Article : Shri Arun Jaitley on "The Nightmare is over"

The Nightmare is over

- Arun Jaitley

Leader of Opposition (Rajya Sabha)

The nightmare is finally over. The worst ever State Government that Delhi has ever witnessed has resigned. The AAP party Government decided to submit its resignation to the Lt. Governor. The past 49 days witnessed an unconventional Government. It was a Government without an agenda and without an ideology. It was a Government committed to populism and demagogue.

Clever politics and no governance – this appeared to be the motto of the AAP government in Delhi. This was a Government without a mandate. It had only 28 seats. The BJP was a bigger party. The AAP had no qualms before accepting shamelessly the Congress support in order to prove the majority. Most of its MLAs were inexperienced. They lacked maturity. At times, they were outlandish. They had an agitational approach but were foreign to any form of governance.

Did the AAP government decide to expand the drinking water connectivity in Delhi? Did they seriously conceive of a scheme to increase the healthcare facilities in Delhi? Did they ever think of setting up new schools and colleges? Did they ever think over expanding the technical educational institutions in Delhi? What about taking Delhi Metro to the next phase? Did the idea of more flyovers and better PWD roads ever cross their thinking? These are all areas which add to the quality of life of those living in a large metropolis. These are real areas of governance. The 49-day government had no mind space for any of these issues.

It concentrated its approach only to agitational issues. It agitated against the Home Minister, against the Lt. Governor, against the Commissioner of Police and against the African ladies. Its approach was to concoct falsehood and create imaginary enemies and then carry on propaganda on the strength of attacking the imaginary enemies. It had the arrogance to believe that only its leaders were honest and everybody else was compromised. It started losing popularity with everyday in government. The Party had realized that its leaders sitting in Sachivalaya were ‘a bull in a China shop’. They were more suited to the streets. It therefore crafted an exit route for itself. Its Jan Lokpal Bill was kept as a closely guarded secret till the last day. The ‘Lokpal content’ of the Bill is not radically different from the Central legislation but it wanted to create a false propaganda that its Bill is a revolutionary one in comparison to the central law. It decided to defy the conventional procedure for legislative approval in order to invent a pretext for resignation.

The AAP Government has exited. It defied the hopes of many who wanted to see an alternative politics emerge. The alternative politics was populism, demagogue, falsehood but no governance. Thank God, the nightmare is over.

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