Arvind Kejriwal Could Be The Game Changer And The Hope Against Modi Becoming PM

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DR. SAWRAJ SINGH
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS / EDITORIAL
Arvind Kejriwal’s becoming ChiefMinister of Delhi has opened up newpossibilities and changed India’s politicalequations. After the resounding victoryof the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) andthe crushing defeat of

the IndianNational Congress party (Congress) inthe recent State Assembly elections, itappeared that there was a strongNarendra Modi wave.However, the BJP’s inability to form agovernment in Delhi has, for all practicalpurposes, stopped the Modi wave. Itlooked like the BJP would win about 300seats in the Lok Sabha.That would have meant Modi was goingto become the next Prime Minister ofIndia.However, with the rise of the AamAadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi, the equationshave changed. Now, it appears thatthe BJP may not get more than 200 seatsand the Congress party may get 60-70seats. This opens up the possibility of athird force coming into the center.Somebody like Kejriwal can become thenext Prime Minister of India. For thefirst time, a viable third force can emergein India, breaking the monopoly of thetwo parties: the Congress party and theBJP.Third fronts have come to power in thepast. However, they were never effectivebecause basically the monopoly of thetwo parties was never broken. This timealso it appeared that the loss of theCongress party was going to be a gain forthe BJP.However, what happened in Delhi clearlyshowed that a loss of the Congressparty is not necessarily a gain for the BJP.This is what is more likely to happen inthe center.The Congress party came into existencewith the blessings of the British colonialists.The British wanted a peaceful andtame opposition to their rule rather thana militant and revolutionary movement aswas led in China by the ChineseCommunist Party and Mao Tse-tung.A Nehru-Gandhi docile opposition wasmore acceptable to the British thanSubhash Chandra Bose and BhagatSingh. Another fact which is not knownto many people is that Maharaja DalipSingh wanted to organize a militantmovement which would lead to the overthrowof the British from India. In a way,the British encouraged the emergence ofa more docile and subservient movementled by the Congress party to counterMaharaja Dalip Singh’s efforts.The BJP emerged as a more nationalistforce as opposed to the conciliatory andcompromising policies of the Congressparty toward Imperialists. However, afterthe BJP came into power, it gotCongressized. Its policies became veryclose to the Congress Party’s.The people’s choices were limited tochoosing one of these two parties, whosepolicies look very much similar to eachother.With the AAP and Kejriwal coming topower in Delhi, people can see somethingdifferent than what these two partieshave to offer.They may exert that choice in the comingParliamentary elections and give the thirdforce a chance.Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is theChairman of the Washington State Networkfor Human Rights and Chairman of theCentral Washington Coalition for Social Justice.He can be reached at[email protected].