Arvind Kejriwal – A Social Activist Turned to Prominent Leader
The year was 1995. On the first day of his job in the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), Arvind Kejriwal got some unsolicited advice from a senior official that maybe shaped the course of his life from a civil servant to a social activist and a politician who is now the scourge of the political founding. From raising his fist in the air, declaring him ‘an anarchist’ and sitting on a dharna at Lieutenant-Governor’s office to emerging as a doer whose constant focus is on giving the requirements to his electorate. The metamorphosis of Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in his five years in office is one of the most mature and fastest political course-corrections in recent times amidst a dramatic turn of events.
Activist-turned-politician Kejriwal started his tenure as an energetic and confrontational chief minister, who left no chance to beat Prime Minister Narendra Modi for all apparent ills that came his way. He was a man at war with everyone — political candidates, the media, and members of his own party. However, his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had got a historical mandate of 67 out of 70 seats in 2015.
Fast forward to 2020, Delhi is observing the issue of a new Kejriwal — a mellowed, matured, and focused politician whose electoral plank is his work and governance. And he is pointing away from making any controversial statement during his election campaign.
Kejriwal was once known as a fierce member of the anti-Modi mass which included Mamata Banerjee, N Chandrababu Naidu, Congress party, and others. But with the going of time, he has made a tactical shift by avoiding the group that tried to appear as a strong anti-BJP alliance. In a recent media interview when asked whether he was afraid of Modi or not. The chief minister of Delhi said ‘Is he scaring me? No. As he is doing his job as the country’s prime minister and I am doing my work as a Delhi chief minister.’
This fierce ‘anarchist’ today is not hesitant to call himself a firm ‘Hanuman Bhakt’. In public, he has even cantillated few lines from Hanuman Chalisa. The Delhi chief minister certainly has driven a long distance in the several years— from being a Social Activist to a Prominent politician and now to an Everyone Chief Minister who’s now connecting with Delhi households as their “bada beta (eldest son)”.
Table of Contents
Arvind Kejriwal – Personal Details
Name Arvind Kejriwal Date of Birth 16th August 1968 Birth Place Siwani, Bhiwani District, Haryana
Arvind Kejriwal – Professional Background
The professional background of Arvind Kejriwal before entering politics:
Years Particulars 2012 Published a book called “Swaraj” which discusses his point of view on corruption. And later Formed his own political party named AAP (Aam Aadmi Party). 2006 Resigned from the post of Joint Commissioner in the Income Tax Department and founded the “Public Cause Research Foundation” with the award money he received from Ramon Magsaysay. 1999 Founded an NGO ‘Parivartan’ which main aim is to support the citizens in electricity, Income tax, and Food related matters. 1995 Joined the Indian Revenue Services (IRS) as an Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax. 1992 Resigned from his job in Tata Steel and cleared his Civil Service Examination. 1989 Graduated in Mechanical engineering and joined Tata Steel. 1985 Appeared in the IIT-JEE exam and scored 563 ranks in AIR (All India Rank).
Arvind Kejriwal – Political Timeline
Year Events In 2020 In NCT OF DELHI Assembly Election 2020, Arvind Kejriwal of AAP won the New Delhi seat by defeating Sunil Yadav, Romesh Sabharwal of BJP, CONGRESS respectively In 2015 He led the AAP party to a Great Victory in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections and took pledge as Delhi's chief minister on 14th February 2015. In 2014 He directed the AAP party to a Great Victory in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections and took oath as Delhi's chief minister on 14th February 2015. In 2013 The Kejriwal’s AAP party entered politics the year 2013 from Delhi Legislative Assembly election, and became the second-largest party and won 28 of the 70 seats. With no party getting an overall majority, with limited support from the Indian National Congress, the AAP established a minority government. Arvind Kejriwal swore as Chief Minister of Delhi on 28 Dec 2013. It had been in power for 49 days than from the post-Kejriwal resigned in Feb 2014. In 2012 Arvind Kejriwal started the Aam Aadmi Party. It is an Indian political party, formally began on 26th November 2012.
From the Bottom Up
Arvind Kejriwal started working in the income tax department as a revenue officer in 1995, he already worked at Tata Steel since graduating from IIT Kharagpur in 1989. He resigned, voluntarily, in 2006, after he reportedly became disillusioned with the rampant corruption in the government. Kejriwal had said to the Financial Times in an interview “Once you are inside the system, you realize you are a very small peg, and it is very little you can do,” in 2014.
He devoted himself full time to Parivartan, an unregistered organization intended to improve accountability and transparency in governance, which he had launched and been working on since 2001.
His efforts earned him a Ramon Magsaysay Award the same year he dropped the government, for working incessantly with villagers and slum residents on the Right to Information (RTI) Act. With his prize money, he started the Public Cause Research Foundation to resume RTI-related work.
In 2007, Kejriwal felt that RTI, a great tool for accountability, didn’t change corrupt systems. He then started drafting the Jan Lokpal Bill with the aid of lawyer Prashant Bhushan and the latter’s father, Shanti Bhushan.
Venkatesh Nayak, a senior member of the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI), of which Kejriwal was also part said “We told him, let’s not mix up everything in one bill, and said ‘I will take it into consideration.’ But he never did, that implies he had his own plans, and he knew specifically what he was doing,”.
When he thought the bill was not being taken seriously, Kejriwal parted with the NCPRI and joined hands with Anna Hazare in 2011. Arvind Kejriwal rallied the streets as Hazare sat on a hunger strike to demand an end to corruption. The movement galvanized the nation and gave Kejriwal the springboard to enter politics.
Arvind Kejriwal – Awards
Years Awards In 2004 Ashoka Fellow In 2005 The IIT Kanpur presented Arvind Kejriwal with the Satyendra L. Dubey Memorial Award. In 2006 Ramon Magsaysay Award In 2006 Indian of the Year award by CNN-IBN. In 2009 The IIT Kharagpur presented Arvind Kejriwal with the Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 2009 Association for India's development awarded him a reward and fellowship. In 2010 The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence bestowed Aruna Roy, with Arvind Kejriwal, the Policy Change Agent of the Year. In 2011 The Indian of the Year award by NDTV to Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal.
How AAP came into existence
On the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on 2nd October, Arvind Kejriwal announced the formation of his political party. Then on 26th November the day when the Constitution of India was adopted in 1949, he formally launched his party named AAP (AAM AADMI PARTY). AAP was begun with respect to the anti-corruption movement. In the 2013 assembly elections, the party won a majestic 28 seats being a new party with new ideas and new thinking. It was guessed that the accomplishment was only possible because Kejriwal was a socialist leader. He won and replaced the then chief minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit by forming a minority government.
A little over a month however Kejriwal surprised the electorate by resigning into his first term when the Jan Lokpal Bill didn’t pass the assembly test. After that when fresh elections were held in 2015, AAP once again won with a huge majority, winning 67 of the 70 seats.
The recent 2020 elections have brought back the party with the same intensity, saving only eight seats for the BJP, which had drawn in major resources to polarise the electorate.
AAP’s focus began with corruption when Kejriwal upheld the image of an activist and since 2012 it was firmly on the issues of governance, particularly those affecting the middle class.
Now, it is on issues of water, electricity, and education thriving in the middle classes. He is considered to be “an approachable and a polite politician” and as someone who is “a communicator instead of a leader who speaks only in speeches without any listening”.
In being an approachable neta this change served the party well. With the governance of Kejriwal, there can be seen major changes in the education system, hospitality, Electricity, Water Supply, etc.
In his recent interview for the 2020 election, Kejriwal said that his work and performance over the past 5 years will determine the voter’s decision.
With the more formal approach in politics, Kejriwal’s choice to adopt the middle path did not go unnoticed in the recent election. He refused to engage in the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protest at Shaheen Bagh.
