Congress sceptical of Kejriwal protest

<strong>New Delhi</strong>: The Congress on Friday stuck to its position that Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was working in tandem with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and that the ongoing tussle between Delhi and the Centre was a " <em>tamasha</em>" jointly orchestrated to divert public attention from real issues. This is in tune with the assessment of a section of senior leaders that the AAP was born out of a larger RSS plan to destabilise the Congress. But many other Opposition parties don't share the Congress's view. Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee, Chandrababu Naidu, Sitaram Yechury, Pinarayi Vijayan, Tejashwi Yadav, Yashwant Sinha and Hemant Soren have extended their support to Kejriwal's struggle for the rights of an elected government. Asked about the objective of uniting parties against the BJP, Congress leader Ajay Maken said at a press conference on Friday: "We have already made it clear that there is no question of any alliance with the AAP and I have given two very strong reasons for that. One, they are getting increasingly unpopular by the day because of their non-performance. Two, we have seen how the AAP, with the help of RSS, created an anti-Congress ambience that helped Narendra Modi grab power." Maken recalled the Anna Hazare movement and its protagonists - Kiran Bedi, Ramdev, Gen. V.K. Singh - it to buttress his charge. While leaders like Digvijaya Singh have described the AAP as an RSS tool since the very beginning, the majority of current AICC office-bearers see Kejriwal with suspicion, firmly rejecting the idea of his inclusion in the Opposition camp. Maken said: "Even the current tussle is doubtless a careful strategy by the BJP and the AAP to divert attention from their failures. This <em>tamasha</em> of dharna and counter-dharna is being enacted in the comforts of air-conditioned rooms while the people of Delhi are suffering because of the failures and betrayal by both the governments. Any discourse delinked from petrol prices, joblessness, water crisis, law & order suits both. The plot was scripted when the chief secretary was called at midnight to be beaten up." Apart from the suspicion about Kejriwal's axis with the RSS, realpolitik is driving the Congress to resist the pressure from other parties to embrace AAP. There are several parties currently in the Opposition camp which had open alliance with the BJP and the Congress didn't have any problem with them. Even current BJP allies like Nitish Kumar, Ram Vilas Paswan and Upendra Kushwaha in Bihar may get space in the Opposition grouping if they wish to cross over. But that's not the case with the AAP because the Congress believes Kejriwal won over its support base of Dalits and Muslims in Delhi and tried the same in Punjab. The Congress thinks the AAP is in decline and any alliance with them at this stage will be akin to giving oxygen to a decaying force. The Congress is already marginalised in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and does not want to accept that position in Delhi. Over 90 per cent of Delhi leaders, not Maken alone, are willing to battle it out with the AAP instead of shaking hands with them.

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