Please do not deny that Arvind Kejriwal has a great sense of fun, rather in the Three Idiots mode.Does he have an ideological bone?Contrary to those who think he does not, I rather think he does.Kejriwal seems to me a playful child of Friedrich Nietzsche, reaching for Dionysian power “beyond good and evil.”I will venture to say that he probably makes a great poker player, come the traditional card games of Deepavali.Kejriwal means to be prime minister one day, sooner than may seem decent, and he knows that the dragon in his way is the sectarian-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).He also knows that the ruling right-wing has successfully stupefied the north Indian public mind with a non-negotiable allegiance to Hindu religious practices.Never stymied by petty consistencies (what he said then and what he is saying now, etc.), he has persuaded himself that this dragon can be hung only by its own petard.If his utterances from time to time suggest a certain kind of disregard of the common man’s intellect, that too is only true to pattern.Thus his latest gambit – that images of the goddess of wealth, Laxmi, and that of the deity Ganesh, thought to be one who sorts out difficulties should be printed on currency notes – is a pretty clever roll of the political dice.As some Congress person has said, this gambit can neither be “welcomed, nor refused”.That this IIT graduate should say that national progress requires both hard work and the blessings of the gods is at once both a triumph for the right-wing and a trap they must avoid at their political peril.Also Read: Neither ‘Pro-Hindu’ nor ‘Anti-Hindu’, Kejriwal is a Monetary Genius in Modi’s MouldAsked how minority communities might react to this proposal, he evidenced his homework; Kejriwal promptly drew their attention to the Indonesian currency note, which used to carry an image of Ganesha.Kejriwal proffers the temptation that the images he suggests ought to be imprinted on our currency notes will not but aid and abet our national advance to greatness.He may be asked why then the Indonesian Rupaiya, as we write, measures some 15,000 to one dollar.Or, why those who do not worship Hindu deities nevertheless manage to make a great deal of money, an Azim Premji for one handy example?But, here is the point: Kejriwal knows he cannot be offering his cunning recipe with any intellectual seriousness.It is truly one very adroit throw of a net in which he hopes to gather some fish come the assembly elections in Gujarat.What can his sectarian opponent say to the people who have been eating out of the Hindutva hand – that Kejriwal’s is a bad idea because India is a secular republic and many faiths must be treated equally here?Give me a break.What Kejriwal may also be asked squarely, and has not thus far been asked is this: will he commit to inscribing these images on currency notes should he become prime minister?Theatre of the absurdHighly diverting as this comedy of the absurd is, are there still some among the followers of Hindutva who can begin to see the absurdity to which denominational allegiances can be carried? And the historical potholes that are thus sought to be dug by those charged with the duty to smoothen the road for all citizens to travel without fear or incident.Is it possible that the extreme ridiculousness to which Kejriwal so brilliantly now seeks to carry the religious itch will, sooner than later, induce a needed exhaustion with such politics, re-opening the public mind to a rational and secular consideration of issues that truly define the quality of our lives?Fingers crossed.Lastly, it were best for the Congress and other secular political formations not to be entrapped by this amusing contention between the BJP and the AAP.To them, it is the verity of constitutional values that should show the way forward.Badri Raina taught at Delhi University.
