As a Bihari who moved to Delhi, I have had the chance to see Lalu Yadav at his evil best and Arvind Kejriwal while he works his magic as a master chameleon. While Lalu was quintessential 90’s villain, Kejriwal is more suave. He would rip your heart out mercilessly and you would watch laughing because he was a master manipulator of human emotions. I remember a time when I was in class 6th and Lalu had to resign. Only to make his wife Rabri Devi the chief Minister of Bihar. Kids in the class used to make fun of her as she didn’t even know how to sign her name. As kids, we used to somehow think that a CM should be literate. How wrong were we! Before every election, private vehicles were seized for ‘election duty’. I was left stranded at Dakbangla chowraha as our Mahindra Commander was commandeered by some goons for election duty. I had thought this is something that must be a norm in every state of India. That commander was duly returned but after it had been used mercilessly for rallies, its bonnet and entire body had a million dents because apparently people had to travel in and on the vehicle.
Then I came to Delhi. After spending a few years, as fate would have it, I was living under a modernized form of Lalu Yadav. Don’t jump to conclusions, I was a supporter of Arvind Kejriwal. Heck, I even fasted with him in solidarity. But then a metamorphosis happened. He became a politician. Still not bad. Then came many other transformations. Between an IAS officer, revolutionary, politician and a second time CM, somewhere in there Kejriwal lost my trust. Now, he doesn’t fail to amuse me. These days he is busy spending my tax money on advertisements and indulging in legalized form of corruption. Parliamentary secretaries crop out of thin air and MLAs are given posts for no rhyme or reason.
Ashish Khaitan is given a Bungalow, car, and salary while Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav of the party are undemocratically and literally thrown out. Now the Delhi CM can be seen rallying with anybody who he thinks can help him oppose Modi. I have not seen enough of Kejriwal and he certainly has not done scams as big as Lalu had. But I have seen the time when my friends were being kidnaped in Bihar. I have been slapped because I returned home 10 minutes past 7. Not because my parents were strict but because they were genuinely scared. Bihar lost an entire generation because of Lalu’s jungle Raj. Any man who can campaign in support of the man who made my home state a living hell does not deserve my respect.
-A Bihari
