Manas Dasgupta
AHMEDABAD, May 1: Following the footsteps of the prime minister Narendra Modi who sold the “Gujarat model” to the people in the country to enable the BJP to capture power at the centre, the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal is out to sell the “Delhi model” to seek an entry into Gujarat.
Pitching for a change in Gujarat where the BJP is in power for the last 27 years, including 13 years of Modi as the chief minister, Kejriwal on Sunday begging for an opportunity for his Aam Aadmi Party to convert the prime minister’s home state into Delhi with best facilities in the government schools, hospitals and other public service centres with an offer to the people of the state to “kick his party out” in the next elections if his party government failed to deliver in five years.
Addressing the first public rally in Gujarat since the AAP won a landslide victory in Punjab on the strength of the “Delhi model,” Kejriwal told a largely tribal audience in Bharuch on Sunday to give his party a chance in the coming elections to the state Assembly due in December, this year, to get the government schools in the state, now in total shambles, upgraded to modern centres of learning where the children of the rich and the poor share the same bench to fulfil the dreams of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar of equality among all citizens.
“If the BJP ruled for another five years, nothing is going to improve. Give the AAP a chance and you will see the complexion of the government schools, hospital and all other public services changed completely. If we fail to deliver, kick us out of Gujarat in the next elections,” Kejriwal said.
“For 27 years, there is a BJP government in Gujarat. They made the schools worse. Even if you give the BJP five more years, it will not do anything. Give us a chance, if the government schools of Gujarat are not fixed in five years, throw us out,” Kejriwal said. “There are 6,000 government schools in Gujarat, which have been shut. Many others are in dilapidated conditions. The future of lakhs of children has been disrupted. We can change this future. The way we changed schools in Delhi,” the Delhi Chief Minister said.
There was also a challenge thrown in for his Gujarat counterpart Bhupendra Patel to conduct an examination in Gujarat without the paper leak, he also offered Patel to visit the Delhi government schools to see for himself how these could be transformed.
Pointing out that the children of judges, officers and rickshaw drivers sit on the same bench next to each other in the government schools in the Delhi, Kejriwal said more than four lakh students enrolled themselves in the government schools discontinuing their studies in expensive private schools. “The government schools also achieve a record of 99.7% pass percentage in Delhi this time,” he claimed.
Last month, the AAP had claimed that its internal survey found that the party is likely to win around 58 seats in Gujarat in the assembly elections due later this year. The survey, AAP said, indicated that the votes are likely to come from rural areas and the lower and middle-class segments in urban areas.
Kejriwal announced an alliance with Chhotubhai Vasava’s Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) and urged the people of Gujarat to “break the arrogance of the BJP” by voting the AAP into power. The BTP supremo Chhotubhai along with his son and BTP president Mahesh Vasava, who is also an MLA from Dediapada, were present on the dais along with the state AAP leaders. The BTP so far was in alliance with the Congress but in the last elections to the local self-government bodies held earlier this year, the BTP had joined hands with the AIMIM.
“I have heard speculations that Gujarat elections will happen early because they (BJP) are scared of the AAP… We have formed two governments in Delhi and one recently in Punjab, and now it is the turn of Gujarat… They (BJP) feel that if they give us time till December, Gujarat will turn towards AAP. But I am telling you I am a fakkad (poor happy person), I only have the hand of God and the support of the people… You (BJP) can conduct elections now or six months later, I will defeat you,” Kejriwal asserted.
Claiming that the BJP had become “arrogant” after being consistently in power in the state, Kejriwal said he had met a BJP leader from Gujarat in a flight whom he had asked why was the party ignoring Gujarat. His response was, “Why do we need to work, people are giving us the votes anyway. He told me that the Congress leaders here are in the pocket of the BJP and they (BJP) don’t even need to fight elections… I realised, they are filled with so much arrogance, so much pride. I want to tell you all Gujarat voters to break their arrogance just once. Give us just one chance only to break their arrogance and you can throw us out the next time…,” the AAP chief said.
Kejriwal also emphasised that he wanted to forge “bonds of the heart” with the people of Gujarat. “People in Delhi love me a lot… Today, I have come here to ask for love from the people of Gujarat. I have heard that the people of Gujarat are emotional and think through their hearts… If they (Gujaratis) love someone, they love them for their entire life. Kejriwal is also a person who works from the heart, is very emotional and loves for a lifetime. I have come here to forge a relationship of hearts. I don’t know how to steal, forge, indulge in corruption… because I am an educated person, who can only work,” he said.
Citing examples from Delhi’s citizen service system, Kejriwal said the people of Delhi no longer need to visit government offices even for “the smallest of works” but government officers visit their doorstep to attend to the requests of citizens. Promising that Gujarat would have the same AAP-model of governance, Kejriwal said, “If you want dirty politics, corruption, and gundagardi (hooliganism), then please vote for the BJP. But I am an educated person… The BJP did all that they could do to press me down… They conducted inquiries against me through the CBI, ED, IT but they could not find anything. That is because I am a kattar imaandar (absolutely honest) and kattar desh bhakt… Today, I am here before you and lashing out at them because they were not able to find a pin against me… AAP is a party of such educated people.”