26th November, 2012 was a historic day in sense that the a political outfit came into existence to bring down the political discourse to such a low level that it may take a few years to bring it back on track.
On 26th November, India Against Corruption movement, the ‘fight against corruption’ graduated into a political party called Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Just a year prior to that, on 8th October, 2011, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal had made it very clear he will never fight elections.
Let’s just stay a lot of water has flown under the bridge since then. Not only did Kejriwal form a political party, but formed a government in Delhi with support of Congress, a political party which has the most number of corruption cases against it in the 10 years rule.
Following that, not only did he quit being a CM in just 49 days, but ran away to contest 2014 elections from Varanasi against the then Prime Minister candidate Narendra Modi. Not Amethi or Rae Bareilly, but Varanasi.
So today, when Aam Aadmi Party decided to celebrate the 5 years of “AAP Revolution”, Twitter users showed them the mirror and reminded them of their broken promises:
https://twitter.com/Atheist_Krishna/status/934673814356504576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
A Twitter user @reviewero, wrote a series of tweets juxtaposing Kejriwal’s promises vs the actual delivered results in these 5 years:
https://twitter.com/reviewero/status/934656339606777858?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Back in 2013, Kejriwal had written series of tweets dissing RJD chief and a convict Lalu Yadav:
https://twitter.com/ArvindKejriwal/status/385741860574351360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/ArvindKejriwal/status/385742420413276161?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
And just when Bihar Assembly elections were round the corner, Arvind Kejriwal extended his support to same Lalu.
The friendly hug is for all to see how Kejriwal is just like any other politician he has been critical about.
Kejriwal, who has championed the anti-corruption and transparency of political parties causes, has indeed revolutionised the move by deleting his own donors’ list from the AAP website. So much for transparency.
https://twitter.com/reviewero/status/934658090753912832?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
And then there was something he has said about women’s safety and how it is their topmost priority.
https://twitter.com/reviewero/status/934659099802738689?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/ArvindKejriwal/status/350080628261265408?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/ArvindKejriwal/status/350082216816160768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
However, reality was bitter. AAP activist Soni, who committed suicide over alleged sexual harassment from another party worker, had reportedly said that the same proponent of women safety, Arvind Kejriwal, had allegedly asked her to ‘compromise’.
And then the changing face of Kejriwal himself, AAP took just half a decade to do what most political parties have taken years: make seasonal friends and enemies.
https://twitter.com/JagratiShukla29/status/934650945601880064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
AAP Rebel leader Kapil Mishra also chimed in and reminded Kejriwal of how he has lost his way in his mad run for power:
https://twitter.com/KapilMishraAAP/status/934629016169885696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Perhaps Aam Aadmi Party, which came into existence as a hope and a credible alternative to the existing political parties, could check its course and contribute constructively in nation building.