Kejriwal Is Lying To Win Battle Of Perception

In authoritarian regimes or cults or religions (the kind that grow by conversions) or personality based political ideologies the importance of the person in charge or the fount of message / ideology is paramount. Since the leaders or the messengers (as much as we would like to believe in their divinity) are human and thus beset with usual follies, perception of their abilities or their strength becomes a substitute. Therefore in establishing their rule or reign as the case maybe, the battle of perception becomes very important.

AAP is one of those personality based political cult led by their supreme leader Arvind Kejriwal. For the outsider who has followed this man since the Anna Hazare movement, he is no more than a political Arundhati Roy. What I mean is that just like her, he likes to stay in the limelight, usurping other people’s agenda. She stood next to Medha Patkar usurping her agenda. This man has done the same to Anna Hazare. In that way he is a selfish credit hog. If it weren’t for Hazare, no one would know this guy.

In his course to where he is now, he has lied, made false promises (even a bad student at the IITs knows what is feasible and what is not. Believe me. I was one), made so many u-turns that even he does not know which direction is he facing. He has lied about his job (if he were such a crusader in the IT department, he would be suffering like Ashok Khemka instead of playing a crusader) plagiarized a book ( as accused by Ajay Pal Nagar), used influence (the very VIP culture he pretends to loathe) to stay in New Delhi instead of getting transferred, compromised on so many things (like getting support of Congress and in the process turning a blind eye to the sins of Dixit and Vadra). For people who are not under his spell, his administration has done nothing but dharnas and vigilantism.

Now if we can see this entire spectrum of deception and ineptitude then why can those who are supporting him and joining him see the same? That is the bigger question. Who are all these lemming like followers and why are they supporting a losing cause and hell bent on wasting their votes?

These people are angry citizens who have seen nothing but corruption and ineptitude from the Congress government in the last ten years and they are tired of it. So are we. They want a change. So do we. They want a clean performing government. So do we. However, our approach to the change is where we differ. These people hold the BJP in equal contempt. Well, we BJP supporters were not exactly endorsing the Advani led party either (which would explain his defeat in 2009 and the party’s defeat in several assembly elections). However, we are much more realistic about our political situation. We know that there are only two real options for India – Congress or the BJP. The third front is an alliance of parties even worse than Congress and in that voting for them is a waste of votes. We also know that an Advani led BJP would have been a marginal improvement over Congress. However, with Narendra Modi as PM, the BJP is a different party. Now the AAP supporters are pseudo-secular middle class Hindus (who would have been loath to vote for Modi anyway), ex-Congress supporters like Muslims (would not vote for Modi) or the poorer voters who want immediate relief (and thus fall for false promises). It is this band of people that Kejriwal is trying to attract and he is doing so with the same tools as people mentioned in the first paragraph of this blog.

A man who lives in a house over a crore and whose family takes vacations abroad but wears yellow socks over plastic sandals in middle of winter is conveying something other than austerity. It is more in line with Lalloo Yadav who has cultivated a rustic look with a roadside barbered hair. The whole ensemble of Kejriwal's clothes itself is a statement in hypocrisy rather than simplicity. He and his gang have made it a habit of answering questions with counter question to evade their failures and to get out of tight spots. Their racist attitudes were masked with a self-righteous anger and political opportunism hiding their misogyny (support for the despicable Khaap panchayats). Their support for fundamentalist mullahs is nothing but continuation of Congress brand of politics. He has continued to lower expectations and bars of achievement to show progress. This subterfuge has kept his supporters in line and money pouring in (although if reports are to be believed, the NRI spigot has been turned off). Meanwhile the anti Modi media that have propped up Nitish Kumar in the past are doing the same with Kejriwal. Helping Kejriwal with his lies, they continue to prop him up as a Modi alternative. Why else would they show him as the third PM candidate after Modi and Gandhi? Now they are accusing the BJP of trying to bring down the AAP government by bribing their MLAs. A lie like this creates an unfavorable perception of BJP. Anyone who follows politics can see that AAP is on a self destruct mode and bribing the AAP MLAs does not yield any political dividends on the national level. This is typical of AAP, stooping to conquer.

AAP is a mirage and perception, carefully managed by a smart man whose every statement is an exercise in deception and every move a self propagating sleight of hand and every act a shameless exercise in self aggrandizing. His shameless pursuit of power is being buoyed by the pathologically anti Modi pseudo-secular middle class and the English language media. Arvind Kejriwal is clearly winning the battle of perception. It is up to the Indian voters to stop this menace by casting their votes realistically rather than wasting their vote in a self righteous protest.

A related article can be read at: http://www.niticentral.com/2014/01/16/8-lies-that-nailed-kejriwal-179886.html
The article on plagiarism can be read at: http://news.oneindia.in/new-delhi/noida-based-writer-registers-plagiarism-case-against-arvind-kejriwal-1386445.html