New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal, disruptor extraordinaire, was Delhi's Chief Minister for 49 days, but it was a term long enough to signp...
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New Delhi: Arvind Kejriwal, disruptor extraordinaire, was Delhi's Chief Minister for 49 days, but it was a term long enough to signpost a series of new political markers.
There was no motorcade or sprawling bungalow for the 45-year-old former tax inspector, who vowed that his Aam Aadmi Party and ministers would spurn the trappings of power.
He rode a metro train to a public park to take oath as chief minister; his blue Wagon-R was seen often waiting at red lights instead of whizzing through; he launched an anti-bribery helpline. "If anyone in the government asks you for a bribe, don't say 'no'," he said. "You report it on the phone number and we'll catch every bribe-taker red-handed.
More controversially, he tenanted the heart of the capital last month with a two-day demonstration that demanded action against police officers who he accused of negligence.
During that sit-in, he was photographed sleeping on the road near the Wagon-R, wrapped up in a blanket.
His decision to quit today delivers what his party has promised - that it will accept no compromises in its battle with corruption. Mr Kejriwal resigned after his anti-graft Jan Lokpal Bill was stalled in the Delhi legislature by law-makers from other parties. "I am here not to save the government but to save the country from corruption," he declared in the Assembly.
The demand for a Lokpal or ombudsman to investigate and prosecute corrupt government officers was the headline of the anti-corruption movement that was designed by Mr Kejriwal in 2012 and fronted by his former mentor Anna Hazare.
They disagreed on Mr Kejriwal's decision to form a political party. Anna, 76, said he could not support a political group. Mr Kejriwal said it was clear that to sanitize a system seeped in graft, he would have to work from within. He christened his party after the little guy who he said nobody seemed to stand for.
The Aam Aadmi Party was launched in October 2012. The two main political parties, the Congress and the BJP, wrote it off as a group of activists lacking experience, vision and funding.
Undeterred, AAP sought online donations, and posted their records on its website. An army of volunteers pounded the pavement day and night in Delhi, brandishing the party symbol, a broom, declaring to cleanse the polity of venality and restore citizens' rights.
In the December 4 election to the legislative assembly of Delhi, no party won the majority of seats required to rule on its own.
The impasse that ensued was broken after the AAP - in a display of citizenship politics - consulted the people of the city. It then agreed to lead the Delhi government with external support from the Congress party.
AAP's decision to halve power prices and supply free water to families were censured as populist. Earlier this week, the party said 24,000 people who had not paid their power bills, as urged by AAP in 2012-13, need to pay just half of what they owe.
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