Arvind Kejriwal's propensity to negate greys and see everything in stark black or white

By Vistasp Hodiwala*
People who we thought should have known better have failed us. There is no other way to put this. Nothing has been so bloody disillusioning in a long, long time. My insides are churning as I write this with a sense of disquiet and disillusionment. From the time this mid-spring madness has been unleashed upon us, there is just one question which has bothered me the most: Arvind Kejriwal's absolute refusal to say a word on this episode.
Even accounting for the fact that he is hurt, his steadfast refusal to be drawn into this doesn't make sense any longer. Especially in the light of recent developments. Is that hurt going to extend all the way to seeing them off? Is that hurt bigger than the dreams and values of the party's founding principles? Can he not be the large-hearted man we have felt he always was, by coming out and finally putting a stop to these inanities? Or is the writing already on the wall and he is merely trying to keep his hands in the clear by posturing that this is just a party decision?
Even accounting for the fact that Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan may have misrepresented him in closed door meetings or with journalists, is the show of magnanimity too much to ask for from the party's tallest leader? To sit like a sphinx and not say a word amidst a whirlpool of allegations and counter-allegations is what we have credited Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi with.
How is this any different in terms of a response? It's indeed a herculean task for genuine supporters of the Aam Aadmi Party to not take a stand or sides in this crisis... and this is because of the paradox of lack of information or too much information.
At least Yadav and Bhushan have spoken a few things which make sense, made the right noises even after this debacle and shown a mood for conciliation, but I don't see a shred of that spirit of give and take from the other side and I don't mean the Sisodias and Kumar Vishwases. Aam Admi Party (AAP) lit the flame of hope in all of us because of the men we believe Arvind Kejriwal, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan truly are.
But one lead character is missing from the picture at the moment. All this needs is a grand gesture from Arvind Kejriwal himself. But he won't oblige, is it? And my hopes are receding with every passing day.
I also think it is too easy to make these distinctions that all the propriety rests with Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, and all Arvind Kejriwal wants to do is win the elections. If one episode can make us think like that about Arvind Kejriwal, then we have a bigger problem in the thinking that inspired us to believe in him in the first place.
This propensity to negate all the greys and see everything in stark black or white from the respective supporters has made the situation on the ground even more tougher for the average supporter who is neither close to all of them nor is blinded by their halos but just believed in the base motivation of why we needed an AAP like party to raise the level of our national polity in the first place.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog