Why people love to hate Kejriwal?

A lot has been changed since 2012. At least for Arvind Kejriwal.

He was termed as a wave, even before I knew about 'wave' from my 66 year old father to which he told me back then; it is something like when Indira Gandhi Juggernaut stormed parliament with 352 Lok Sabha seats in year 1971; a wave that swept almost everything. 

Fast forward 2011, like my many friends I also, headed to Aazad Maidan Mumbai on 09 Aug, to express my solidarity with Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal, in a hope of getting rid of rusting and smearing gutter of Indian political system. What a charismatic Arvind Kejriwal appeared to us back then!!

His tiny stature, oversized and offcoloured shirt and profusely sweating forehead were enough to convince me. I immediately found myself connected with 'this man'. He won us hands down. I found my hero perhaps and naive I was that I thought; finally India will be liberated from corruption. Period. The idea has arrived; only the implementation was the leftover part.

Alas..had that been so easy! Alas had he been so!

I quote above Arvind Kejriwal 'this man' because that is where my answer lies beneath why Arvind Kejriwal failed.

The appeal of Kejriwal was so immense; it was so huge and so overpowering.  The aura appeared never lasting. Who could have thought back then; the guy will rigorously tested by mind blowing slaps, zooming past shoes and indelible ink? The journey doesn't end here, still. He keeps on getting one or two meanwhile.

He is now one of the most hated individual entity in Indian political scenario and his journey from summit to nadir has been swift and in a relatively very short period of time. Even, Tiger Woods would be astonished on his fall.

To me, the reason why people love to hate Kejriwal is not because most of the people are Modi followers as on date. Narendra Modi is an extraordinary leader and politician. He is the movers and shakers of the real politics from his student days. He is a fox, kind of super grand master of squared game of power, always one step ahead from rest of the pack, deceptive, accurate and precise.

A office goer, a daily wager, a mother or a shopkeeper doesn't understand the complex and boring political equations of the mix of Indian casteism, nationalism or religious alignment. They want to find the immediate connectivity with; be a man or an issue. We have seen that; people going to ‘Jantar Mantar’ on corruption with Anna, seen millions of people on roads across the cities and towns post 26/11 carnage, witnessed ‘Gherao’ on ‘Nirbhaya’. People are basically emotional and  Modi understands the nerve of the people like a seasoned doctor.

Kejriwal has never been a match to the acumenship of  Narendra Modi. Rather; he was just a manifestation of the anger of the masses against the rampant corruption of Congress raj which was storming whole country with progressive massive buildups on one corruption on daily basis.

May be he didn’t understand the subject much  but his approach at that point of time against a very sensitive issue to the core of the heart of ‘Aam Aadmi’ was  extremely well timed. He was relatively smarter in manipulating the emotions of the people and some socially well accepted names. His crusade against corruption was so impeccable that his aura appeared something out of the standard political and social norms in contemporary politicians and even well-established czars of politics found  themselves in hot water. Suddenly, he became the echo of the voice of almost every heart of the country, something which Narendra Modi will also taste 2 years later sweeping the general elections through a complete one man show.

 What an opportunity this man Arvind Kejariwal had then to turn himself into a real messiah!  But it wasn't there. Perhaps it hadn't to be there.

Then Delhi elections happened and from here is when Kejriwal started to commit blunders after mistakes.

In the past he had told people that he was an ordinary guy amongst us, like us. People did not believe him because an ordinary man never crusades against the system. We believe he has to be above us like a Mahatma Gandhi or a Martin Luther King or a Nelson Mandela.  Ironically, he actually was a common guy. Like all of us, impulsive, greedy, foul mouthed, scrounger with no vision and accusing 0like a child everything, everyone but other than he, himself.

It takes a lot of endurance and efforts to carry forward on your image and sometimes it takes years and it becomes even more difficult when you discover; you are a celebrity overnight. You have to look carefully for what you say and how you say so. That is why you see no authority speak in a haste. That is understood, they chew every sentence, word by word.

Unfortunately, Arvind Kejriwal turned out to be a hoax call. A big zero and a megalomaniac. His modus operandi turned into plain 'his way or high way' and it was happening in broad day light for everyone to see. He is corrupt, he is opportunist and he is cunning. At least that was something a message gone well deep to the very people who believed in him, including mine. The cracks started to appear in the spotless image of the crusader and irritation started to build up.

But this was not new in our political system. It happened previously also. Indira Gandhi was example; equally corrupt and megalomaniac. Even some of his contemporaries are like him even today. Jayalalithaa, Mamta Banerjee, Vasundhara Raje Sindhiya, Nitish Kumar, Akhilesh Yadav to name a few. So why witch-hunting only against him? Why people bully Kejriwal so much, so often than any corrupt or unpopular leader?

Answer is the frustration of the people with themselves for making a wrong choice back then. They expected every damn thing from every politician but Kejriwal. Their hate to Kejriwal is the outcome of their failed desire of a corruption-free India where the bride ran away even before marriage could be culminated. They considered him pure and clean.

Kejriwal disappointed them with his senseless decisions. He turned himself in these years as a joke even though he was given the benefit of doubt for being him a new comer; incident after incidents. He did not mend the way and even today, it is an anger within self how this fool could fooled us in the name of a 'change' and reached to the Chief ministership of Delhi. In a sense, the anger and hate is the reflection of defeat that Kejriwal could 'con' public at large and it really vents out in his abhorrence.

Alas he could have sensed what the artifacts were stored for him along the journey had he taken right steps and of course; in right direction. He could have done the real 'Modi' even before Narendra Modi actually arrived in Delhi. He could have had a mass followings had he carried himself carefully and judicially.

Once Modi was in the helm of affairs in the power corridors of Lutyens zone, Kejriwal lost the cause and zeal entirely and became true to himself; a complaint box and like any other politician. He got disoriented damaging further to himself only; by a futile battle against an ever enlarging Narendra Modi. He has become a butt of joke where people will find it amusing if Kejriwal missed any day cursing Modi and Modi staying a well calculated; completely ignorant.

People did not wait for him. Most of them have found a new hero in Modi. This further turned out to be a supplementary cause to hate him to the core by the people who are known as 'Bhakts'; last I knew.

What a lost opportunity Mr. Arvind Kejriwal...!!