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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Arvind Kejriwal is paying the price for the politics he created

What Modi govt is doing to Arvind Kejriwal is wrong. But would there ever have been a Modi govt if Kejriwal and his India Against Corruption movement had not destroyed the UPA?

There are very few ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers in politics. Let’s take the whole Aam Admi Party mess that has unfolded over the last week. If you were to ask me, “Do you think Arvind Kejriwal had it coming?” I would want to say ‘yes’, but I would also add that I feel sad about the current condition of AAP, so I am not gloating.

Or if you were to ask, “Do you think that what is happening in AAP is a national tragedy?” I would want to say yes to that, too. But I would hesitate because I suspect that recent events were inevitable given the DNA of AAP.

So, my feelings (and the feelings of many others, I imagine) are complicated. It’s not hard to see why I am saddened by the AAP meltdown. India needs a strong opposition, and every time an opposition party teeters on the edge of collapse, it is Indian democracy that is the real loser. 

We live in an era where politics is about money, about prosecutions based on fake cases, about ED raids and engineered defections. Every time those tactics succeed—as they clearly have here—we become less and less of a democracy. So there is much to mourn in the events of the last week.

On the other hand, there are also many reasons for ambivalence. If you barter Rajya Sabha seats for pecuniary considerations and give them to wealthy businessmen, can you really complain when these businessmen decide that the better deal is to be on the other side? They are not betraying your ideology because that never even entered into their........

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