The furor triggered by Delhi’s newly appointed CM Atishi’s act of placing an empty chair next to hers, symbolising the indispensability of AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, is not without merit. BY KUMKUM CHADHA
When it comes to religion, every political party takes the first opportunity to jump onto its bandwagon. Except, of course, the Left. Equally, it is true that religion in India pays political dividends and of course invokes a sentiment like nothing else does.
However, in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the tables were turned. The BJP, which was riding high on the Ram temple construction in Ayodhya, was in for a surprise. It did not reach the majority mark.
Worse still, it lost the Ayodhya turf to the Samajwadi Party. The religious card failed. What won were real and on ground issues.
Equally, it is true that one result cannot change mindsets. It may be indicative but never conclusive. Therefore, for parties to give up the religious plank on the result of one election would be a bit of a stretch.
On that score, Lord Ram continues to be an emotive issue among religion-driven Indians. Therefore, when political parties invoke him, it is called political sagacity. Recently, the Aam Aadmi Party, popular as AAP, did just that. It not only invoked Ram but his entire clan including Bharat.
Leading the charge was none other than newly sworn in Chief Minister of Delhi Atishi.
The youngest woman to take over as Chief Minister, Atishi’s rise has been meteoric.
She started off as a policy formulator for the Aam Aadmi Party; contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections only to lose with a huge margin: with nearly five lakh votes to BJP’s Gautam Gambhir. But she bounced back a year later, winning, even though it was an Assembly election. Last year, she was inducted as a minister in Arvind Kejriwal’s Cabinet.
Since then, there has been no looking back. She has grown from strength to strength, particularly after the two heavyweights, Manish Sisodia and Kejriwal, were put behind bars. In their absence, she took up the cudgels and vociferously defended the duo, particularly Kejriwal.
Till he got married, Raghav Chadha was the face of the Aam Aadmi Party. Atishi was seen little and heard even less.
Therefore, when Kejriwal was jailed, it was expected that Chadha would steer the Party. But all through the tumultuous period, he was missing in action, ostensibly on medical grounds.
That was Atishi’s chance; she grabbed it with both hands and shone like few could. Not only did she defend Kejriwal but took on the BJP and sent it running for cover.
In the months that followed, she became the face of the Aam Aadmi Party. Kejriwal rewarded her by handpicking her as Chief Minister to succeed him.
Atishi was sworn in Chief Minister last week when outgoing Chief Minister Kejriwal put in his papers on grounds that he will take up the post after the people of Delhi repose faith in him: “Justice from the people’s court” to quote him.
Kejriwal zeroed in on Atishi amid speculation that the choice may narrow down to his wife Sunita.
Since her husband was jailed in the Delhi Liquor scam, Arvind Kejriwal’s wife, Sunita donned the mantle. She has been firefighting and accusing the BJP of “vendetta politics”. In the process, she attained a political hue to her erstwhile image of a domesticated woman and a housewife.
Therefore, when Atishi was handpicked as Chief Minister, there was a sense of relief that Kejriwal had not pushed his wife to the coveted Chair.
There can be no two opinions on Atishi’s choice and capability. That she is a doer and a competent one at that, is substantiated by her work in the past. As someone who worked tirelessly under the then Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Atishi can be credited with giving a make-over to the government-run schools in Delhi. That she along with her mentor Sisodia completely transformed the face of the schools and the infrastructure is there for everyone to see.
But back to the politics of religion and Lord Ram: both of which Atishi used to the hilt after she was sworn in as Chief Minister of Delhi.
The controversy that has panned out has two aspects: one pre-swearing in and other after she was sworn in.
When Atishi was named Chief Minister by Kejriwal, she asserted that her “guru” Kejriwal will “remain CM of Delhi” immediately underlining the fact that she would be a Chief Minister only in name: in other words, she would act as Kejriwal’s proxy.
And this “devotion”, dubbed sycophancy, did not end here. It was merely a curtain raiser. Immediately after she was sworn in, Atishi touched Kejriwal’s feet. Whether that won hearts, is debatable.
However, the shocker was when she took charge as Chief Minister and did the unexpected. She placed an empty chair next to her own even as she invoked Lord Ram.
Taking a leaf out of the famous epic Ramayana, Atishi said: “Today I have taken charge as Delhi CM. I am feeling the same as Bharat took the reign after Lord Ram went to Vanvaas”.
For the uninitiated, when Lord Ram’s sibling, Bharat, was asked to rule in his brother’s absence, he brought back Ram’s khadau, sandals. His logic: he will discharge the King’s duties as a mere representative till Ram’s exile period is over. In other words, he would be a caretaker ruler.
But then Delhi is not Ayodhya; nor is Kejriwal God. For that matter, neither is Atishi, Bharat.
But the drama has played out.
Taking charge as the Delhi Chief Minister, Atishi said she would run the government for four months, just like Bharat did by placing Lord Ram’s sandals on the throne for 14 years.
Mercifully, instead of Kejriwal’s footwear, Atishi placed an empty chair next to the one she herself occupied as Chief Minister. It was symbolism at its worst, to put it mildly.
Hell broke loose and quite expectedly. The chair story went viral and Atishi got more flak than she perhaps thought she ever would.
She was slammed for demeaning the office of the Chief Minister. Those who wished to be kind to her and saw this as a gesture of “immense loyalty” too, did not spare her. They justified her placing the empty chair but sparred over its height. Reportedly, the empty chair placed by Atishi is higher than the one that she, as Chief Minister, is currently occupying.
The furor is justified.
Any and every Chief Minister is accountable to the people and if he or she flags subservience to an individual rather than the office, then it compromises the dignity of that office and the post that is being held.
And this is exactly what Atishi has done. Her actions have, in one single stroke, demeaned the office and also besmeared the dignity of a Chief Minister.
Also, by putting loyalty over governance she has made known her subservience to an individual.
Nothing could be worse than this because no individual can be bigger than a public office, particularly one that is a Chief Minister’s.
Therefore, even while being hailed as the youngest Chief Minister, Atishi needs to take lessons in governance.
She needs to understand that there is a toss-up between responsibility to an office versus subservience to an individual.
Sadly, in her first day as Chief Minister Atishi, quite willingly let the lines between the two blur.
This is something the nation is unlikely to forgive her for.
Not only has she besmeared what could have been a laudable tenure, she has done disservice to the office that she has sworn to; she has compromised governance and worse still, made it known that she will willingly be a rubber stamp Chief Minister, whose puppet strings are in the hands of her “guru” Kejriwal.
