Aam Aadmi Party supremo and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has created a stir in the country’s politics by suggesting to put the picture of Lakshmi and Ganesh on the Indian currency. This has led to a new interpretation of his politics. But actually this is not a new politics, but a new bet of the politics that Kejriwal has been doing for years. Before starting politics, even when he was a social worker and agitating against corruption, he was ideologically a believer of Hindutva and the principle of nationalism promoted and established by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. He also did politics on this line. It was an illusion, which remained for a while that the Aam Aadmi Party is a post ideology party and runs on the model of governance. It has been a long time since this illusion was broken.
Recall, when the Aam Aadmi Party was contesting its second election to the Delhi Assembly in 2015, a video was leaked in which Kejriwal is saying with great contempt that four tickets are enough for Muslims. Even at that time he was doing politics according to his ideology. Where were they assuming that the Muslims would go? Congress is almost over, so Muslims will vote for AAP in their compulsion to oppose BJP, so there is no need to give them more tickets. They did not want that by giving tickets to Muslims in proportion to the population or more, they should make their image like Congress or other secular parties because those parties have been accused of anti-Muslimism. There is enough reason to believe that the video was deliberately leaked to send a message to Hindu voters that the BJP is there, AAP is their party.
After this i.e. after winning the Delhi Assembly elections in 2015, Arvind Kejriwal clarified his ideology and party line many times. When his party won in Delhi for the second time in 2020, he went to the Hanuman Mandir at Connaught Place, offered prayers, recited Hanuman Chalisa and described himself as a staunch Hanuman devotee. It can be said that it was a matter of his personal faith but later his party publicly announced the recitation of Hanuman Chalisa every Tuesday. It was not a matter of personal faith, but of the policies of the party. He announced a scheme of free pilgrimage for the elders of Delhi and recently in Gujarat he announced that if his party wins, he will make the people of Gujarat visit the Ram temple in Ayodhya free of cost. Kejriwal has also promised to bring ‘Ram Raj’ to Delhi. From the days of his movement, he used to raise slogans of Bharat Mata ki Jai carrying the tricolor and has now started patriotic curriculum in Delhi schools as well as started Yogashala. Last year, on the occasion of Diwali, Kejriwal had organized a grand Diwali Pujan. Laxmi and Ganesha were worshiped in public by putting up a pandal. This grand event was publicized for several days and its public broadcast was also done.
The difference between his new statement and the old politics is that whatever Arvind Kejriwal had been doing till now was a natural politics to attract Hindu voters. But the suggestion of putting Lakshmi and Ganesha’s picture on the rupee is a very unusual suggestion. Kejriwal has not given this suggestion on religious grounds. He has not said that India is a Hindu-majority country, whose majority population worships Lakshmi and Ganesha for wealth, so there should be a picture of them on the rupee. Even if he had said that, it would have made sense. But he has said that this will improve the condition of the Indian currency, it will stop falling and it will start strengthening against the dollar.
It is like saying that if you put a photo of Dhanvantari, Sushruta or Charak on the medicine slip or packet, then people will get well soon or if you put a photo of Lord Rama or Lord Krishna with a bow on fighter planes, then the enemy will not be able to compete with us! Karma and Purushartha are most important for every Hindu in spite of his deep faith in God, whose message is given by Lord Krishna in the Gita. Kejriwal is not talking about it. He has studied from IIT and has been a big officer of Income Tax Department, but instead of giving any financial suggestion to handle the falling situation of rupee, he suggests to put the photo of Lakshmi and Ganesh on it.
He has not made this suggestion in ignorance or by mistake, but thoughtfully and for a targeted voter group. Such a voter group, which is enraged by the suggestion to write Srihari on a doctor’s slip, which rejoices with the religious rituals of worshiping fighter jets bought from developed countries of the world and cracking coconuts and who glorify the name of Rama more than Rama. I believe and believe that just as the stones started floating in the sea after writing the name of Lord Rama, in the same way the picture of Lakshmi and Ganesha is put on the rupee, then the Indian currency will become the strongest, keeping that in mind, Kejriwal has made this statement has been made. Now they are targeting the fundamentalist and secular Hindu instead of the simple and normal Hindu and this can be a matter of great danger and concern for the BJP. After all, the BJP is also thriving on the strength of the same voter group.
This is the group which, despite the reality of economic insecurities like inflation, unemployment, poverty and strategic insecurities like China occupying India’s land, vote for BJP because it believes that BJP is strengthening the country and in the world. Raising the name of India. Kejriwal is targeting the same voter group. They feel that there is more scope in the politics of the orthodox Hindutva brand. Right now only BJP is doing politics of this brand. A big party Shiv Sena used to do this politics, so BJP has weakened it a lot. Now the challenge of Aam Aadmi Party is arising in front of BJP. This will make the politics of the country very interesting.
