I was under the impression that Arvind Kejriwal was the smartest out of the not-so-smart anti-Modi opposition gang, who was successful in setting up a challenging narrative for the BJP in Delhi and Punjab. He was smart enough to stop personal attacks for some time on Narendra Modi. I thought he realized that it is never going to work with the people of India and Modi was smarter in using Kejriwal’s jibes to his advantage. Looks like now his frustration and helplessness has made Kejriwal start his personal attacks on Modi once again.
Kejriwal attack on Modi calling him unpadh (illiterate) and filing an RTI to know Modi’s educational qualifications recently blew back on his face. Gujarat High Court has rapped him and has fined him ₹25000. I can understand why Kejriwal had to resort to this. His two big ministers are in jail on corruption charges. He tried putting a brave face in front of public even daring the government to arrest Manish Sisodia. When it actually happened, he looked really weak to put in mildly and had to do something against Modi. When the Gujarat high court showed him his place saying disclosure of PM Modi’s post graduate degree could not be considered as a matter of public interest, Kejriwal hurriedly tweeted to get some public sympathy but I am not sure how many could relate to it. When you run out of ideas against your opponent who is winning every time, your actions tend to be illogical. That is what is happening with Kejriwal too.
Questioning the academic qualification of a leader like Modi, who has become a world icon today and is revered by crores of Indians and who is respected by several other intelligent world leaders, was the dumbest move I could imagine. How does it matter to Indians if he has got a degree or not? Who cares if Rahul Gandhi has studied in Harvard or Cambridge or wherever? The stature of Modi today vis-a-vis RaGA and vis-à-vis IIT passout Kejriwal proves that in politics only your skills matter and not bookish education. Modi’s mother who recently passed away at the age of 100, taught Modi more life lessons than what RaGa and Kejriwal could have got which is ten times more relevant in politics than a Harvard or IIT cerficate. In that sense, Modi is too over qualified compared to an Arvind Kejriwal.
If educational qualification would have been the yardstick, why couldn’t Arvind Kejriwal win more states than just a couple in the 11 years of AAP being around? Why is he not able to think beyond just giving freebies to the public during elections? His Mohalla clinic and education strategies still are being questioned whereas Modi’s Jan Dhan Yojana and Insurance schemes are unquestionable hits. One of India’s greatest political leaders. Shri. Kamaraj, who didn’t have any great schooling in his childhood and didn’t get lofty degrees, was the first leader to come up with the brilliant idea of mid-day meal scheme for school children which continues even today. This comes from pure wisdom and doesn’t emanate automatically from academic degrees. I remember Smriti Irani also was questioned on her academic qualifications but I am not sure how many so-called highly qualified political leaders in the opposition today can dare to have a political debate with her. The fact that this lady defeated a mantri in the elections who has a degree from a very prestigious foreign university and the fact that she has proved herself to be significantly smarter speaks volumes about the irrelevance of bookish academic educational qualifications as a yardstick for doing well in Indian politics.
The success of Kejriwal’s strategy backed by strong academic qualification in Punjab is for all to see. Arvind Kejriwal should take a step back and learn quickly from this mistake. He should again stop personally attacking Modi and concentrate on coming up with better innovative schemes for public good rather than using the same old freebie model and put his top class academic education to productive use. I rest my case with my own quote to remind myself: “Illiterate truthful wisdom is much better than educated cunning stupidity”.
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