Full disclosure: Akshay Marathe is National Joint Secretary of the Aam Aadmi Party. He was in-charge of Digital Media communications for the party’s Goa election campaign. He currently works with the Delhi Government on education policy.

Vinod Dua’s show Jan Gan Man Ki Baat has been wonderfully presenting hard-hitting, socio-political commentary on contemporary issues of public importance. The show’s loyal audience relies on it for a lowdown on current affairs. In the 200th episode of his show posted on The Wire’s YouTube channel on Thursday night, Dua’s analysis exposed a deep-rooted class prejudice, most of all in him.

While discussing the alleged assault on Anshu Prakash, Chief Secretary to the Delhi government, by two Members of Legislative Assembly of the Aam Aadmi Party, Dua dwells on why the AAP government has always had a difficult time maintaining peace with officers. He criticises the BJP, the AAP as well as certain bureaucrats involved in this ugly tussle for supremacy. However, towards the end of the show, Dua lets slip why he believes the AAP is faltering. He reminisces the glorious time of Commonwealth Games under former Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit.  

Dua narrates the history of the Delhi government, listing out names of former Chief Ministers before Arvind Kejriwal. He says: “Madan Lal Khurana, Sahib Singh Verma, Sushma Swaraj and Sheila Dikshit, these were all decent people. They were all my neighbours since I live close to the seat of the Delhi government [Civil Lines]…”

“Samasya yeh hain, humara jo political sansadhan hai, human resource hai, unme se bahut se aise log hain, jinme, bawajud unke padhai-likhai ke, agar ho toh…jin mohallon mein, jin galiyon mein paida huye hai, vahaan ka chhichhorapan nikal hi ata hai, chahe woh zubaan ka istemaal ho, chahe wo haathon ka istemaal ho,” he says. This roughly translates to: “The difference between then and now, is that the current political dispensation, despite their education, are true to the uncouth character of the gali-mohalla they were born into — in terms of how they choose their words and their actions.” This was said in the context of Kejriwal and his MLAs.

After hearing these words, it took me a few minutes to grasp the full import of what was being said. The classist and casteist undertones in his characterisation of the Aam Aadmi Party is unmissable. It is one thing to criticise a party and its leader for being confrontationist, foul-mouthed or even stubborn. But to attribute the language and actions of individuals to their birth, class and social standing is shockingly crude coming from a seemingly progressive platform like The Wire. This mindset is emblematic of why our society remains the flag-bearer of medieval feudalism.

Dua does not stop at calling Kejriwal and his MLAs uncouth. He goes on to say, “Those who have lived in Delhi for at least 7-8 years will remember how Delhi was shining around the time of the Commonwealth Games, and look what has happened to the same city today.” What Dua is referring to is not the shine of the newly-purchased timekeepers installed for the Games (purchased at an inflated cost). What he is actually talking about is the systematic sanitisation of the city done by the government of the day under the garb of presenting a “world-class” Delhi for guests of the Commonwealth. Perhaps Dua needs to refresh his memory.

The findings of a study conducted by the Human and Land Rights Network (HLRN) published in The Hindu on October 13, 2010 said 2,50,000 people were left homeless owing to forced evictions and demolitions for “constructing stadiums, building parking lots, widening roads, city ‘beautification,’ and clearing of streets on grounds of ‘security’.” The report adds, “many of these evictions were carried out in extreme weather or at night, like the one at Bengali Camp in January 2009 during the winter festival, Lohri. Several children were forced to drop out of school or lose a year because the demolitions happened immediately before or during examination time.”

The whitewash of the CWG scam is being attempted because for him, the travel from Civil Lines to Mandi House on the Ring Road along the Yamuna no longer involved the sight of the homes of Delhi’s poor. The cost of making this city his chamakti hui Dilli was borne by those from Delhi’s galis and mohallas outside Civil Lines.

The disdain for the poor felt by many among the old elite of the city was what sparked the rise of Arvind Kejriwal and AAP. It was an expression of defiance that unseated Sheila Dikshit. The disenfranchised, discarded and marginalised residents of Delhi voted to punish the perpetrators of the violence that was being committed against them.

An article in yesterday’s The Hindu titled, “Voters remain unaffected by arrest of AAP MLAs”, points out what many voters from the same class of people who endured the violence of the previous regimes, are saying about the Kejriwal government, “Now we all have piped supply of free water. It all happened with the coming of [Chief Minister] Arvind Kejriwal. He has been like a saviour to us.”

None of this is a defence of the alleged assault. A fair investigation into the matter is necessary and those found guilty must be punished. But it is important for all of us to be aware of the prejudice and bias with which we look at the world around us. The day after the alleged assault took place, a mob of Delhi government officials were caught on camera assaulting Delhi’s Environment Minister Imran Hussain. There is footage of Hussain’s aide, Himanshu, being beaten up mercilessly in the lobby of the Secretariat, even as Delhi Police personnel looked on. Hussain and Himanshu are, like Kejriwal, “uncouth” and sadak chhap. They do not enjoy the access to justice that is available to Anshu Prakash. This is because despite being elected to power, Hussain’s government does not control the state’s law enforcement agency.

The complaint of a Chief Secretary is perceived by some sections of the media and the elite to be far more credible than that of the Minister, despite the fact that the crime against Hussain was witnessed by a few hundred people. Delhi’s aam aadmi will identify with this completely. The apathetic Delhi Police is purely an instrument of oppression and is now an arm of political vendetta used by the Central government.

There is no doubt that politics is playing an important role in the current crisis but an unmistakable influence of classism is guiding how different sections of society are perceiving the incident. A small minority of the elite appears to be feeling threatened, not by the assault itself, but the fact that the previous political establishment from their own neighbourhood has been replaced by the sadak chhap Kejriwal.