The BJP has struck such a blow to AAP that it has become a life and death situation.
No wonder Kejriwal wants to cut all losses and save the party and his image. The first action has been to order immediate resignation from the two Ministers embroiled in corruption on charges of a serious nature.
Secondly, he plans to put in two other Ministers quickly in charge of the large number of portfolios being held by Satyendra Jain and Manish Sisodia, who have now resigned, so that it is business as usual and administrative work of the capital does not suffer particularly the forthcoming Budget.
Clearly, AAP has suffered a body blow from which it may be extremely difficult for Kejriwal to come out unscathed.
The opposition in Delhi particularly the BJP is out for the kill and unforgivingly has already started high pitched demand for the resignation of Kejriwal.
With two Ministers of his cabinet including one of them Deputy Prime Minister being arrested on graft, the moral high ground of AAP has definitely caved in.
Can Kejriwal in all honesty say today that he was completely unaware of what his Ministers were up to?
Will the CBI arrest senior Ministers just on the whim of Narendra Modi? Does not seem likely, whatever the Opposition parties may allege.
Courts too have not granted bail to Satyendra Jain even after several months. Why did the Supreme Court ask Manish Sisodia to knock on the doors of the High Court and not give him any relief? These are the kind of questions that can definitely agitate the minds of the public.
Just playing the victim card and accusing the central government of misusing the official machinery for targeting opposition leaders may not cut much ice with the public.
The evidence collected by CBI may not be in the public domain but to say that they have not got any “money” or “money trail” to nail Sisodia and therefore he must be given a clean chit is not right because whatever evidence they found, they felt it was sufficient to take him for interrogation and later arrest him.
AAP has been put in an extremely tight spot which must be galling to its members particularly because the whole party had been formed out of an anti-corruption movement of Anna Hazare.
Manish Sisodia’s innovative education policies in Delhi were becoming very popular and considered a model in Delhi and abroad.
With its clean image and innovative policies AAP had been able to add another state like Punjab to its party fold and started having national ambitions, so far so that Kejriwal was being considered by some as an aspirant of the PM’s chair the next time round.
The Kejriwal model which AAP wanted to be replicated elsewhere in the country has got a severe setback with the present happenings.
The party’s national ambitions have to be clipped now because it just cannot take the high moral ground of being a party with a difference with an absolutely clean image.
The resignations by the Ministers are a two-way sword because if on the one hand, it demonstrates that AAP has zero tolerance for corruption and anyone facing any charge has to give up his job, then Satyendra Jain’s resignation is too late.
Secondly, the Opposition would be well within its right to point out the resignation itself as some kind of an admission of guilt, even though Manish Sisodia has said that he would like his name to be cleared before he holds any official post.
The present crisis could not have come at a worse possible time when the AAP party must have been looking forward to contest in the forthcoming elections in several states. Now it has first to answer all questions regarding the liquor scam, arrests, and resignations. Clearly, a very difficult position from which to contest elections unless you are able to put the entire blame on Modi’s party at center.
The problem is these cases take a long time to come to a conclusion.
Mere charges being framed put the party leaders under a cloud. As far as public perception is concerned once someone is tarnished it takes a very long time to wipe it clear. People in the public continue to have lingering doubts even after the authorities give a clean chit.
The BJP being pushed to a corner on the “Adani issue” has now got sufficient fodder to smear AAP and cut it to size before it could develop into a serious contender come 2024.
| Posted by Sameer Khan | 
