THERE ARE STRIKING resemblances between the political careers of Arvind Kejriwal and Adolf Hitler.
At a time when there were established political parties and well known politicians in both countries, how could these two unknown men create a space for themselves and enter the political arena?
Kejriwal was an unknown officer in the Income Tax Department, while Hitler was an unknown corporal in the German army.
How then does one explain their rise in politics, Hitler becoming the Fuhrer of Germany, and Kejriwal becoming the Chief Minister of Delhi, as well as the defacto Chief Minister of Punjab? How? This is an interesting question to analyse.
Both men were products of crises, without which they could never have been able to succeed in politics.
Hitler came to power by understanding and turning to his advantage the deep feeling of hurt to national pride of the German people, who were subjected to humiliation by the terms of the Versailles Treaty after World War I, as well as the world economic depression after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 which hurt Germans the hardest, throwing millions out of employment and resulting in soaring inflation. He also made Jews the scapegoat of all ills of Gemany.
Kejriwal is the product of massive corruption in India at almost every level, which disgusted the Indian people, and which resulted in the agitation against corruption in 2011 by Anna Hazare, on whose piggy back Kejriwal came to power, promising corruption free politics.
Both Hitler and Kejriwal created political parties from almost scratch, the National Socialist German Workers Party (in brief, the NSDAP or Nazi Party) in Germany, and the Aam Admi Party in India.
But having assumed leadership they ruthlessly crushed any opposition to that leadership. In the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 Hitler got his opponents like Ernst Roehm murdered, while Kejriwal got Shanti Bhushan, Prashan Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, etc ignominiously expelled from AAP in 2015
Thereafter both men kept a tight control over their parties, and nothing important could be done without their order or consent.
Hitler’s career after coming to power is well documented, so we need not dwell on it. He started a massive rearmament program and greatly expanded German armed forces, which wiped out unemployment (thus making Germans temporarily happy) but which inevitably led to World War II and the Holocaust.
As regards Kejriwal, he quickly realised after coming to power that though talking against corruption is all very well to please the masses and get their votes, but politics in India requires a lot of money, as that was needed to run a big organisation, and for fighting elections (it is estimated that candidates contesting elections for Parliament often have to spend over Rs 10 crore i.e.100 million each, and candidates for state legislatures also need a huge amount of money).
This money can only come from corruption. After all, businessmen, who are the major donors to political parties in India, require a quid pro quo.
This realisation quickly transformed Kejriwal, and he became a master of Machiavellian ‘realpolitik’.
Scam followed scam during his rule as CM of Delhi, with many Delhi Ministers and MLAs arrested or sacked, but every time Kejriwal managed to escape scot free, by pleading that all these misdeeds were committed by his associates, while he himself was ‘doodh ka dhula’ (innocent), and knew nothing about these scandals..
Now, after a long time, his karma has finally caught up with this artful dodger, this modern Natwar Lal of Indian politics. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on March 21 in connection with a massive liquor scam, and is now in Tihar jail in Delhi, and is in for the long haul.
Since Kejriwal was the absolute dictator in AAP, like Hitler in Germany, and nothing moved without his knowledge and permission, I dont see how he can plead that he knew nothing about the liquor scam and was not the kingpin and mastermind behind it.
Also Read: Can Kejriwal continue as Chief Minister while in jail?
It is like Hitler saying he knew nothing about the Holocaust in which 6 million Jews perished.
Both these men sought power at any cost, but both have met their Waterloo.
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