Secularists’ sham on Sisodia’s arrest

Ipressed NOTA in Delhirsquos municipal election in December believing the Aam Aadmi Party despite revamping the Capitalrsquos education and healthcare sectors should not get my vote for its rightwing shift The party had been mum over the release of those convicted in the Bilkis Bano rape during the 2002 Gujarat riots and for killing her family members Silence had become the AAPrsquos default mode on the Muslim issueFriends asked Why not the Congress I said the party did not seem interested in winning completely focussed on Rahul Gandhirsquos Bharat Jodo Yatra Its ideological transformation also seemed suspect muted as it too had been on the release of Banorsquos tormentors as Shashi Tharoor recently pointed out Why should Congressrsquos silence or equivocation on secularism be considered better than the AAPrsquosYet I do not share the barely concealed glee with which a large segment of the secularliberal brigade has greeted the arrest of minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia Few have written signed pieces condemning his arrest as yet another example of the Modi governmentrsquos politics of vendetta Just desserts for its ideological shift many mutterTheir feelings have been articulated by the Congressrsquos response to the arrest After a dayrsquos silence the Congress spokesperson generically condemned the misuse of the Central agencies to target Opposition leaders But Delhi state leaders were jubilant not least Ajay Maken who claimed the slush money generated through the Delhi governmentrsquos liquor policy was utilised by the AAP to enhance its national footprint at the Congressrsquos expense In other words the AAP is accused of playing the BJPrsquos gameAlso read No fruitful purpose would be served keeping me in custody Sisodia in bail pleaThis is the charge the Congress flings at other nonBJP parties emerging in the states where it still is No 1 or No 2 In Gujarat the AAP was accused of upsetting the Congressrsquos applecart even though its campaign there was barely visible No wonder then the AAP walked away with 129 per cent of votesThe Congress muffed up its prospects in Punjabmdashand then injudiciously borrowed from the BJPrsquos playbook to dub the AAP as the party of Khalistanis Reluctant to unequivocally speak in favour of Muslims the Congress panics at the sight of Asaduddin Owaisi Organisationally moribund the Congress is responsible for its shrinking basemdashand for its likely failure to milk Rahul Gandhirsquos walkathon for electoral benefitsSure the AAPrsquos mainstreaming is dismaying its silence on the minority issue perturbing yet it is a hyperbole to portray it as the horse reared by the BJP to run amok in Congress ranks Why would the Modi government since 2014 have instituted 169 cases against 49 AAP MLAs Or arrested Sisodia even though the first charge sheet signifying the end of the investigation did not name him as an accusedIt was AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal who walked into Narendra Modirsquos den before the 2014 Lok Sabha elections challenging the Gujarat model of development When most thought Modirsquos BJP could not be defeated the AAP won in 2015 67 out of 70 Assembly seats becoming a darling of the secularliberal brigadeHe challenged the Modi governmentrsquos claim of having launched a surgical attack against Pakistan attacked the demonetisation policy and the hasty implementation of the Goods and Service Tax regime And Kejriwal was among the first to condemn the first case of lynching in 2015mdashMohd Akhlaq Around that time Congress leader Digvijay Singh had tweeted saying the Congress was the first to ban cow slaughter in the 1950sThe AAPrsquos failure to win even one seat in Delhi in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections saw the party shift its ideological gear The party voted for the reading down of Article 370 kept silent on the protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 and was inert during the 2020 Delhi riots This shift in Kejriwalrsquos positioning arose from his facetious understanding that the only way to defeat the BJP was to persuade Hindutva followers that he was not proMuslim Expediency turned into conviction as the AAP won the Delhi elections in 2020mdashand then swept Punjab That said his government passed a resolution against implementing the CAA nor has he demonised MuslimsHold on the Congressrsquos manoeuvres too can send you into a tizzy Gandhi attacked the Sangh on his yatra for spreading hate but his party did not depict Maulana Abul Kalam Azad among its principal leaders during its recent plenary meet The party had welcomed the Ayodhya judgment and its leaders favoured the reading down of Article 370 Like a bornagain Hindu Gandhi embarked on a temple visiting spree before the 2017 Gujarat elections The party even projected him as a janeuwearing Shivbhakt And Kamal Nathrsquos 201920 budget in Madhya Pradesh allocated R130 crore for gaushalasGandhi has belatedly acquired ideological clarity Since his organisation is still not in fine fettle he has been speaking of Opposition unity Yet the Congress has been rejoicing at AAPrsquos plight And anyway if Sisodia can be held guilty on the caged parrotrsquos testimony then so would the Gandhis be in the National Herald casemdashand Robert Vadra in the land deal cases With hindsight my decision to press NOTA rather than vote for the Congress was correctThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper