Tavleen Singh writes: AAP vs BJP, and why election campaigning in Delhi is verging on the absurd

Let me say that Kejriwal never fooled me with his antics and posturing. It is also my view that he made the biggest mistake that politicians can make which is to make grandiose, impossible promises. If the Aam Aadmi Party won nearly every seat in the Delhi assembly in the last election, it was because us hapless citizens of this sprawling metropolis really hoped that something would be done to clean our polluted air, our filthy streets and a serious effort would be made to clean the Yamuna. What he did instead was to give us gimmicks like that weird ‘odd-even scheme’. And it did not take long for him to show that he was dangerously narcissistic and loved the sound of his own voice. It was hard to turn on the radio and not hear him sermonising about something or other or pass a bus that did not have his mug plastered on it. Not good traits for someone pretending to be a ‘common man’.

This is not to say that Kejriwal did nothing at all for Delhi. He did more to improve schools and healthcare than any chief minister I can remember. I have seen government schools in the city that look like fancy private schools and have been very impressed with the ‘mohalla clinics’ that have come up in the past decade of AAP rule. But these things along with freebies may not be enough for him to win another term as chief minister.

A BJP campaign vehicle carrying a model of the ‘Sheesh Mahal’. The BJP has been targetting the AAP over money spent on renovation the CM’s residence when Arvind Kejriwal lived there. (Express Photo)

It is the BJP that now controls the narrative. If it does manage to form the government in Delhi, we must hope that the usually empty ‘double-engine government’ slogan works in this case. Delhi’s problems are too serious to be ignored any longer. No country that hopes to become ‘viksit’ in the not-too-distant future can afford to have a capital that looks as bad as Delhi does. Every time I drive past those mountains of rotting garbage that rise out of landfills near the Red Fort, I wonder why India seems to be the only country in the world that has not learned to manage waste. Every time I drive on a bridge over the Yamuna and see that it is no longer a river but a drain, I wonder why India cannot find the expertise needed to clean our rivers.

The sad truth is that it is not just in the past decade of AAP rule that Delhi has deteriorated. It is a process that began a long time ago under chief ministers who came from different parties. As someone who has spent more than half my life in this city, I remember that the Delhi of my childhood was quite a lovely city. It was smaller then but much cleaner and better governed. I have tried to pinpoint when things started to go wrong but cannot. Much has been done in recent times to make Delhi look more beautiful, but the changes have been cosmetic and so superficial that they look like no more than an attempt to hide a darker reality.

As I wrote that last sentence the Prime Minister popped up on my TV screen giving an interview in which he said that in his third term his dreams had become bigger and his confidence in making them come true stronger. He was certain, he said, that by 2047, India would become a fully developed country without the problems that Indians face today. There would be full supplies of electricity and clean water, I heard him say and nearly fainted. I wondered if the Delhi in which the rest of us live is the same city he inhabits. If it is then he is dreaming an impossible dream.