Arvind Kejriwal, the undisputed leader of the Aam Aadmi Party, was in Goa on Sunday to launch the party’s campaign for the 2017 elections. And he launched it by attacking the BJP and Manohar Parrikar, in particular. And in doing so, he seems to have stolen the thunder from the Congress which rarely raises its voice against the government. Kejriwal pointed to many U-turns made by the BJP since 2012 and several scams, real and imaginary. There is certainly a whiff of a scam in the beach cleaning tender, but an ESG scam and a garbage scam seem more like inventions, than real issues. Kejriwal seems to be indulging in the same rhetoric as the BJP at the Centre which promised to bring back all the black money, but failed so far because no one really wanted to talk about the limitations of such a promise, or how unreal it was. One thing is clear, AAP has identified its enemy and it is the Congress which needs to worry more than the BJP because it is still battling enemies within the party. After winning 67 of the 70 seats in Delhi, no political party can afford to take AAP lightly but the challenge for party leaders in Goa is to continue with the campaign and this seems to be AAP’s Achilles heel. It does not have a leader with spunk to take on the big players.
