High moral ground, low admin care

The higher moral ground is a relative topographical feature in politics. It depends on where those looking on are situated. With taking the higher moral ground paradoxically becoming commonplace in the airing of a position, and rare in the doing of it, Arvind Kejriwal‘s announcement of stepping down from chief ministership by today – on Sunday, he told AAP workers that he would resign in ‘two days’ – is a low-risk gamble. At worst, voters in the upcoming Delhi elections will see through it, add their perception of ‘nautanki’ to anti-incumbency and see through his latest ‘Planet of the AAP’ move. At best, the voters will see Kejriwal’s ‘I won’t sit on the CM’s chair unless people give me a certificate of honesty’ cri de guerre at face value. Either way, playing Righteous With a Cause is a move that can’t earn him more political liability than he may have already garnered.

So, the question is, which cynical choice will voters opt for? The fact that Delhi’s woes are placed at one of two doors – state government or national government – according to the voter’s party/personality predilection is well known. Both administrations understandably like taking credit for the good things of the Capital, and pass the buck when it comes to travails. Clearing this smog of accountability and responsibility would go a long way to make Delhi state be administered better.

The fact that politics overwhelms governance – and, within politics, gesture politics overwhelms policy politics – allows the likes of an incumbent CM stepping down, as if from a Jantar Mantar dais, to be ‘normalised’. This is not good for Delhi, this is not good for politics. Whichever way Kejriwal’s ‘high moral grounding’ is seen by citizens (read: voters) in the days to come.