Kanhaiya Kumar case approval: AAP "didn't want" to be branded anti-national for life

By Anupam Pathak*
There are daily advises for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on something or other these days from supporters, and most of them seem to be living in some political dreamland when they give these advises. On the Kanhaiya Kumar case approval, we have read the official reasons (a "purely procedural matter"). Most of it is true but there is more as per my understanding.
That the approval would be given was never in question. It will be suicidal for any political party not to provide an approval in such a high profile case. I don't know what led people to believe that approval won't be given. The right place to try such a case is in court and not by a political party and get branded as anti-national for life.
Scores of AAP MLAs have successfully fought cases by Delhi Police. Additionally AAP has never blocked cases till now. Then why did they delay it?
First,it was a bit of an ego tussle. Police had filed it after three long years without any attempt to take approval in January 2019. They sent the file barely one hour before filing it in the court. That was an insult.
It was the court which forced the police to go and get Delhi government approval. So AAP also took time, stating that if police can take so much time, we are also entitled to some time. But by May, they had already done a first level check and had found it to be a weak case.
Post that, usual government indecision may have taken some time and also they were busy in many, many projects, and this wasn't really a top priority agenda for AAP. And then elections came, and people got busy with that, and definitely didn't want a new discussion point when they were solely focussed on fighting elections on their work.

AAP took time, stating that if police can take so much time, it is also entitled to some time. Meanwhile, its first level check found it to be a weak case

Then there are these questions of Bihar election prospects of Kanhaiya. First of all, AAP is not beholden to Kanhaiya to boost his electoral prospects. He has done nothing for AAP. Secondly, there were already three reminders from court to expedite decision since September. It couldn't have been put off indefinitely. Third and most important, people who are criticising this seem to have very poor understanding of politics.
People who call Kanhaiya as anti-national will continue to do so till he is cleared by court.They are not his voters. From his core voters, he will only gain sympathy due to this. He will also emerge as a fighting hero, fighting the government for these groups.
Kanhaiya is a good orator and is travelling, but he has very little organisation. Right now, he is like Raj Thackeray who drew loads of people to his rallies during Lok Sabha but came a cropper in all subsequent elections. I remember many of the people critiquing this decision now, were hailing Raj as some great politician at that time.
Kanhaiya, to have any chance, needs to align with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), and post he does that, this case won't even matter. In fact, he can use it to his advantage by clubbing Union home minister Amit Shah and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal together in delaying the start of his case. I have a strong feeling he will say this during elections.
So chill, give activism some rest. It's a good decision for all.
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Source: Author's Facebook timeline