DELHI:“If you rise fast, you also fall fast” – this was the cryptic observation of a political activist in a chai shop as he watched on Tuesday TV footage of a man reaching up to garland Aam Admi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal only to deliver a resounding slap on his face.
HunzaNews April 9th, 2014.
The leader was quick to direct his anger at the BJP.
“I do not understand why do some people resort to violence for becoming the Prime Minister? If you think by attacking us, we will keep quiet then you are wrong. We will fight this battle till the last breath,” he said in a clear reference to Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi.
Later the former Delhi CM posted to Twitter, “I am just thinking – why am I being repeatedly attacked? Who are the masterminds? What do they want? What do they achieve?”
“Is violence an answer to country’s problems? Let them tell me the place and time. I will come there. Let them beat me as much as they want…but will that solve the problems?”
This is not the first time Kejriwal has been assaulted. In the first incident, a 19-year-old young man in Delhi’s lower middle class Dakshinpuri area struck. Thought to be Kejriwal’s pool of political endorsement, this area is inhabited by auto rickshaw drivers’ tenements. Tuesday’s assault also came from the resident of another such area, Sultanpuri.
Auto rickshaw drivers have been the mainstay of AAP’s support base. They were seduced with the promise of regularisation, or ownership of their vehicles (which typically they have to rent at high rates and run to ensure they earn a daily wage) and rapacious policemen who find them the best avenue for extortion.
However, during its 49-day tenure, the AAP government was unable to do very much for this section of its core supporters. The latest assault is seen as an attack from such a disillusioned supporter.
Kejriwal’s rival Kapil Sibal, telecom minister and candidate from the Chandni Chowk constituency, however, said neither he nor his party supported such tactics and were quick to condemn it.
The BJP said Kejriwal had got just desserts for making false promises.
All eyes are now on the seven constituencies in Delhi and how AAP will fare.
Express Tribune,
