Sheesh Mahal 2.0? Luxury is Windfall Gains of Politics
Sheesh Mahal 2.0 as alleged by BJP for bungalow of Arvind Kejriwal in Chandigarh. (Image Swati Maliwal on X)
Amid the lush foliage of ornamental trees, Kejriwal can breathe deeply and with conviction — asserting his detachment from the “hypocrites.”
By MANISH ANAND
New Delhi, November 1 — Luxury is sinful for taxmen. Else, aims for luxury drive people to sweat and burn. If the President of India can reside in a palace and the Prime Minister in a sprawling bungalow, it is hardly surprising that lesser mortals of the political profession — like Arvind Kejriwal — might also aspire to claim their own slice of the luxury pie.
Kejriwal’s former protégé turned critic, Swati Maliwal, released a drone-shot image of a sprawling Chandigarh bungalow allegedly granted to him through the largesse of Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has dubbed the “exposé” “Sheesh Mahal 2.0.”
The leaked reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India with a few days left for Delhi Assembly elections this year had given a graphic account of “Sheesh Mahal 1.0.” Luxury was shined with Aam Aadmi sweats. The people in Delhi were stunned. They seemed to have wanted Kejriwal, then Chief Minister of Delhi, to stay in a modest bungalow. Brooms were swept away from the streets of Delhi and dumped in frothy Yamuna. The BJP planted Rekha Gupta as the face of the city government. Reports sporadically come of Gupta also staying in an expansive bungalow while the next leaked CAG report may only reveal the scale of luxury.
Late Sushil Kumar Modi lived in a modest two-bed room flat in Patna even when he was deputy Chief Minister of Bihar. In evenings, he went to buy vegetables in a local neighbourhood market with his spouse. Late Manohar Parrikar, former Chief Minister of Goa, also shunned luxury and even regularly slipped security details to buy pan from a street vendor. Jairam Ramesh, former Union Minister for Rural Development, would often walk down to his residence from Krishi Bhavan.
But followers of late Ram Vilas Paswan took pride in the fact that the bungalow of their leader shared a boundary wall with the most powerful address in the country of those days — the 10 Janpath. Paswan’s drawing room, at least, was quite modest — poorly lighted, paling paints, and sofas harking back to 1990s.
After sweating out months in campaigns during the Lok Sabha elections, the victorious few, with a few terms to grant them seniority, avail expansive bungalows in New Delhi. Some of them claim that they “restrained the CPWD” to spend just about ₹36 lakh for improvement in the bungalows. For others, the works go on for months, and aides of such bungalow men claim that “MP saheb spent all expenses from his pocket.”
Kejriwal had walked from Delhi’s jhuggis — where he had finessed his political lab of training marginal people with RTI movement in the PDS (Public Distribution System) — to the throne of the national capital. He suffered from bronchial bruises as he coughed all times. Years later the whole of Delhi gained bronchial bruises as kids, youth, and elders all co He once suffered from bronchial bruises, coughing incessantly. Years later, all of Delhi seems to share his fate — children, youth, and elders alike now cough through their days.
The people with means now escape Delhi’s gas chamber. Kejriwal appears blessed with greater means to escape Delhi.
Chandigarh is a dream retirement haven for babus and faujis alike. Amid the lush foliage of ornamental trees, Kejriwal can breathe deeply and with conviction — asserting his detachment from the “hypocrites” and perhaps laughing at the naïve expectations of Delhiites who still believe politicians will solve their problems.
(This is an opinion piece, and views expressed are those of the author only)
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