It is a given that large sections of the media will necessarily highlight whatever the AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and his party do, such being the power of the taxpayers’ rupees lavished on publicity by the governments in Delhi and Punjab. So, we now learn that the Great Leader has moved into a big Lutyen’s bungalow, vacating the government mansion which he had virtually built anew as chief minister of Delhi. If the house in old Delhi’s leafy Civil Lines which he left behind had gained notoriety, and had come to be dubbed as “Sheesh Mahal” because of nearly Rs 50 crore Kejriwal spent on it, his new abode too has had a massive upgrade, thanks this time to the largesse of its wealthy allottee, Ashok Mittal. The AAP member of the Rajya Sabha is well known in Punjab for the family-run mithai shop, which it had parlayed into setting up a private university with large tracts of land along the old G T Road. No surprises then that the wily Kejriwal should bestow the membership of the Rajya Sabha on this new-found “educationist”. But we are on Kejriwal’s love for grand houses. Having repeatedly eschewed staying in large bungalows so long he was an Anna Hazare anti-corruption crusaders, at least to hoodwink the people he could have occupied his own spacious flat from where he had launched the AAP “revolution” till after the conclusion of the next Assembly polls in Delhi. But clearly a stint in power has spoilt him so very thoroughly that he no longer can live like an aam aadmi. Small wonder, then, AAP is now a spent force, like several other power-hungry outfits.
