Next Time, Try Rush Hour

Tokenism and the pointlessness of Arvind Kejriwal’s train journey in Mumbai

Joe Biden, the vice-president of the United States, took the train to work for 35 years when he was in the Senate. His first wife and child dying in a car accident had something to do with it. But transplant the same man with the same ethic into Mumbai and he wouldn’t do it. No one in his right mind would take a Mumbai local if he has an alternative because it means being packed daily like fleeing refugees and deprived of dignity and energy by the time you make it home. It is a misery that is inevitable for millions in Mumbai.

Consider then Arvind Kejriwal stepping out of Mumbai airport on 12 March, a Wednesday, and attempting to align his experience with the aam aadmi’s. In a city that sees a daily war between middle-class folk and auto rickshaw drivers over the latter’s refusal to ply on demand, Kejriwal gets a lift in a waiting auto to Andheri railway station and gets a window seat effortlessly in the 11.26 local to Churchgate. His party workers take up an entire compartment and later create chaos at Churchgate station, overturning a few metal detectors. No commuter has ever heard those metal detectors beep, so maybe that is not a bad thing. But everything else about Kejriwal’s railway moment is staggeringly at dissonance with what he is trying to project of himself.

Start with the fact that the rambunctiousness of his supporters is only reserved for roads and trains. Inside an airport or aboard a flight, everything is orderly around Kejriwal. What then can you infer? That the Aam Aadmi Party thinks it is okay to have a free-for-all in public spaces that the aam aadmi frequents, but in cloistered environments reserved for the upper classes, they will behave themselves. The least they could do is create a melee inside an airport.

Then there is the fact of Kejriwal getting a window seat without earning it. In Mumbai’s general compartment commuter universe, that is Business Class, the only seated space where you get some cool air against your face. But no one can buy his way into it; it has to be fought for. Some commuters jump in even before the train stops at the risk of their lives to get themselves window seats.

Also, if indeed it’s daily commuters who Kejriwal wanted to impress, then the gimmick was going to fail even before he started. Like how Rahul Gandhi failed in 2010 when he took a local train. Any politician who wants respect from train travellers in Mumbai will get it only if he samples and survives peak hour. Otherwise, he is a just yet another irritant who has no clue of their sufferings. If Kejriwal or Gandhi had tried taking a train during peak hour, chances are they wouldn’t even be able to get into a compartment. Nor would it have been possible to get a ‘reservation’. If party volunteers had tried to take over a compartment between 8 to 10 in the morning, they would have a riot on their hands.

When Kejriwal took over as Delhi Chief Minister, he told his party workers to be cautious about not becoming a part of the system they were trying to change. He might still be adhering to it when it comes to corruption, but the system is more than that. Tokenism, or vacuous displays intended to make a statement of personal character, is just another career politician’s tool. The more Kejriwal does it, the more he steadily becomes part of all that he claims to stand against.

About The Author

Madhavankutty Pillai

Madhavankutty Pillai has no specialisations whatsoever. He is among the last of the generalists. And also Open chief of bureau, Mumbai  

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