Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI—Delhi chief minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal seems to be following in the footsteps of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as far as his efforts to climb the political ladder are concerned.
This is quite clear from his statement on October 22 when he advised the central government and PM Modi to print the photographs of Hindu deities – Ganesh and Lakshmi – on new currency notes, besides the pictures of Mahatma Gandhi that are printed on different denominations of Indian currency.
Modi had made the development his electoral plank when he contested the first Lok Sabha election in 2014 and projected himself as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.
He claimed that he would turn the rest of the country into Gujarat, the most developed state after neighbouring Maharashtra. However, Modi alone is not responsible for Gujarat’s industrial and economic growth. The foundation for the development of Gujarat was laid by previous governments led by Congress and other parties. But an expert in the art of marketing, Modi took credit for the development of Gujarat.
However, after becoming prime minister, he left the development issue aside. Instead, he embarked on the religious bandwagon to mesmerize the voters, and he succeeded in winning their support in the 2019 general elections as well with a massive victory. He regularly uses emotional and divisive issues to keep his flock together and expand his area of influence in terms of voters’ strength.
Kejriwal came to politics through an anti-corruption movement launched allegedly with the support of RSS cadres to drive the Congress out of power with the ultimate objective of politically creating a “Congress-mukt” India. He promised corruption-free governance and development for Delhi. But the things stumbling out of the Delhi government’s closet indicate that his government, too, is not free from corruption. He also failed to come up to the people’s expectations on other issues.
As he failed to keep his commitment to a corruption-free government and development for Delhi, Kejriwal, too, has switched over to using religion for politics on the lines of Modi. In 2019, he launched Chief Minister’s Teerth Yatra Yojana. Under this scheme, the Kejriwal government provides free pilgrimage ( including free travel, lodging and boarding) to Delhi’s senior citizens to Vaishno Devi, Rameshwaram, Dwarka, Puri, Hardwar, Rishikesh, Mathura, and Vrindavan. Ayodhya was added to the list in October 2021 after Kejriwal visited Ayodhya. According to details available from Delhi government sources, more than 40,000 senior citizens have availed of this facility till now. There is no information about the total expenses made on his pilgrimage scheme, which may run into thousands of crores of rupees. However, one thing is clear: all the money comes from the public exchequer, which is contributed through taxes paid by the public. Therefore, Kejriwal’s scheme for free pilgrimage can’t be called general welfare work.
Moreover, it is available only for visiting Hindu religious places. Other communities have been ignored, indicating that he promotes and propagates the majority community’s religion using government money. When many NGOs and trusts belonging to minority communities are targeted, and severe action has been taken against their trustees for allegedly using money to promote their religion, how is the scheme of the Kejriwal government funding pilgrimage to Hindu places of worship different? Does it not amount to misusing government funds to promote the majority religion? Why do the Home Ministry and the Central government maintain stoic silence on it? This looks like a big financial scandal that needs to be investigated, and those found guilty of misusing public money be prosecuted. He is using government funds to expand and consolidate his vote base.
As the assembly elections in Gujarat are drawing nearer and AAP plans to contest the polls in the state in a big way, Kejriwal has now invented a new way to influence Gujarat’s voters and increase the popularity of his party. He is now talking of pictures of Hindu deities on currency notes. He has put the development and corruption plank on the back burner and is now using the religious card to perpetuate his party’s rule in Delhi and expand his party’s base in the rest of the country.
Kejriwal is silent on real issues
Like Modi, Kejriwal is utterly silent on fundamental issues of unemployment, inflation, rising prices of petroleum and domestic LPG cylinders, handing over almost all public sector undertakings and government assets like seaports and airports to corporates, mob lynching of Muslims, attacks on the houses and religious places of minorities, particularly Muslims. Moreover, he is not talking about the central government’s economic policies that are said to have created the present economic and financial crisis in the country resulting in loss of employment and rising inflation.
Kejriwal was also silent when countrywide anti-CAA agitation was going on in 2019-20, as if the issue that has the potential to turn a large section of the Muslim population into aliens in their native land did not matter to him at all. He did not visit the victims of the February 2020 riots in Northeast Delhi, which was the worst after 1947 violence in and around Delhi. He was also completely silent on three farm laws enacted by the Modi government, resulting in a year-long protest by farmers on the outskirts of Delhi. He never speaks on atrocities and violence against Muslims and other minorities.
How does Delhi or the country benefit from Kejriwal’s free pilgrimage scheme? Will printing pictures of deities on currency notes rid the government of the economic crisis? Kejriwal, a product of IIT, India’s top technology institute, is promoting superstition and indirectly discouraging the growth of scientific temper among the people. Article 51A(h) in the Constitution of India encourages the citizens “to develop scientific temper, humanity and the spirit of inquiry and reform.”
But what Kejriwal and his ilk are doing by offering free pilgrimage tours and now asking for pictures of deities with an immediate aim to gain political advantage in Gujarat are retrogressive steps and promote blind faith and superstition in a vast population. Kejriwal must know that growth and development in Europe took place when the Europeans came out of blind faith about two and a half centuries ago. They became “Vishwa Guru” and dominated the world because of the knowledge and technology they acquired by keeping the Church away from politics. And they still dominate the world. Can India become an economic and military power or “Vishwa Guru”(world leader), an ambition of PM Modi, by bringing too much religion into politics and affairs of the government and promoting ideologies that are scientifically considered superstition? Historical evidence suggests otherwise.
India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, while laying the foundation of the Bhakra-Nangal dam in 1954, described the big dams, scientific research institutes, power plants, and steel pants as “temples of modern India.” He said such projects were necessary for India’s scientific and industrial growth. In The Discovery of India, Pt Nehru wrote that a scientific approach was essential for life itself and the solution to many problems. He said that India requires emancipation from blind faith, superstition, and division of society for India’s development.
Do Kejriwal and those of his category seem to promote scientific temper or superstition through their speeches, policies, and programmes? Narendra Dabholkar and MM Kalburgi, who worked for the cause of science and strongly opposed superstition in Indian society, were murdered after the change of political dispensation in the country. Journalist Gauri Lankesh was also murdered for the same reason.
