Should we take a lenient view of Arvind Kejriwal?

The following is an excerpt from my email written to India Against Corruption about a year ago following Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to join politics. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was not formed then.

“I think we can effectively challenge a system from outside. Once we become part of the system, we become prone to do compromises on our stated principles or agenda for surviving in that system." 

In the above excerpt the term system implies to politics. Over the past few months, I have noticed many compromises by AAP which may be OK according to the phrase ‘All is fair in love and war’ but are not in tune with the politics of principles which AAP professes to follow. Here are some examples:

1. AAP has been publicizing two sets of contradictory poll   survey data through huge flex posters hung over many foot bridges (a violation of traffic rules) in Delhi and in small posters behind many autos. A discerning person would question the authenticity of this data as no name of the agency which conducted these poll surveys has been given. The data details are follows:

The following are the Delhiites choices for Delhi CM following the Nov 2013 polls:

(i) Arvind Kejriwal      41% 

(ii) Sheila Dikshit         20% 

(iii) Vijay Goel             14%

The following are the Delhiites choices for a particular party's govt following the Nov 2013 polls:

(i) AAP        46% 

(ii) BJP        29% 

(iii) Cong     25%

The obvious contradiction in the above two sets of data is that more people want Sheila to be CM than those who want the Cong to form govt in Delhi. How can it be possible? 

2. On Sept 10 last, the Hindustan Times carried a picture of  Arvind Kejriwal campaigning inside a Delhi Metro coach. Delhi Metro doesn’t allow photography, marketing or campaigning inside its coaches.

3. "5 saal ki gudiya ko bachaya" (He saved a five-year-old innocent girl). Kejriwal used this sentence below his picture on posters at the back of three-wheelers. Adjacent to this picture there was a picture of Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit who was blamed for the rising crimes against women. I found it in bad taste that Kejriwal, who claims to be a selfless leader, is asking votes in the name of a five-year-old innocent rape victim. 

As AAP has limited resources to counter the huge poll campaigns of Congress and BJP, we may overlook the above diversions of AAP from the principles-based politics. But I think this the beginning of compromises which may grow once AAP becomes a player to reckon with in Delhi politics.