3 years on, Arvind Kejriwal’s ‘dharna’ politics is back with a bang!

After a self-induced break for close to three years, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has circled back to his favourite ‘dharna’ politics, with two sit-ins in the past one month.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief has been staging a protest in the office room of Lieutenant Governor (LG) Anil Baijal’s residence over a rift between IAS officials and AAP after an alleged assault on Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash.

The episode began when the chief secretary alleged that two AAP leaders had assaulted him in presence of the CM at his residence. As a result of this, IAS officers stopped cooperating with the Delhi government.

IAS Association secretary Manisha Saxena is quoted in an Economic Times report as saying, “The ministers have failed to give any assurance till date regarding safety, security, dignity and respect of officers including women officers.”

The seniormost officials of the Delhi government — deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia and cabinet ministers Satyendra Jain and Gopal Rai — went to the LG’s residence to ask for a way to persuade IAS officers and end their strike as well as punish those who haven’t worked properly for the past four months.

Kejriwal said his colleagues would remain at the LG’s residence till their demands were met. Baijal has not responded to their sit-in in any way.

After launching his party in 2012, Kejriwal became Chief Minister of Delhi in December 2013 with the help of Congress as AAP had secured only 28 seats in the elections. As soon as he took office, his cabinet launched a protest against the central government having control of Delhi police.

Kejriwal resigned from office in under 50 days and proposed elections as he couldn’t introduce the Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill, which failed to get majority in the Assembly.

When the city went for repolling, Kejriwal’s party won a whopping 67 out of 70 seats. After being sworn in as the CM that day, Kejriwal never went on a dharna.

The 3-year lull was broken last month when he embraced his ‘dharna’ politics again and sat in protest on a road near Lt Governor Baijal's house. All his MLAs were also a part of this protest.

However, this did not start out as a protest. Kejriwal, along with his MLAs, had gone to meet the Lt Governor. When the police refused to give them permission, they sat on the road, shouting slogans for over three hours.

They soon called off the protests, informing people that the LG and BJP were obstructing the AAP government’s work and disrupting installation of CCTV cameras in the city.