Authour dinesh kumar
Copyright ©dinesh 2015
FACEBOOK DINESH
Twitter @rjdineshkumar
Arvind Kejriwal
Chief Minister Elect of Delhi
Taking office
14 February 2015
Succeeding President's Rule
7th Chief Minister of Delhi
In office
28 December 2013 – 14 February 2014
Preceded by Sheila Dikshit
Succeeded
by
President's Rule
Personal details
Born 16 August 1968 (age 46)
Siwani, Haryana
Nationality Indian
Political
party :Aam Aadmi Party
Spouse(s) Sunita Kejriwal
Children 2
Residence Ghaziabad , Uttar Pradesh,
India
He garnered a thumping majority in the
Delhi Legislative Assembly election, 2015
and is poised to become the Chief Minister
of Delhi for a second term.
Early life
Kejriwal was born in a middle-class family
in Siwani, Bhiwani district, Haryana on 16
August 1968, the first of the three children
of Gobind Ram Kejriwal and Gita Devi. His
father was an electrical engineer who
graduated from the Birla Institute of
Technology, Mesra , and whose work led to
many changes in the family's residence.
Kejriwal spent most of his childhood in
north Indian towns such as Sonepat ,
Ghaziabad and Hisar. He was educated at
Campus School in Hisar and at a Christian
missionary school at Sonipat .
Kejriwal graduated from the Indian Institute
of Technology in Kharagpur , majoring in
mechanical engineering. He joined Tata
Steel in 1989 and was posted in
Jamshedpur . Kejriwal resigned in 1992,
having taken leave of absence to study for
the Civil Services Examination. He spent
some time in Kolkata, at the Ramakrishna
Mission in North-East India and at Nehru
Yuva Kendra.
Early career
Kejriwal joined the IRS in 1995 after
qualifying through the Civil Services
Examination. In November 2000, he was
granted two years' paid leave to pursue
higher education on condition that upon
resuming his work he would not resign
from the Service for at least three years.
Failure to abide by that condition would
require him to repay the salary given during
the leave period. He rejoined in November
2002. According to Kejriwal, he was not
given any posting for almost a year, and
kept getting his salary without doing any
work; so, after 18 months, he applied for
leave without pay. For the next 18
months, Kejriwal was on sanctioned unpaid
leave. In February 2006, he resigned
from his position as a Joint Commissioner
of Income Tax in New Delhi. The
Government of India claimed that Kejriwal
had violated his original agreement by not
working for three years. Kejriwal said that
his 18 months of work and 18 months of
unpaid absence amounted to the stipulated
three-year period during which he could
not resign and that this was an attempt to
malign him due to his involvement with the
Indian anti-corruption movement. The
dispute ran for several years until, in 2011,
it was resolved when he paid his way out of
the Service with the help of loans from
friends. Kejriwal paid 927,787 as dues,
but stated that this should not be
considered as an admission of fault.
Anti-corruption activism
Parivartan and Kabir
Main article: Parivartan
As an IRS officer, Kejriwal was troubled by
the rampant corruption in the Income Tax
department. In December 1999, while still
in service with the Income Tax Department,
Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia and others found a
movement named Parivartan (which means
"change"), in the Sundar Nagari area of
Delhi. A month later, in January 2000,
Kejriwal took a sabbatical from work to
focus on Parivartan.
Parivartan addressed citizens' grievances
related to Public Distribution System (PDS),
public works, social welfare schemes,
income tax and electricity. It was not a
registered NGO - it ran on individual
donations, and was characterized as a jan
andolan ("people's movement") by its
members. Later, in 2005, Kejriwal and
Manish Sisodia launched Kabir, a registered
NGO named after the medieval philosopher
Kabir. Like Parivartan, Kabir was also
focused on RTI and participatory
governance. However, unlike Parivartan, it
accepted institutional donations. According
to Kejriwal, Kabir was mainly run by Sisodia.
In 2000, Parivartan filed a public interest
litigation (PIL) demanding transparency in
public dealings of the Income Tax
department, and also organized a satyagraha
outside the Chief Commissioner's office.
Kejriwal and other activists also stationed
themselves outside the electricity
department, asking visitors not to pay
bribes and offered to help them in getting
work done for free.
In 2001, the Delhi government enacted a
state-level Right To Information (RTI) Act,
which allowed the citizens to access
government records for a small fee.
Parivartan used RTI to help people get their
work done in government departments
without paying a bribe. In 2002, the group
obtained official reports on 68 public works
projects in the area, and performed a
community-led audit to expose
misappropriations worth 7 million in 64
of the projects. On 14 December 2002,
Parivartan organized a jan sunvai (public
hearing), in which the citizens held public
officials and leaders accountable for the
lack of development in their locality.
In 2003 (and again in 2008 ), Parivartan
exposed a PDS scam, in which ration shop
dealers were siphoning off subsidized
foodgrains in collusion with civic officials.
In 2004, Parivartan used RTI applications to
access communication between government
agencies and the World Bank , regarding a
project for privatization of water supply.
Kejriwal and other activists questioned the
huge expenditure on the project, and
argued that it would hike water tariffs ten-
fold, thus effectively cutting off the water
supply to the city's poor. The project was
stalled as a result of Parivartan's activism.
Another campaign by Parivartan led to a
court order that required private schools,
which had received public land at
discounted prices, to admit more than 700
poor kids without fee.
Along with other social activists like Anna
Hazare , Aruna Roy and Shekhar Singh,
Kejriwal came to be recognized as an
important contributor to the campaign for
a national-level Right to Information Act
(enacted in 2005). He resigned from his
job in February 2006, and later that year,
he was given the Ramon Magsaysay Award
for Emergent Leadership, for his
involvement with Parivartan. The award
recognized him for activating the RTI
movement at the grassroots, and
empowering New Delhi's poor citizens to
fight corruption.
By 2012, Parivartan was largely inactive.
Sundar Nagri, where the movement was
concentrated, suffered from irregular water
supply, unreliable PDS system and poorly
done public works. Calling it
"ephemeral and delusionary in nature",
Kejriwal noted that Parivartan's success was
limited, and the changes brought by it did
not last long.
Public Cause Research Foundation
In December 2006, Kejriwal established the
Public Cause Research Foundation in
December 2006, together with Manish
Sisodia and Abhinandan Sekhri. He donated
his Ramon Magsaysay Award prize money as
a seed fund . Besides the three founders,
Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi served as
the Foundation's trustees. This new
body paid the employees of Parivartan.
Kejriwal used the RTI Act in corruption
cases in many government departments
including the Income Tax Department, the
Municipal Corporation of Delhi , the Public
Distribution System and the Delhi Electricity
Board.
Jan Lokpal movement
Main article: 2011 Indian anti-corruption
movement
In 2010, Kejriwal protested against
corruption in the Commonwealth Games. He
argued that the Central Vigilance
Commission (CVC) did not have any powers
to take any action against the guilty, while
CBI was incapable of launching an unbiased
investigation against the ministers who
controlled it. He advocated appointment of
public ombudsman - Lokpal at the Centre
and Lokayuktas in states.
In 2011, Kejriwal joined several other
activists, including Anna Hazare and Kiran
Bedi , to form the India Against Corruption
(IAC) group. The IAC demanded enactment
of the Jan Lokpal Bill , which would result in
a strong ombudsman. The campaign evolved
into the 2011 Indian anti-corruption
movement. In response to the campaign,
the government's advisory body - the
National Advisory Council - drafted a Lokpal
Bill. However, the NAC's Bill was criticized
by Kejriwal and other activists on the
grounds that it did not have enough powers
to take action against the prime minister,
other corrupt officeholders and the
judiciary. The activists also criticized the
procedure for selection of Lokpal, the
transparency clauses and the proposal to
disallow the Lokpal from taking cognizance
of public grievances.
Amid continuing protests, the Government
constituted a committee to Draft a Jan
Lokpal Bill. Kejriwal was one of the civil
society representative members of this
committee. However, he alleged that the IAC
activists had an unequal position in the
committee, and the government appointees
kept ignoring their recommendations. The
Government argued that the activists could
not be allowed to blackmail the elected
representatives through protests. Kejriwal
retorted that democratically elected
representatives could not be allowed to
function like dictators, and asked for a
public debate on the contentious issues.
The IAC activists intensified their protests,
and Anna Hazare organized a hunger strike.
Kejriwal and other activists were arrested
for defying a police directive to give a
written undertaking that they will not go to
JP Park. Kejriwal attacked the government
on this and said there was a need for a
debate over police power to detain and
release people at will. In August
2011, a settlement was reached between the
Government and the activists.
Besides the government, the Jan Lokpal
movement was also criticized by some
citizens as 'undemocratic' on the grounds
that the ombudsman had powers over
elected representatives. Arundhati Roy
claimed that the movement was not a
people's movement; instead, it was funded
by foreigners to influence policy making in
India. She pointed out that the Ford
Foundation had funded the Emergent
Leadership category of the Ramon
Magsaysay Award, and also donated
$397,000 to Kejriwal's NGO Kabir. Both
Kejriwal and Ford Foundation termed the
allegations as baseless, stating that the
donations were made to support the RTI
campaigns. Besides, several other Indian
organizations had also received grants from
the Ford Foundation. Kejriwal also
denied the allegations that the movement
was a plot against the ruling Congress by
the RSS, or that it was an upper-caste
conspiracy against the Dalits .
By January 2012, the Government had
backtracked on its promise to implement a
strong Jan Lokpal, resulting in another
series of protests from Kejriwal and his
fellow activists. These protests attracted
lower participation compared to the 2011
protests. By mid-2012, Kejriwal had
replaced Anna Hazare as the face of the
remaining protestors.
Political career
Establishment of AAP
Kejriwal during the launch of AAP in
Bangalore, in July 2013
One of the major criticisms directed at the
Jan Lokpal activists was that they had no
right to dictate terms to the elected
representatives. As a result, Kejriwal and
other activists decided to enter politics and
contest elections. In November 2012,
they formally launched the Aam Aadmi
Party; Kejriwal was elected as the party's
National Convener. The party name reflects
the phrase Aam Aadmi, or "common man",
whose interests Kejriwal proposed to
represent. The establishment of AAP
caused a rift between Kejriwal and Hazare.
AAP decided to contest the Delhi Legislative
Assembly election, 2013 , with Kejriwal
contesting against the incumbent Chief
Minister Sheila Dikshit . Kejriwal became the
fifth most-mentioned Indian politician on
social media channels in the run-up to the
elections.
Chief Minister of Delhi
In the 2013 Delhi Legislative Assembly
elections for all 70 seats, the Bhartiya Janta
Party won 31 seats, followed by Aam Aadmi
Party with 28 seats. Kejriwal defeated
incumbent Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit of
the Indian National Congress in her
constituency of New Delhi by a margin
of 25,864 votes.
AAP formed a minority government in the
hung assembly , (claiming support for the
action gauged from opinion polls) with
outside support from the eight Indian
National Congress MLAs, one Janata Dal MLA
and one independent MLA. Kejriwal
was sworn in as the second-youngest chief
minister of Delhi on 28 December 2013,
after Chaudhary Brahm Prakash who
became chief minister at the age of 34. He was in charge of Delhi's Home
Ministry, Power, Planning, Finance,
Vigilance ministries. [citation needed]
Resignation
On 14 February 2014 he resigned as Chief
Minister after failing to table the Jan Lokpal
Bill in the Delhi Assembly. He recommended
the dissolution of the Assembly. Kejriwal
blamed the Indian National Congress and
the Bharatiya Janata Party for stalling the
anti-corruption legislation and linked it with
the government's decision to register a First
Information Report (FIR) against
industrialist Mukesh Ambani , chairman and
managing director of Reliance Industries .
In April 2014 he said that he had made
a mistake by resigning without listening to
the people to understand what their
expectations were of him. He attributed this
to him being a novice in politics and
promised not to resign in future in any
circumstances.
2014 National Elections
Kejriwal campaigning in Maharashtra,
during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections
Kejriwal said in January, prior to his
resignation as chief minister, that he would
not contest a seat in the 2014 Lok Sabha
elections. He claimed party members
persuaded him to change his mind, and
on 25 March, he agreed to contest against
the BJP prime ministerial candidate,
Narendra Modi, from Varanasi , but
lost the election.
2015 Delhi Assembly elections
Kejriwal led AAP to a massive victory in the
2015 Delhi Assembly elections. He won
from the New Delhi again by defeating
Nupur Sharma by 31583 votes, and is
poised to become Chief Minister again.
Personal life
In 1995, Arvind Kejriwal married Sunita, his
batchmate from National Academy of
Administration in Mussoorie and the
National Academy of Direct Taxes in Nagpur .
The couple has two children. Kejriwal is
vegetarian and has been practising the
Vipassana meditation technique for many
years. He has diabetes .
Awards and recognitions
2004: Ashoka Fellow, Civic Engagement
2005: Satyendra K. Dubey Memorial
Award, IIT Kanpur for his campaign for
bringing transparency in Governance
2006: Ramon Magsaysay Award for
Emergent Leadership
2006: CNN-IBN Indian of the Year in
Public Service
2009: Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT
Kharagpur for Eminent Leadership
2009: Awarded a grant and fellowship by
the Association for India's Development.
2010: Policy Change Agent of the Year,
Economic Times Awards along with Aruna
Roy
2011: NDTV Indian of the Year along with
Anna Hazare
2013: CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2013-
Politics
2013: Foreign Policy magazine top 100
global thinker, November 2013 [61]
2014: Kejriwal was featured in Time's
2014 Time 100 list of the most influential
people in the world. [62]
Books
Authored by Arvind Kejriwal
Swaraj . HarperCollins India. 2012.
ISBN 9350299372 .
Translated into Hindi as स्वराज ( ISBN
9788172237677)
Biographies of Arvind Kejriwal
Arvind Mohan Dwivedi; Rajneesh Roshan
(2014). Magnetic Personality : Arvind
Kejriwal . Diamond.
ISBN 978-93-5165-110-9 .
Soma Banerjee; Gautam Chikermane
(2014). The Disrupter . Rupa Publications.
ISBN 978-81-291-3384-7 .
Rashmi Bansal (2013). Into that heaven of
freedom: Arvind Kejriwal . Westland.
ISBN 978-93-83260-49-2 . (extracted from I
Have a Dream)
Authour dinesh kumar
Copyright ©dinesh 2015
FACEBOOK DINESH
Twitter @rjdineshkumar
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