Time and again history has shown that when the mask of fake idealism starts to fall off of Communists and Naxalites, they resort to violence and intimidation. One saw this in Bengal under the communist regime and sees this presently in Kerala. After a dismal performance in Punjab elections, seems like intimidation is the last refuge of the urban Naxalites better known as Aam Admi Party.
Plagued with a myriad of controversies, court cases and waning voter confidence – just 2 days before the MCD elections – AAP supremo and Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal said that if the public of Delhi voted BJP in the MCD elections, they themselves would be responsible for facing plethora of problems like heaps of rubbish, diseases dengue, chikungunya, etc. for the next 5 years:
BJP को वोट दिया तो अगले 5साल कूडा,मछर ऐसे ही रहेंगे।कल अगर आपके घर डेंगू हो जाए तो आप ख़ुद उसके ज़िम्मेदार होगे क्योंकि आपने BJP को वोट दिया
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) April 21, 2017
At a cursory glance, the tweet would appear as nothing more than Arvind Kejriwal’s usual whine against BJP and/or spreading fear against BJP. But was it just that? Was it for fear-mongering against BJP or rather a sinister design of veiled threat to the public?
The MCD has been under the BJP for a long time. While the MCD elections in 2007 and 2012 were consecutively won by the BJP, the assembly elections were won by Congress during the same period. Although these two units of governance were under the rule of rival parties, there was never a problem in governance until AAP won the NCT with a full majority in 2015.
After Arvind Kejriwal took over as Chief Minister of Delhi in February 2015, things changed. MCD Sanitation workers started protesting due to non payment of dues and pending salaries. On one hand AAP went on from giving assurance of payment to blaming Centre for cash crunch, on the other they kept on increasing their MLAs’ salaries and perks at expense of the state exchequer. Not to mention the huge advertisement expenses borne by the Delhi Government which can be considered as barely legal.
In between this the real sufferer was the real aam admi of Delhi. This went on to be a yearly routine of sanitation workers being not paid as we saw last year and as well as this year, with each year showing an alarming rise in vector-borne diseases. A report in The Economic Times in September 2016 read:
“Last year, the city saw a staggering 15,867 dengue cases — the worst in 20 years — with the disease claiming 60 lives, as per municipal reports. In 2015, August and September had seen 778 and 6,775 cases respectively while October had recorded a staggering 7,283 cases.”
Could this all have been a premeditated plan in the making to make the MCD under BJP look in poor light all this while to stage way for AAP in MCD elections 2017 as a better alternative?
Could Arvind Kejriwal’s tweet be a veiled threat that should voters vote BJP, the AAP run Delhi Government would continue their non-cooperation with the MCD workers and make the lives of Delhi voters worse?
The past occurrences do give fodder for such thought bearings. Given the words come from someone like Kejriwal and AAP who’re known for their strange, and dare I may say crazy antics, that may quite well be a possibility.
In the end we don’t know for sure until the results of the MCD elections are declared. However, this sheds light to a possibility of a future of more sinister politics at the cost of the real common people of Delhi and India.
