The reaction of the Indian intelligentsia to the Aam Aadmi Party’s defeat in the Vidhan Sabha elections has highlighted one of the least attractive features of the Indian political class. This is its willingness to look for explanations for political setbacks that do not disturb its peace of mind by forcing it to confront harsh truths.

This tendency was highlighted by the remarks of three former supporters and close advisers of Kejriwal, whose personal morality and political sagacity is beyond reproach. These are Yogendra Yadav, the founder of Lokniti, the most irreproachable polling agency in the country; Ashutosh, the celebrated anchor of Satya Hindi Television’s most watched news analysis programs, who was Kejriwal’s right hand man during the formation of AAP, and Prashant Bhushan, who is India’s leading human rights lawyer.

Former supporters blame Kejriwal

All three blamed not just the (AAP), but Arvind Kejriwal personally, for the party’s defeat. Yadav’s criticism was perhaps the mildest of the trio: He claimed that the AAP had lost its “Moral Sheen” because it had begun to tolerate corruption and high-handedness within the party.

Ashutosh also ascribed the defeat to the Aam Admi party having lost sight of the ideals with which it was created, particularly its drive against corruption and determination to change the life of the common man, but had lost its way somewhere and become just another political party.

Prashant Bhushan, arguably the bravest human rights lawyer in India, also held Kejriwal responsible for the Delhi poll debacle. In a post on X, he accused Kejriwal of changing the nature of AAP after it was founded as a transparent platform for alternative politics, beginning to travel in luxury cars (and) binning 33 detailed policy reports of expert committees set up by AAP, saying that the party would adopt expedient policies “when the time comes.”

Finally, none of the three challenged the BJP’s assertion that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had sanctioned the expenditure of Rs 63 crores for building a new ‘house’ for him and his family to live in, at 6 Flagstaff Road in Old Delhi out of a growing hubris and disregard........

© The Wire