Chief Minister of Delhi and top boss of Always Agitating Party (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal recently dealt a big blow to carefully manufactured narrative of Leftist and Liberals in India against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. By calling the Prime Minister of the country a coward and a psychopath on social media to spouting absolute inanities against him, Kejriwal proved that Modi is a fairly lenient fascist dictator. I am surprised no one came back with a counter argument that ‘we told you Modi is good at nothing not even at being a fascist dictator’.

Last couple of weeks, AAP has been doing what it is best at- Agitating. Everyone is confused about what they are agitating about again. Meanwhile, AAP spokespersons are bursting their blood vessels on prime time television. I suspect they don’t even know themselves why they are agitating except it makes good television and keeps them in headlines. Kejriwal’s latest object of affection is Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley. On a rebound, after Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided Kejriwal’s Principal Secretary’s office, Kejriwal first claimed his office was raided. When CBI clarified that Chief Minister’s office was not raided, Kejriwal accused CBI of acting on behalf of the government and insisted he was being harassed by a coward and psychopath Prime Minister. When no one from the Central government paid attention to his angry rants, Kejriwal pulled another rabbit from his always agitating box of tricks. He accused the most powerful man in the cabinet after the Prime Minister, of corruption during his tenure as Chairman of Delhi District Cricketing Association, DDCA. The allegation against Jaitley isn’t that he is involved in corruption personally. AAP accuses Jaitley of overlooking corruption under his nose during his tenure. Jaitley quit sports administration in 2013.

The fact is sports and politics is irreversibly linked in India. Sports bodies are controlled by politicians who consider it a matter of prestige to be heading sports administrative organizations. There is a school of thought that believes that politicians by being associated with the sports administration ensure that sports get political patronage and it is a win-win situation for both. The flip side to this of course is - can politics be left behind if politicians are around. Politics creeps into sports bodies and with that corruption creeps in. My personal view is that politics and sports should be delinked for good but that is not going to happen any time soon. It requires huge reform to cleanse sports administration in India. Considering the government has its hands full at the moment, this reform is probably not high on government’s priority list.

Coming back to AAP and its allegations, it is not AAP’s case to tackle corruption in sports. I have not heard any statements about cleansing sports bodies. In any case, if you are going to call duly elected Prime Minister a coward and a  psychopath, you are certainly not interested in any clean up. They are just settling personal scores. If we look at the facts, the case against corruption against DDCA is nothing new.  Kirti Azad who has now been suspended from the BJP has been alleging corruption in DDCA for a long time. The fact also remains that during UPA government’s tenure, Serious Fraud Investigation office (SFIO) launched investigation into allegations of financial irregularities and the report submitted by SFIO absolved Jaitley of any financial wrong doing. 

Why is AAP attacking Jaitley then? I am not a big fan of conspiracy theories but there are many theories floating that this was done to take the attention of media away from National Herald case in which Gandhis find themselves in terrible soup. I have a much simpler theory to understand why Kejriwal is agitating the way he is.

Let’s retract and understand the sequence of events. CBI raids Principal Secretary’s Rajender Kumar’s office. CBI insists that this has nothing to do with Kejriwal. Even the allegation of corruption is from the time before Kejriwal’s tenure started. Suppose Kejriwal had allowed CBI to go about its job, suppose Kejriwal had not imploded unnecessarily since the raid had nothing to do with him and CBI insisted that it had nothing to do with him. Suppose Kejriwal had not interfered and Rajender Kumar is indeed found guilty, what would have happened? Rajender Kumar would be booked for corruption and Kejriwal could have gone about doing his job without much noise and trepidation. In any case no one has said that this had anything to do with Kejriwal anyway. So why would Kejriwal not allow investigation agencies to go about their business? It could be because Kejriwal does not want Rajender Kumar to be in trouble and is protecting him from all investigation. Therefore the grandstanding of ‘Raiding Rajender’s office is like raiding Chief Minister’s office’.Kejriwal clearly does not want Rajender Kumar to be investigated. His next best option after calling the Prime Minister names was to send media on the wild goose chase of charges of corruption against Jaitley.

No matter how one looks at it this, Kejriwal comes across as a petty politician simply interested in mudslinging with zero interest in governance. As far as his governance record goes, Delhi still has to get rid of Tughlaq’s curse. Latest is odd-even formula to tackle pollution that has entire Delhi fuming. The man who came to power on anti-corruption plank was seen hugging and sharing stage with politician convicted of corruption, Lalu Prasad Yadav. His minions later said Kejriwal was ‘forced’ to hug the convicted politician.

In all this the basic problem of cleansing sports administration not just in Delhi but all states remains. Arun Jaitley has been acquitted of all wrong doing long time ago but we also know that most sports bodies remain a hub of corruption. Maybe Arun Jaitley as finance minister of the country and someone who understands sports administration should take this opportunity to initiate set of sports reforms in the country. Let sports be permanently delinked from politics and if at all politicians are involved let there be complete transparency and accountability. I would say leave sports to sportsmen and efficient apolitical administrators and let politics be the playground of politicians. May the twain never meet.

Now that would be a real reform that Always Agitating Party is not capable of initiating, but the party that has won the massive mandate in 2014 is certainly capable of.