Back to the streets. Aam Aadmi Party made cool calculations and decided that it was time to quit the government and get back to the streets. It is the familiar and favorite playground of Arvind Kejriwal. Immediately after submitting the resignation of his government, Kejriwal addressed his supporters at the party headquarters at Hanuman Road.
The speech he made is quite revealing. He projected both the BJP and the Congress party as enemies of aam aadmi. He accused them of dancing to the tune of Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Industries. He accused Modi indirectly of getting funds from Ambani. In short, he stamped them all as corrupt and as enemies of aam aadmi.
What does he do now? He made it clear that a countrywide agitation for rooting out corruption and for the Jan Lokpal Bill will be launched. The mood and expectations of Aam Aadmi Party workers can be gauged from the comment of a volunteer who said, “Kejriwal can now go to people playing victim and also realize his – and the party’s — national ambitions.”
Interestingly, supporters outside party headquarters at Hanuman Road in central Delhi were shouting: “Abhi toh Sheila haari hai, ab Modi ki baari hai (We have defeated Sheila, now its Modi’s turn).” By now Kejriwal and his advisers have understood well the politics of pressure. And they know pressure comes from people’s movement.
They have known it because there is a history of JP movement before them. They have the most recent Anna Hazare movement of which Kejriwal himself was one of the key players, before them. They must certainly be encouraged to come out in the streets. My fear is the movement is not going to remain non violent.
In fact, I am inclined to believe that given the utterances of many in AAP, it is more likely that the agitation will turn violent, compelling the law enforcement authorities to resort to harsher ways to quell the agitators and prevent loss of property. It is what AAP wants. Provoke authorities to take to harsher ways and blame the government for being harsh on innocent aam aadmi; project the government as enemy of am aadmi and get their support and vote for themselves. It is on the basis of such a calculation that Kejriwal has said AAP will come back to Delhi Assembly with absolute majority, bagging more than fifty seats. The coming weeks will be difficult for the people of Delhi and for the central government.