The Kejriwal Infection
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I have gone into the reasons why Kejriwal has been able to generate such a big following in Delhi in my previous post: Four Faces of Arvind Kejriwal. Beyond the people who have flocked to him due to his message, there are many more belonging to vote-banks whose shift to Aam Aadmi Party has been managed by the usual political agents – the Muslims, the slum-dwellers, etc. and this management has been done with the explicit approval and at the direction of Sonia Gandhi, so as to inflate the Kejriwal Effect just enough for electoral success upon which the mainstream media could have further built upon.
Then there is the additional populism and anti-establishment swagger that Aam Aadmi Party likes to sell, which makes it easier for the party to explain the vote-bank shift from Congress to AAP. Other than that Arvind Kejriwal and his lieutenants have been selling a strong Islamist line to the Muslims: referendum in Kashmir (through Prashant Bhushan), increased Bangladeshi immigration (through Tauqeer Raza), sympathy for Jihadi elements (through Shazia Ilmi). The mainstream media have decided to blanket the story, so that the middle class does not learn about it.
There is basically not much difference between a Mulayam Singh Yadav or a Lalu Prasad Yadav or a Mayawati on the one hand and Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party. One would say that those are all
Jātivadi parties, all beholden to socialism and Muslim appeasement, where some
Jāti Neta holds sway over his
Jāti through his traditional influence over a network of
Jāti middlemen and local power-brokers. A few selected people in his
Jāti receive the fruits of the
Neta‘s election to power, some more of his
Jāti receive preference over others, but the vast majority receive nothing.
What Arvind Kejriwal has been able to achieve is to establish himself as a
Jāti Neta over Delhi’s middle class. One would say that that is not possible; the middle class is far too politically aware and educated to be taken in by such retrogressive instincts. This is a crap argument.
The Delhi based mainstream media has acted in the role of
Jāti middlemen and local power-brokers. They have mastered how to brainwash the Delhi-based middle class using a diet of misinformation, distraction and selective focus. It is a much more sophisticated way of manipulating a vote-bank but it is happening nevertheless.
The fact that Arvind Kejriwal is an IIT alumnus has been projected by the mainstream media as being today’s equivalent of being an educated Kashmir Brahmin say in 1947, as if nothing else matters, and there are no other IIT alumni or achievers in India. Being IIT alumnus gives one the right to claim one’s position as a
Jāti Neta of Delhi’s middle class.
Other than this all that Arvind Kejriwal really offer the Delhites is more of socialism and minority appeasement which has led to both an economic downturn in Indian growth story as well as an increase in Islamic extremism in India.
Is there any cure for the Kejriwal Infection which has been unleashed on Delhi middle class by Sonia Gandhi and the mainstream media?
I’ve been hearing voices on twitter saying that BJP supporters should not indulge in name calling and should have a proper debate on issues with the Aam Aadmi Party supporters. That is useless advice. An infected AAP supporter is not going to change his opinion about AAP based on feasibility of passing Jan Lokpal Bill in Delhi, or providing 700 liters of free water to Delhi citizens, or providing electricity at 50% of the current rates. All this would not sway the opinion of the people as the message they have latched onto is that Hazrat Kejriwal is on a mission to cleanse India’s political system and that BJP is the same as Congress, and those are the only two messages that count.
Debating Aam Aadmi Party on the issues of governance and development is giving them recognition as a party that really cares about these issues. Arvind Kejriwal does NOT care about these issues.
Kejriwal’s mission is to serve as an alternate political vehicle for Dynasty’s political assets and agenda, a big part of which is to deny Bharat its civilizational identity and strength, something shared and supported by major foreign powers. As Congress and its ideological cousins seem to lose support in the Hindu majority country, due to rampant corruption, territorial insecurity and collapse of development and governance, a need is felt by these powers to replace the old political vehicles and market the old wine in new bottles.
BJP leaders are still using wrong terminology to oppose Aam Aadmi Party. Aam Aadmi Party is not Congress’s B Team. Congress itself is simply a political vehicle for the interests of Dynasty and foreign establishments, and this vehicle is not some sacred cow for these interests. Congress too is dispensable. So calling Aam Aadmi Party as Congress’s B Team would be inappropriate as it misses the point and projects a false model. It allows AAP supporters to easily falsify the model citing multiple examples where AAP has hurt Congress electorally and is willing to also hurt Congress leaders.
The only truth is that Arvind Kejriwal is Sonia’s lieutenant, and Sonia would do everything to see to it that Arvind Kejriwal wins ever more credibility and support in his “constituency” or
Jāti of middle class, and if for that she has to sacrifice some chess pieces like Sheila Dixit or Sandeep Dixit. She would allow Kejriwal even to go after the Dynasty itself if it helps him. Point is that Sonia Gandhi wants to either install her own man as the next PM or to deny Narendra Modi a free hand in the next government.
If BJP wants to counter the Kejriwal infection, then BJP needs a more focused message and action.
- Call Arvind Kejriwal for what he is: Sonia Gandhi’s lieutenant. If AAP could inject the message that Congress and BJP are the same thing, then BJP has to counter it with telling the people that AAP and Congress are the same thing – Sonia Gandhi’s political vehicles, two different trucks both belonging to Sonia Gandhi. One truck is broken so she is reloading all her stuff to her other truck.
- Tell the world that almost all the assets being used by Arvind Kejriwal to strengthen AAP have been donated by Sonia Gandhi. She is his primary seed capitalist. Yogender Yadav was Rahul Gandhi’s man. The web presence and public relations of AAP was being managed by a Congress team. Most of the mainstream media which have been pushing Arvind Kejriwal are basically Congress assets.
- Most damning is the letter that Sonia Gandhi wrote to PM Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2005 to not transfer Arvind Kejriwal out of Delhi. Why would something like that interest Sonia Gandhi? Meenakshi Lekhi did bring out some details of the letter. Use the letter extensively.
- Go on an offensive against all of AAP’s second tier leadership and expose them to the people, their connections to various NGOs, their foreign funding, their connections to anti-national elements. Usually people see such attacks as personal attacks and throwing mud, but it has to be part of the strategy. Get lower rung BJP spokespeople to raise these issues.
- Show mainstream media (MSM) as serving only the interests of the Dynasty. Put up posters everywhere with graphs showing the relationship between Dynasty and Media moguls in India. Tell the people that if mainstream media is pushing the case of Arvind Kejriwal then that itself is proof of Arvind Kejriwal being Sonia Gandhi’s man.
- Each and every action of Arvind Kejriwal should be explainable to the people as to how it helps Sonia Gandhi.
- BJP should start taunting the Congress in Delhi, especially Sheila Dixit, how Sonia Gandhi has dumped Congress in Delhi and moved her support to Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP group.
- Use the right slogans which exposes the relationship between Sonia Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal, e.g. AAM = Asset of Antonia Maino.
Delhi BJP’s campaign should be built solely on projecting Arvind Kejriwal’s links to Sonia Gandhi. Everything else is noise. No more talk of AAP being Congress’s B Team. No more talk about water and electricity.
Of course BJP should make a strong positive case for
Surāj and
Vikas and fighting
Bhrashtachar, but that is independent of AAP.
on 27.02.2002. In the absence of the minutes of the meeting, there is again no documentary material available as to the participants in the meeting and what transpired at the said meeting," Ramchandran said in his report.
