The desperation showed the other day when Arvind Kejriwal in a video address to his supporters asked them to be prepared for many attacks or part company if they are afraid.

“What’s power without the power to harass?” Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal must be wondering aloud between tweets on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s sinister design to get him fixed. With 10 of his MLAs arrested, and the Aam Aadmi Party already into the prediction game on who would be next, he would be ruing having no police force or enforcement agency to let loose on rivals. The high decibel attention-grabbing noises for media consumption serve only a limited purpose. The real power lies in the good old lathi, in whatever shape or connotation it comes. This realisation seems to be making him desperate to win at least one state, a full-fledged one unlike Delhi.

Actually, his options are running out. At the rate his MLAs are getting arrested, a majority of them might end up behind bars by the end of his tenure. It is a hugely unequal battle between the unseen forces and his government – or, as Modi and him as he would like to call it. One has all the resources and not averse to using them; the other has none, barring the vocal chords. One takes almost sadistic pleasure in needling the other on a persistent basis the other can hardly do anything about it other than howling louder than necessary at each pin-prick. One has the energy to drag the other into enumerable legal battles while other is too small to keep engaging. To make matters worse, his party is losing sympathy among the talking classes.

The desperation showed the other day when Kejriwal in a video address to his supporters asked them to be prepared for many attacks or part company if they are afraid. After cutting the party off its intellectual and idealistic dimensions, the only way he can fight back is through raw power that high offices bring. He might have underestimated the sundry policeman earlier – remember his use of the word thulla? – but now with so many of his colleagues embroiled criminal cases, he must be realising what he means in the power equations among political players. If he had the powers to arrest and control over policemen then perhaps then the playing field would be more level. The BJP or whoever is orchestrating the arrests would be more careful.

That’s the big reason, he must be thinking, he must win a state, Punjab, Goa whatever. In the present scenario even the gau rakshaks in the country are more powerful than him. The latter can form groups and deliver vigilante justice without a care in the world. If they thrash Dalits or Muslims on the suspicion of possessing beef – they don’t need a reason to thrash anybody actually – they have nothing to fear since the police won’t touch them. The same cannot be said about AAP members though. Their ability to strike back comes to nil with no power with their government to protect them. So he has to win a state.

Readers might detect a hint of sarcasm in the piece thus far, but the purpose here is to narrate the reality of power equations involving conflicting political forces. It is possible all of Kejriwal’s MLAs are no saints and are guilty of whatever they are accused of, however, the situation would be much different if their government wielded real power. People in other parties with similar charges are hardly meted the same treatment