Chief secy controversy yet again exposes AAP’s political immaturity -Governance Now

Chief secy controversy yet again exposes AAP’s political immaturity

Kejriwal & Co.’s combative attitude hurts their own cause of pro-people governance

GN Bureau | February 22, 2018

#Anshu Prakash #Arvind Kejriwal #Aam Aadmi Party #Delhi #governance #delhi chief secretary

Anshu Prakash, Delhi chief secretary (Photo: Youtube)

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), for all its talk of high ideals, had an image problem right from its inception: that it was a motley crew of politically naïve people. When the going was good, this image came very handy. Arvind Kejriwal and Co. were seen as a fresh new alternative to the usual run-of-the-mill politician. When going gets tough, it’s a different matter.

This week, Delhi’s chief secretary Anshu Prakash has alleged that at a late-evening meeting at the chief minister’s residence, two AAP MLAs assaulted him. The two, Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal, have been arrested. Also, a medical examination has established that the senior bureaucrat did suffer physical injury as there were bruises on his face. While AAP has rubbished the accusation, it would be up to Delhi police to probe the matter and take further action. (AAP has already upped the ante by claiming that police is biased.)

Regardless of the findings of the investigation, what is indeed crystal clear today is that the AAP has not shown any political maturity in handling the crisis which has led to a rare breakdown of governance machinery with the bureaucrats of the capital in no mood to cooperate with the government of the day.

The party people justify Kejriwal’s usual aggressive and combative ways by saying that this is what appeals to his core constituency of lower middle class and slum-dwellers. That may or may not be case, but this attitude does not help the cause of governance a bit.

Comments

Other News

Wired for good: Building sustainable cities with AI

The First Industrial Revolution in the 18th-19th centuries ushered in a paradigm shift in how cities were imagined. Fueled by railways, factories and grids, and obsessed with speed and scale, it was an ode to efficiency, which spurred unprecedented economic growth. Now, as the Fourth Industrial Revolutio

How social media is reshaping elections

Since Brazil’s return to direct presidential elections in 1985, no candidate who finished second in the first round of polling had ever won the presidency. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, now 81, has just done it. What explains the comeback, and what changed in Brazilian politics to make it possi

Cabinet approves Dearness Allowance, Dearness Relief

The union cabinet chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the release of an additional instalment of Dearness Allowance (DA) to central government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to pensioners with effect from 01.07.2026 representing an increase of 3% over the existing rates of 6

Cyclone Arnab strikes Andhra as warming oceans amplify storm risks

Cyclone Arnab made landfall along the Andhra Pradesh and Yanam coasts in the early hours of Wednesday as a very severe cyclonic storm, with maximum sustained wind speeds of 125–135 kmph and gusts reaching 150 kmph. Its rapid intensification has raised concerns about how warmer oceans, global warmin

Counting matters but which ones?

The first instinct of public policy is to count. Its harder task is to count what counts. We have become remarkably good at measuring the reach of the welfare state vis-à-vis beneficiaries covered, rupees transferred, houses built, connections installed and services delivered. But some of the most

Inching closer to a trade deal with America

The cooperation between India and the United States goes back quite a time. We need to relegate that era to the backburner when Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru visited US in the times of president Dwight Eisenhower and called the American let-off of 10 million dollars in defence aid to Pakistan as a “gun w