By Aditya Aamir
A good end of story for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. But the big story behind Delhi’s July 4 story is that Justice Chelameswar & Co. had no business alluding to ‘democracy in peril’ and there was no reason for top lawyers, sections of the media and opposition parties – displaying symptoms of ‘shared psychosis’ – to condemn India’s top court to the cell-block as worse than the one in Pakistan.
Many things about India are in peril. But democracy is not one of them. The revelation that Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra does not have his heart in the ‘right’ place, but towards the ‘left’, where all good hearts ought to be, is so uplifting. Calls for his impeachment were out of place.
That said, life is a lump in the throat! In Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s throat. Four years ago, he had trouble in his throat. Not that he would have croaked but he had to go to ground in Bengaluru for some mud therapy to rid his throat of Chik-Chik-Chik, gale mein kharash.
Back in Delhi from the Bengaluru throat laundry, Kejriwal got down to shouting in earnest but found that the real ‘kharash’ in his throat was the Lt. Governor, who wouldn’t allow him to clear his throat and deliver a stump speech full of messages of “I did this, I did that; I fulfilled all the elections promises I made.”
The Centre, with Narendra Modi in the driver’s seat, continued to be a Chik-Chik-Chik that wouldn’t go away, and Delhi’s mud was from the swamp; sticky with no therapeutic value, none of the restorative qualities of Bengaluru’s. In every Dangal with the Lt. Governor, Kejriwal found himself biting dust, his face stuck in mud.
Kejriwal’s vote-winning promises – ration delivered to the doorstep, CCTV camera on every lamp-pole, expansion of mohalla clinics to more areas, transfers and postings of bureaucrats for the good of Delhi – stood undelivered and money spent on advertisement blitzes to give his image a boost went for a toss. The Chief Minister was losing sleep and there was no sofa in his office!
What to do, what to do, what to do?
How about baiting the Prime minister with labels of psychotic disorder? Call him a pathological liar, an undemocratic authoritarian? That didn’t work. So, knock on the Delhi High Court door. That, too, did not work. So, lure the Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister’s home in the dead of the night and teach him hierarchy. That boomeranged. So, sleep on a sofa in the Lt. Governor’s Office and go hungry! That ended with deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia shifted to hospital. Kejriwal returned home with nothing to show for his parched throat.
Until today. The Supreme Court had concluded hearing in the Kejriwal Vs. Lt. Governor case in December last. On July 4, 2018, CJI Dipak Misra, heading a five-judge Constitution bench, delivered judgement: The Lt. Guv cannot lord over the Chief Minister; cannot go running to the Centre on every little matter, he will take his counsel from the council of ministers except on matters land, law and public order. But no statehood for Delhi.
The last point apart, Kejriwal could have shouted in glee, screamed victory. But no! With the lump in his throat, he couldn’t take the risk. What if Chik-Chik-Chik, Gale Mein Kharash returned to spite? So, Kejriwal tweeted a silent “A big victory for the people of Delhi, a big victory for democracy”. There was no bile left anymore in Arvind Kejriwal for the Supreme Court, and CJI Dipak Misra.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, ever the one to follow Kejriwal to the ends of the Earth, chipped in with his “thanks” to the apex court and cooed that it was the end of the Lt. Guv’s restrictive, constrictive hold on Delhi; go to pasture Mr. Lt. Governor, don’t you meddle in la affaire Delhi. Sisodia did not say it in so many words but that was the gist of what he spoke with no Chik-Chik-Chik to trouble his throat.
Since July 1, 2018, the word stuck in Delhi’s gullet was ‘obscurantism’. That because the Delhi Police couldn’t nail a motive to the 11 found hanging in a Delhi home. On July 4, 2018, CJI Dipak Misra nailed another word to Delhi’s thick hide: ‘Obstructionist’. This one will stick in Lt. Governor Anil Baijal’s throat.
The top court also warned that there was no room for ‘absolutism’ or ‘anarchy’ in a Constitutional democracy. That should stick in Arvind Kejriwal’s throat. Ultimately, everything ‘Arvind Kejriwal’ boils down to what? Chik-Chik-Chik, Gale me Kharash! By the way, just for the record, Chik-Chik-Chik is also an expression for ‘Always Complaining’. (IPA Service)
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