• The leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, Arvind Kejriwal has been arrested.
• His party represented the most significant challenger to the Hindu Nationalist BJP, now
what?
Earlier this week on Thursday, the Chief Minister of Delhi and leader of the Aam Aadmi Party
(AAP- translated as the Common Man’s Party) Arvind Kejriwal was arrested on bogus charges of not relinquishing liquor sales to private vendors.
Supporters of the AAP have taken to the streets of Delhi in protest to Mr. Kejriwal’s arrest- which is undeniably politically motivated.
Since 2011, Mr. Kejriwal and his AAP have emerged as the most dominant players the political battle against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The AAP’s meteoric rise began in 2011 following its campaign of mass protests against endemic political corruption at the hands of the Indian National Congress party (INC) who was in government at the time.
Mr Kejriwal cemented his political success in the 2013 Delhi Legislative Assembly Election and took up the top job as the Chief Minister of Delhi.
In recent years the AAP’s popularity expanded rapidly and it won the 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly Election.
With the increase in its electoral success, the AAP began to be viewed by many commentators and voters as a sizeable bulwark against the polarity of the BJP’s Hindu nationalist agenda.
While Prime Minister Modi preaches Hindu nationalism, the AAP’s populist rhetoric has focused on emphasizing the promise of equality and justice embedded within the Indian Constitution- a promise the AAP maintains has not been fulfilled since India’s independence.
But with this latest arrest, Mr. Modi and the BJP have knocked out arguably their biggest political rival in India (with the exception of the INC).
It seems that anyone brave enough to raise their voice against the BJP has their days numbered.
There is now no significant player in India to oppose the BJP in the upcoming 2024 Indian General Elections which begin on the 19th of April.
The AAP which was largely driven by the personality cult of the now arrested Arvind Kejriwal is out of action without their strongman leader. Meanwhile, outside of a few regional pockets of support the INC too doesn’t have the political clout to pose a significant threat to the BJP.
The leader of the INC, Mr. Rahul Gandhi of the famous Ghandi family has been accused of being two faced. On one hand, he showed solidarity with Mr. Kejriwal’s family following his arrest while on the other hand, he has called the former Delhi Chief Minister corrupt.
Irrespective of whether Mr. Ghandi is two faced or not, the larger issue at hand is that the BJP’s biggest rivals have failed to form a reliable political alliance in opposition. Knowing this, Mr.
Modi and the BJP have capitalised on their rival’s inability to see the BJP as a mutual threat to India.
The BJP has recently dog whistled to its supporters by implementing an anti-Muslim citizenship bill which denies citizenship to Muslims who were formerly illegal immigrants but not for those are Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, or Sikh.
This bill is likely to be the tip of the iceberg in the BJP’s Hindu nationalist playbook. With their victory now all set, the BJP and Mr. Modi can rest easy. But the same cannot be said for Muslims and other minority groups in India.
