People of Delhi know AAP is fighting for them: Atishi to HT

Delhi chief minister Atishi is confident that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will return to power in the Capital. In an interview, she spoke of her attempt to bring governance back on track after Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest last year, her learnings as a CM in the last four months, and the state government vs LG standoff. Edited excerpts:

The AAP has been in power for 10 years. Isn’t it facing anti-incumbency in Delhi?

Ten years is definitely a long time, but there is a very large section of people in society whose lives have been fundamentally transformed by the AAP government in Delhi.

To understand the popularity of Arvind Kejriwal and the AAP, you have to understand how deeply divided Delhi has always been. There are parts of Delhi that have always had decent facilities, but that was not the case for people in unauthorised colonies and JJ clusters. Earlier, the government budget was not spent on these areas.

DDA has been a complete failure. There is no planned housing, no low-cost housing available for migrants who come to Delhi. Since Delhi is the national capital and a metropolitan city, there is bound to be migration, and that migration has increased in the last few decades. But there has been no housing, no planning whatsoever. So, a lot of migrants stay in JJ clusters or unauthorised colonies. Neither had proper water supply or sewerage systems or roads. A large number of people in Delhi were living in hell. It was DDA’s job to create these colonies, provide proper water supply, build roads and drains, but that work in the last 10 years has been done by the Kejriwal government.

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A decade ago, a woman from a slum would spend a good part of her day waiting for a water tanker. Now, she has water coming in a pipeline at her doorstep. This is not something she is going to forget in two years or five years or 10 years. Think of a lower middle-class family who didn’t have money to send all their children to private schools. They have seen the transformation. There was a time Delhi had “tent wala schools” (school in a tent). Recently, I asked a Class 8 student which school he goes to, and he said, “building wala school,” and then he said, “now all schools have buildings”.

This is not one section of society; this is 75% of Delhi. Delhi gets 24x7 electricity supply. Everybody has friends and relatives in Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad or expensive apartments in Gurugram. Everybody knows that Delhi is the only state where you get 24x7 power supply. Even the lived experience of people coming from the upper sections of society is better now.

Another thing that makes AAP MLAs different from others is their availability, and this even the upper section of society appreciates.

Then why have you changed so many incumbent MLAs?

One of the biggest reasons why some MLAs have been changed is because they didn’t make themselves available in their constituency, or didn’t have any ground connect. Overall, there is no anti-incumbency against the party. People do appreciate our work. If there is any anti-incumbency, it is specifically against some candidates.

You were a first-time MLA who was made chief minister four months ago in the middle of a lot of turbulence. What challenges did you face?

The six months before these four months were far more challenging. We all know Arvind Kejriwal was arrested to stop the work that the Delhi government was doing. It’s a fact that work did come to a standstill at that time, and a lot of things like road repair and maintenance, and water supply got deeply impacted at that time. In the last four months, what we have been able to do is bring governance back on track.

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For instance, we got roads repaired on a war footing... Not 100% because winter arrived, and Grap (measures against pollution) was invoked. But in the one month up to Diwali, all 1,400km of PWD roads across Delhi got repaired. The other problem in Delhi was that pensions were stopped for months but we were able to get them restarted. Water and sewage had become really big issues too, but things have improved considerably in the last few months.

Since the AAP was formed, we have seen turbulent times, especially the last two years when one after the other, our leaders were being arrested. I became a minister at one of our most turbulent junctures, right after (then deputy CM) Manish Sisodia’s arrest and it was during that time that we knew that Kejriwal would also be arrested sooner or later.

My main learning has been that the feedback we get from the ground is the real litmus test of whether your governance is working or not. When you are sitting in the Secretariat and taking reviews, everything is hunky dory. If you want to do good governance, you have to step outside of your office, you have to speak to the people of Delhi, and you have to go see how work is progressing. This is the only way to find out if the decisions you are taking while sitting in the CM’s office are actually reaching the ground or not.

Do you think the arrest of the top AAP leaders made the election harder to fight for the party?

No election is ever easy because the amount of money power and the muscle power that the BJP puts into any election is incredible. That always has to be combated, along with WhatsApp university through which they spread disinformation at a fast pace.

I think that the way our leaders were arrested has created sympathy for us. People can see that Kejriwal and the AAP are fighting for the people of Delhi, and they can also see that the CBI and ED raids have found nothing. No property papers or cash has been found with any AAP leader.

The AAP, the BJP and the Congress have all announced welfare schemes one after the other. Is this election being fought on welfare schemes?

The BJP can offer what they want, but the people of Delhi are not fools. The BJP has governments in 20 states, so people will ask them questions – do they provide 24x7 electricity in any state? Are government schools out-performing private schools in any state? Are mohalla clinics giving 100% free treatment? The wonderful thing about Delhi is that there are people from all parts of the country, so it doesn’t take much effort for people to find out the reality of BJP-ruled states.

The BJP claims that even after the AAP wins the elections, Kejriwal can’t become the CM due to conditions put by the Supreme Court.

The AAP has always run its government in the last 10 years under some condition or the other imposed on it. We came to power in Delhi in February 2015. In May 2015, MHA issued a notification illegally taking away all powers of the Delhi government. We fought that for eight years in court and were proved right. Within eight days, they got an ordinance that again took away all our powers. Despite all these conditions, the AAP and Kejriwal have run a successful pro-people government. So, having conditions imposed upon is not new.

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Legally it’s very clear that anyone who can contest elections is eligible to become the CM. So, the legality of this is absolutely clear.

In the last two years especially, the gridlock between state government and the LG’s office has impacted the city, the services and the people. If the AAP returns to power, how will the issues get resolved?

What we want is to work together. We have never initiated any conflict. But the GNCTD amendment ordinance is a perfect example of that. The SC declared that the elected government has power. Why did the Centre feel the need to bring in an ordinance eight days later and snatch the power of the government? So, we are not initiating the conflict, it’s the Centre which is doing that. We are ready to work with the central government. As soon as I became the CM, I went and met the PM, and I have been going regularly to meet the LG. Kejriwal also, when he was the CM, routinely met the LG once a week. We would want to work together with the Centre.

The BJP’S Ramesh Bidhuri, your opponent in Kalkaji, has commented on your parents, your background, and made remarks against you. What impact has that had in your constituency?

People are very clear they don’t want this kind of politics. I believe that a lot of people who are traditionally BJP voters will also vote against Ramesh Bidhuri because of the kind of abusive, sexist language he has been using. It’s being discussed a lot in Kalkaji – in one meeting, a woman asked others if they will let such a man enter their homes, and everyone said no. The sentiment is that if you can abuse the sitting CM like that, how will you behave with the ordinary women of the constituency? It doesn’t matter what the BJP says, what matters is what people think. People of this city are interested in the work we do. They are not interested in what BJP says about my parents.

If the AAP comes to power, what role would you play?

First, let us win the elections.

The BJP calls you “temporary CM.” Has this undermined your authority?

The BJP should first tell us if it’s possible in their party that an ordinary volunteer who joined in 2013, who comes from no political background or wealth or vote bank, can in 2024 become the CM? It can’t happen and this is their problem because when someone like me becomes the CM of Delhi, their leaders also question them.