal in particular have always taken, questions are bound to be asked, and are being asked, about him continuing as the Delhi CM and “running the government from jail”.

 

At one stage, it was suggested that his wife Sunita Kejriwal would assume the charge of the Chief Minister.

 

The way her video messages were circulated, with her sitting in between the photographs of Bhagat Singh and Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar, just like how Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann sit in their respective offices, it was subtly conveyed that she would her husband’s successor. Some people even started believing that she was sitting in and speaking from Kejriwal’s Chief Ministerial chair.

 

However, there seem to have been second thoughts within the AAP, as this would have led to allegations of “nepotism” and promoting his own family against Kejriwal. Parallels were already drawn between Kejriwal and Lalu Prasad Yadav, who installed his wife Rabri Devi as the Chief Minister after he was jailed in the fodder scam in Bihar. 

 

The last thing Kejriwal would like is to be equated with Lalu Yadav.

 

It is not that Kejriwal may not be inclined to resign. There are apprehensions that his resignation might lead to a power struggle within the AAP and that too when he is away and not in direct control of things. 

 

The AAP hopes that the Centre may impose President’s Rule in the Capital State if Kejriwal does not resign. The AAP may cry and claim “political martyrdom” and hope to reap some electoral dividends in the General Elections by crying victim. But that is again fraught with great risk as it may go both ways. Getting out of power has more disadvantages than advantages. 

 

Crying “martyrdom” and “victimhood” may not necessarily find the desired resonance among the masses. 

 

If the government is dismissed and Delhi is placed under the President’s Rule, the AAP, with the powerful media outreach it enjoys, can play it up and play it quite well enough to expect some political dividends. That appears to be the only option left with the party right now. 

 

The AAP and Kejriwal do not have many choices right now. Because all choices are fraught with countless risks. 

 

For Kejriwal, giving up the Chief Ministership and trusting someone else is a greater risk than getting his government dismissed. In power politics, anything can happen at any time. 

 

Right now, all eyes are on the Supreme Court, which will be hearing Kejriwal’s bail plea next week. 

 

The AAP may be hoping that he may get bail on the pretext of elections, and then most of the problems will get automatically resolved. 

However, in case the SC denies him bail, things are likely to get more difficult for the AAP and the Delhi government.

 

Whether legal and constitutional or not, it is difficult to accept for the people that a government is being run from the jail, as is claimed by the AAP. 

 

Why not trust and try someone else in the meantime?

This is the question Kejriwal and the AAP will need to find an answer, lest the silence goes against them.