Arvind Kejriwal's madness: Just persecution complex, or is there method to it?

Arvind Kejriwal's madness: Just persecution complex, or is there method to it?

Arvind Kejriwal seems to suffer from a persecution complex. For a man who received the most thumping mandate in Indian electoral history, he could have shown a greater amount of confidence and self-assurance.

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Arvind Kejriwal's madness: Just persecution complex, or is there method to it?

Arvind Kejriwal seems to suffer from a persecution complex.

For a man who received the most thumping mandate in Indian electoral history, he could have shown a greater amount of confidence and self-assurance. But he has been consistently railing about how everyone — and especially Narendra Modi — is out to get him and his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.

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His latest salvo takes the cake.

In a message to party workers put out on YouTube, Kejriwal, possibly rattled by the number of cases being filed against AAP MLAs and leaders for sundry alleged offences, was at his worst : “Insiders have told us that Modi_ji_ is very frustrated with us and is very angry. So he is unable to think logically about this. He is making decisions without thinking them through and in frustration. This is dangerous for the country. Is the country in safe hands? The more I think about it, I am unable to sleep.”

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From the way Kejriwal and AAP leaders have laid the blame at Modi’s door for everything going wrong for them, one would think he is obsessed with Modi rather than the other way round. And the reason he may not be getting enough sleep may be the result of this obsession, which is now boiling over into paranoia. He now tells AAP workers that “they may kill us. They may even kill me. They could do anything. Talk to your families.”

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Last month, Kejriwal obsessed over what they may do to his Deputy Chief Minister, Manish Sisodia. He said in a tweet:

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A further torrent of tweets saw Kejriwal claiming that Labour Minister Gopal Rai too will be summoned by the ACB and advised his minister to visit the bureau on his own, rather than wait for the summons.

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And he left another message on Twitter that translates to “LG/Modi_ji_, we are strong people who tread on the path of truth. We are not scared of your cowardly threats.”

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At another time, he informed Jung that Modi would never make him vice-president , even if he does “illegal, anti-people and unconstitutional work on Modi_ji_’s instructions”.

Earlier, the theme of cowardice surfaced again when Kejriwal called Modi a “coward” and a “psychopath”.

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Pop psychology tells us that when a person claims he is strong and not a coward, he is probably both. Kejriwal seems to be daunted by the weight of expactations from him as Delhi chief minister, and is laying the grounds for failure by claiming everyone is trying to trip him. When he should be doing his job, he spends his time telling one and all why he is being targeted.

Is Kejriwal just another insecure politician, or is there some method to his madness in launching tirades against Modi and co almost on a weekly basis?

Actually, it could be a bit of both.

There is little doubt that Kejriwal is a bit of a hyperventilator. Remember in 2011-12, when he and the Anna Hazare warriors were into flinging daily allegations against the rich and the powerful?

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That got him and his cohorts a lot of attention.

Arvind Kejriwal in a screen grab from his YouTube video

Now, the boot is on the other foot, for he is the government, and the allegations and cases are being filed against him and his party members. It is no longer possible for him to pretend everybody else has to answer his questions, and he does not have to answer to anybody. This is why he is busy shouting from the rooftops that he is the most honest politician on earth.

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Assuming, for a moment, that the series of cases involving AAP members are actually the result of some nefarious plan hatched by someone inside the Modi government, the strategy seems to be working. Kejriwal seems to be cracking under pressure.

But there is also a method to Kejriwal’s madness. The current reality of Indian politics is that there are three nodes of opposition to Modi — one led by Nitish Kumar, another by the Sonia-Rahul Congress, and the third led by Kejriwal.

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In 2019, if the BJP falls seriously short of 180 seats, a rival combination is possible, and this combo cannot be led by Kejriwal for a simple reason: neither the Congress nor the regional parties trust him. The only alternative to Modi is a Congress-led UPA-3, or a Nitish Kumar-led United Front-2, supported by the Congress from the outside.

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There is no way the likes of J Jayalalithaa and Mulayam Singh or even a Mayawati will support Kejriwal, and even if they do, they will make Kejriwal vulnerable. None of them have squeaky clean images.

Any non-BJP government will thus be led by somebody other than Kejriwal. He will be out in the cold, or a bit players supporting a coalition from the outside. That is not the place he wants to be.

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The daily screaming against Modi serves another purpose: Kejriwal knows that his gains can only come at the expense of the Congress, since he occupies the same political space. By pitching himself constantly against Modi, Kejriwal wants to position himself as anti-BJP, and edge out the Congress.

Between Kejriwal and the Congress, it is a zero-sum game: If one gains, the other loses. Kejriwal also cannot try to expand in areas dominated by non-Congress, non-BJP parties. He can’t alienate them, as that will finish whatever chance he has of making it to the top job.

His best bet is thus to make the Congress a cipher, which is why Modi is the target. This is why his expansion areas are Punjab, Gujarat, Goa and such states — where the Congress is the main Opposition.

However, none of this can happen if Kejriwal does not remain in the news. He is working to the Bollywood script, that bad publicity is better than no publicity. Maybe that is what he meant when he alleged “they may even kill me”. Being ignored is a fate worse than death for him. He is frustrated that Modi ignores him — as he seemed to be doing at the inter-state council meeting the other day .

And yes, one more thing is certain. Delhi does not interest him. He does not want to be CM of Delhi. It is too small for his giant ego. As this writer noted last year soon after the AAP victory in Delhi, Kejriwal has effectively made Sisodia the de facto CM. But he remains CM formally, as he had promised the voters “Paanch Saal Kejriwal”. He is serving time in Delhi, even while he seeks greener pastures elsewhere .

However, the reality is this: if he doesn’t deliver in Delhi, he can’t expand easily outside. If he does deliver, he will give the BJP another lease of life, since the anti-Modi votes will get split between him and the Congress.

Kejriwal is not a prime ministerial prospect in 2019; that lies at the root of his angst.

R Jagannathan is the Editor-in-Chief of Firstpost. see more

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