Kejriwal brings political discourse to a new low

Our political discourse is scaling a new low everyday. The recent diatribe of Arvind Kejriwal against the Prime Minister, which is circulating on YouTube, exemplifies that fall. In our democracy, the Constitution has provided its citizens with freedom of speech but that does not mean that one can brazenly violate it and say anything about anyone -regardless of proof. “Educated” people are supposed to know the law and the consequences of their baseless utterances. We live in a “Media Society” where speaking lies is insidious and relentless, and perception is filtered according to the number of times the lies are uttered. Currently politics is all about lying and befooling people by setting a narrative which is far from the truth.

As soon as a lie is perpetuated by our politicians through the well- fed and pre-paid media outlets with a pro twist given by the so-called experts and political analysts duly supported by the pro anchor, it takes avatar as the truth. Spreading lies and false narratives has become the bedrock of new and old politicians alike, but leading the pack now is Kejriwal. He advertises the honesty of his governance while conveniently glossing over the ugly truth that some of his most prominent cabinet ministers are behind bars on serious charges of corruption.

Kejriwal, who has been accused of being neck deep in the now infamous “ Delhi Excise scam” running into thousands of crores of rupees, has the temerity to accuse the Prime Minister. It seems after the arrest of Manish Sisodia, his close associate, he is apprehensive of the consequences and fall out of the ongoing CBI and ED investigations into the excise scam of the Delhi government, headed by him.

In any democratic government’s functioning, when policy decisions are cleared by cabinet, the buck stops at the Chief Minister’s desk. Kejriwal will have a lot to answer for regarding this excise scam worth thousands of crores. Accusing the PM or anyone else is not going to help his cause but may increase his troubles for which he will have only himself to blame. He must remember that the habit of making false accusations against many politicians and industrial houses has already harmed him irreparably in the past and he had to tender unconditional apologies several times.

During the past decades, the art of lying has been mastered by such people to such perfection that they create a mountain out of nothing. These days a myth has been propagated that India has the best education minister of the world in Sisodia. The slew of lies that Kejriwal has perpetuated, with the active assistance and connivance of paid media is astounding. Under the charge of Sisodia as education minister of Delhi, the Kejriwal government purportedly has done wonders and this has been wrapped up and packaged as the ‘ Delhi Model’ to fool the country.

The official data analysis shows that the ‘ Delhi Model’ is a blatant attempt to deceive the public through misinformation. The Delhi Chief Minister highlights that free treatment in government hospitals and free education in government schools has been the hallmark of his so-called Delhi model. However, he has deliberately omitted the basic fact that all the state governments across the country have been providing free education and free medical treatment for the people through all these decades! The excise scam, bus procurement scam etc. have completely unravelled the true face of Kejriwal’s anti- corruption campaign.

Befooling the gullible public to get votes and win elections is old statecraft. All political parties in our country are guilty of perpetuating this culture for decades. But spreading humongous lies, misusing thousands of crores of public money to spread a false narrative is a tool which has been craftily mastered by Kejriwal. He knows that a lie uttered repeatedly, and allowed to go unchallenged, is believed by the public to be the Truth. Unfortunately, the media has become an accomplice with those who spent crores on advertisements.

The time has come for the people to become aware of the falsehoods being perpetuated by such people and discard them. The media also must realise the colossal damage caused by these false narratives perpetuated by our political class. They just cannot bury Truth under the weight of paid advertisements and shun their responsibilities as the fourth state. They have to realise that democracy cannot survive without an honest, vigilant and pro- people media. Serving the interest of their media house is not ethical journalism. They have to come together to put an end to the culture of lies and falsehood perpetuated by such politicians. Leadership is about integrity, honesty and accountability. We should not allow contrarian projections. Morality must define politics. Kejriwal and his ilk must heed it.

Also Read: In the Delhi excise scam, the buck stops at Kejriwal

(Vijay Shankar Pandey retired from the Indian Administrative Service. He has an established record of raising his voice against corruption in public life. Views expressed are personal and exclusive to India Narrative)