If self-publicity could make a great leader, then Arvind Kejriwal may have already become the greatest ever this country has known in decades. For, the Delhi Chief Minister thinks nothing of wasting hard-earned taxpayers’ money on advertising his greatness. Through thousands of billboards, hoardings, full-page ads in various print and audio-visual media round the year, the Aam Aadmi Party boss seeks to din his greatness into your ears.
For a relatively small territory, Delhi’s budget for publicity was jacked up in one fell swoop by the AAP Government from Rs. 26 crore to over Rs. 526 crore. This has inevitably caused an avoidable distortion in the news and views sections of most newspapers who covet ads above all else.
Indeed, a big newspaper group which makes no bones about treating news no more than that which ‘fills the space between revenue-generating matter’ has even allowed itself to be dictated on its story selection. It is the most insidious form of paid news but no professional body dare point out because most of them are themselves vulnerable on this score.
A bigger problem is that the ads invariably exaggerate and, very often, spread plain falsehood to increase the brand value of Kejriwal. To give but one example, the Delhi CM has been tom-tomming that under him a saving of Rs. 121 crore was effected in the construction of a road project.
The truth, however, is that instead of saving, actually Rs. 20 crore more was spent over and above the earlier sanctioned amount. Construction had begun when Sheila Dikshit was Delhi Chief Minister. Kejriwal opened it with great fanfare a few months ago, with full page ads in all newspapers claiming the road was the AAP Government’s ‘gift to the people of Delhi.’
The truth about an additional expenditure of Rs. 20 crore over the sanctioned amount was revealed by the Kejriwal Government itself in response to a query under RTI filed by a former Congress MLA. Yet, this has not prevented the Delhi CM to claim a saving of Rs. 121 crore.
Likewise, he has been claiming considerable savings in the construction of dispensaries and schools. A part-time doctor in a rented room in a colony is unlikely to cost as much as, say, a regular hospital. Ditto for a school in a rented building in a shanty colony and then boast it costs a fraction of the schools built earlier. Such false and misleading propaganda, then, defines Kerjriwal and his government.
But nowhere is the falsehood starker than in the claim that the implementation of the odd-even rule for privately-owned four wheeled vehicles has led to a perceptible fall in pollution in the capital city of India. Here again, the driving force behind Kejriwal enforcing the odd-even driving rule for private vehicles a second time for a fortnight within three months is his quest for personal glory.
He and his loudmouths do not tire of citing as a great testimonial a mention in an American paper about the odd-even scheme. For days on end, Delhiites have had their ears filled with incessant propaganda about the scheme.
And, yet no scientific study proved that it led to reduced pollution levels earlier. It has been again imposed arbitrarily on Delhi, beginning April 15 to 30. Reducing traffic cannot be the sole objective of the scheme while reducing pollution requires a holistic approach. Road dust, public transport, trucks, illegal industries in residential colonies, adulterated vehicular fuels, burning of farm waste, building construction, etc., are some of the major culprits.
Private cars at the most account for some eleven percent of the total pollution in the city, while on a given day half of them are still allowed to run. It means there would only be a reduction of mere six percent in the number of vehicles on the road.
Besides, Delhi also gets polluted by what goes on in the neighbouring Haryana and UP. Unfortunately, the real reason behind Kejriwal’s love for odd-even is not fighting pollution but to bestow favours on his core constituency of auto and taxi drivers. Besides, the scheme gives an excuse to pay some 5,000 AAP workers/ supporters about Rs. 500 per day from the coffers of the Delhi Government. These volunteers are supposed to help the traffic police enforce the odd-even formula.
The short point is that Kejriwal is a very, very devious man who is out to hoodwink the people, exploiting their weakness for the ‘new kid on the block,’ who, they believe, might turn out to be better than the tried and tested lot of old politicians.
The truth is that Kejriwal has all the makings of a most opportunistic and hypocritical leaders. People should see through the one-man publicity machine.
