A pandemonium called Delhi

The word Pandemonium was first used by English poet John Milton in his epic Paradise Lost. Milton is credited with inventing the word to signify a complete disorder, noise and breakdown of protocols. Over the centuries it has also come to signify wild and disorderly behaviour of the lawmakers and people entrusted with the responsibility of governance.

In its consistent attempt to woo the agitating farmers of Punjab, the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government last week summoned a special session of Delhi Assembly to discuss the farm bills. This was largely done as a counter to the similar session held by the Punjab which passed bills to counter the Centre’s acts. The Punjab bills are waiting to become laws as they need the approval of not just the Governor but also the President. That’s certainly not going to happen.

However, it cannot be denied that this move has given a boost to Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s image of being a pro-farmer politician. With Arvind Kejriwal pitching for a direct contest with Amarinder Singh-led Congress in Punjab in 2022, the special assembly session in Delhi was summoned to create a buzz in AAP’s favour. However, whether the legislative assembly of Delhi, which is a union territory, has even the power to discuss a central law is a matter of examination.

Kejriwal, probably, realised his predicament of not being adequately empowered to initiate a full-fledged debate on the issue and thus preferred to create a pandemonium tearing the copies of the central laws inside the House. As was expected a chief minister tearing copies of the Central laws created the ‘right’ optics and image of a ‘law-tearing’ Kejriwal was all over in the newspapers next morning. The irony of the situation is that the Delhi Government had notified one of the farm laws just a few days ago, but is trying to make amends now after realising the political fallout of the same.

And towards this end, the purpose of getting sufficient political mileage by calling a special session of the assembly was well served for Kejriwal. Talking of pandemonium, the political rivals in the national Capital — the BJP and the AAP — have taken the bedlam to the streets of Delhi. While the mayors of the three municipal corporations entered into a fast-unto-death outside the residence of the chief minister demanding the release of funds for the civic bodies, the CM let loose his two trusted legislators Atishi and Raghav Chadha to lay a siege of the residence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Thankfully, the High Court intervened and ended the chaos.

However, despite the High Court intervention, will the chaos, which has come to signify the life and governance in the national capital, end anytime soon? Not likely. The Delhi government, in absence of any financial planning, has run out of funds and is unlikely to release any monies to either corporations or the Delhi University colleges in near future. It would lead to another round of protests sooner or later. 

It goes to the credit of the current generation politicians, who use social media tools very effectively to overcome governance deficits with counter-narratives. This is true for ‘smart’ politicians across the spectrum. With politicians more focused on optics rather than taking up the tough challenges of real-time governance, pandemonium in Delhi is going to stay for some time.

Sidharth Mishra, Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development and Justice