Essay on Arvind Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal is one of the key figures in Indian politics. Ever since he became the chief minister of Delhi, he has managed to have quite a phenomenal presence in the field of Indian politics. He has played a key role in several spheres and remains one of the discussed politicians owing to both the right and the wrong reasons.

A mechanical engineer by profession, he had worked in the Indian revenue service for the Income Tax department before deciding that he desired to take a different route in his career path.

Early life

Arvind Kejriwal was born in an upper middle-class family in the Bihani district of Haryana. His family had a strong educational background as his father too was an electrical engineer who had graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology.

Arvind Kejriwal was always a bright student at school and he cleared his IIT JEE exam with flying colors as he obtained a rank of 563 and ended up studying at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

After completing his education and becoming a part of the corporate world, he decided to take a break from work and continue his education. He took up the Civil Services Examination and later on decided to work as an assistant commissioner of Income Tax as he joined the IRS. Later, he was given two years of paid leave to further his education upon the condition that he would resume the work with the same post.

He ultimately parted ways with his career because he became a key figure in the anti-corruption movement spearheaded by Anna Hazare. It was this movement which ultimately paved the path for his glorious political career as he finally became the Chief Minister of Delhi.

His role in Indian politics

Even during his tenure at the Income Tax Department, he was always looking to do something extra for the common public. Along with his good friend Manish Sisodia, Arvind Kejriwal founded a movement called Parivartan. The main aim was to address the grievances of the citizens that pertained to the public distribution work. He was also a part of several other initiatives as he always wanted to make sure that justice is met to people.

Perhaps, it was this that showed him the right path to become the politician he is now. It was, however, his participation in the right to information act along with Anna Hazare, Shekhar Singh, Aruna Roy and so on that he came to the forefront and hogged the limelight. Arvind Kejriwal wanted to further his work with Parivartan and he brought several scams to the forefront. Such was his phenomenal work that he was bestowed the Ramon Magsaysay award for emergent leadership.

Along with Anna Hazare and Kiran Bedi, he founded India against corruption group. This group mainly demanded that the Jan Lokpal bill would be enacted. Owing to tremendous pressure, the bill was enacted however it was severely criticized as it didn’t meet most of the requirements and demands of the IAC activists.

When he realized that mere forming a group won’t help the cause, Arvind Kejriwal decided to contest the election and to everyone’s surprise, became the chief minister of Delhi. His work has been both applauded and criticized by the masses.

Life as the chief minister

When there was criticism among the masses that the Jan Lokpal activists shouldn’t dictate terms as they weren’t elected representatives, Arvind Kejriwal decided to form a political party and named it AAP or the Aam Aadmi Party. He stood for the Delhi legislative assembly election, 2013 and became the fifth most mentioned politician in the lead up to the election.

When Arvind Kejriwal won the election by forming a majority, he became the second youngest chief minister of Delhi. He shortly resigned as the chief minister after he couldn’t table the Jan Lokpal Bill and told that he wouldn’t contest a seat in the 2014 general elections.

However, upon a lot of persuasions, he agreed to do so but he lost badly to Narendra Modi. It was the 2015 Delhi assembly elections which saw him winning a terrific number of votes. He ended up winning 67 out of 70 seats and this proved that the people of Delhi truly believed in him.

This gave a lot of impetus to his political career and Arvind Kejriwal knew that he had responsibility on his shoulders.

He has a lot of different ideologies and did bring in changes as per his belief, logic, and ideas. Arvind Kejriwal is of the opinion that there should be decentralization of government and the Panchayat should be involved in local decisions and budget as well.

Further, he also opined that MNCs shouldn’t have a lot of power on the central government. One of the most talked about movement during Arvind Kejriwal as the chief minister has to be the odd-even rule which was implemented in Delhi.

It was mainly done to curb the growing rate of air pollution. This decision too was again met with a lot of criticism and even today, it is debatable as to how good or bad it truly was. He did bring in massive reforms but there is still that remains to be done.

Conclusion

In the field of politics, there are no rigid two sides to a story. Nothing can be segregated into right or wrong. Arvind Kejriwal is one such politician who did tons of promises and he may not have delivered all, but one cannot argue with the fact that he is like the breath of fresh air which Delhi truly needed.

Of course, a lot has changed ever since he first contested the elections. There are people who still have a profound belief in AAP and at the same time, the dissatisfaction level is high too. Only time shall tell as to what is likely to happen in the career graph of Arvind Kejriwal, will Arvind Kejriwal be re-elected as the chief minister or the decline is here to begin.