Sumit Kumar Singh By

NEW DELHI: On the evening of December 15, 2015, Kejriwal hogged the headlines by taking Arun Jaitley head-on, alleging massive financial bungling in the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) when the finance minister was its president.

Read: Advantage Kejri. In War with Centre. For Now…

The Anna Hazare movement had taught Kejriwal the importance of grabbing prime-time headlines. On December 21, Jaitley slapped a `10 crore defamation case against Kejriwal, who promptly challenged the government to publicly broadcast the High Court proceedings, to project himself as a champion of transparency. Kejriwal raised more dust to stay on TV screens: on December 22, he convened a special Assembly session and set up another commission of enquiry. More headlines were to come. On December 29, the state government suspended two senior Home Department Delhi cadre officers for refusing to sign on a Cabinet file. Around 200 DANICS (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service) officers went on mass leave. Seventy IAS officers took half-day off in sympathy. Kejriwal threatened to bring in private professionals to run their departments. The Union home ministry, however, overturned the suspensions. In the Delhi Secretariat, only two Principal Secretary-level officers remain—the rest have been removed or sought transfers.

After dodging questions on governance deficit, policy paralysis and imperious behaviour, Kejriwal has donned the victim mantle of an honest CM taking on the might of the Union government. “The Centre is conspiring with the help of Lieutenant Governor, by not allowing Arvind to run the government smoothly and carry out development work,” says AAP spokesperson Raghav Chadha.

The clamour has helped Kejriwal harvest gains out of the popular skepticism that the AAP government was losing the plot. Two state ministers were sacked for forgery and corruption last year; law minister Jitendra Tomar was imprisoned. His predecessor Somnath Bharati was jailed for domestic violence. BJP state unit chief Satish Upadhyay, acknowledges Kejriwal had mastered the art of gaining public sympathy by blaming others for misgovernance.

A senior bureaucrat says, “Kejriwal survives on confrontation, by playing the victim. If you take away this label, the focus will be on delivery which doesn’t suit him. ”

The deadline to allot around 20,000 flats for slum-dwellers and Economically Weaker Sections expired uneventfully in March 2015. The AAP government is reluctant to act on a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation report which involves examining traffic volumes, parking and pedestrian count to decongest the Chandni Chowk area, because it would mean displacing sidewalk vendors. Instead, demolition of slums in Shakur Basti by the Railways evoked angry protests from Kejriwal who compensated victims imemdiately and solidified his vote base.

Mandoli Jail, which can accommodate between 3,700 and 4,500 inmates, was scheduled to be functional by June 2015, but is incomplete. No new flyover project has begun. Signature Bridge is stuck. The AAP government’s announcement to revamp the infrastructure of over 1,100 schools infrastructure remains in the air.

“Almost a year has gone, but the CM’s 70-point agenda just remains on paper,” says Upadhyay.

The politics of misdirection, for the time being is serving Kejriwal very well, indeed.