Kejriwal’s track record of never signing government orders kept him out of the reach of the CBI and the ED. But it cornered ex-Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and ex-Delhi Jail Minister Satyender Jain and it doesn’t take genius to understand why the Delhi Chief Minister is so cagey with his elusive signature.

Now, the same Chief Minister is angry that a central ordinance has deprived him of the right to put his initials to appointments and transfers of officers in the Delhi government’s service. A right which comes with the job to every chief minister in the realm – a Constitution-given obligation. The ordinance is undoubtedly yet another example of the authoritarian streak in Modi.

Therefore, Kejriwal returned to Ramlila Ground and his lament turned the venue into a seething sea of humanity – AAP supporters who share with him a common dislike for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose glowing skin has become a national talking point today and who is widely expected to sit in the Opposition in 2024.

That said, if the sun has been kind to Modi’s skin, some would say, Kejriwal’s swarthy good looks must be a symptom of suffused anger against Modi that resides just below Kejriwal’s skin. Kejriwal hates Modi like some children hate milk and oats for breakfast. If given the power, Kejriwal would assign Modi a cell next to Manish Sisodia’s and in the same Tihar Jail block where Satyender Jain is losing weight faster than anybody on a Keto diet.

Arvind Kejriwal’s scathing attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi are not new. And it doesn’t need a research student to guess why? The biggest of reasons why Kejriwal – whose prime-ministerial ambitions are not dormant – shares a spiteful bond with Modi is because Prime Minister Narendra Modi reminds Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of himself!

That is not off-the-cuff. Journalists have been saying this about Arvind Kejriwal for nine years. To the extent that some say if ever Kejriwal is “miracle-d” to PM-power, Modi would be a pale apparition of the “Hitlerism’ Kejriwal would unleash on India’s millions. The man is a self-eulogized ‘anarchist’.

But the AAP convener on June 10 labelled the Modi's ordinance on Delhi’s “services” as "Hitlerism and dictatorship". The freebies crowd at the Ramlila Ground hung on to his every word. The Supreme Court verdict had made Modi pause but only to issue the “black ordinance” that signed away Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s right to put his signature to appointments and transfers of Delhi’s ‘babudom’. For the time being, all Kejriwal wants is to cancel Modi’s ordinance. The Patna Conclave for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is limited to arraying the entire Opposition against the Delhi ordinance, which he warned will be replicated for every non-BJP ruled state.

Kejriwal’s hatred for Modi floated above the Ramlila Ground for the entire time Kejriwal spoke his bitter mind. Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who rules because Kejriwal desires so, and who was at the AAP rally, has more powers than his ‘Boss’ Arvind Kejriwal! If that wouldn’t rile Kejriwal, what would? Kejriwal is a man possessed when it comes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And it goes back nine years. Who hasn’t forgotten Kejriwal trailing Modi all the way to Varanasi in 2014 and then contesting against the BJP’s “PM Face” to only lose the election?

The years since then have been triumphant for Kejriwal at the state level except that ‘Delhi’ was too coveted a prize for the Centre to give it up without placing hurdles in Kejriwal’s way. So much so, Kejriwal’s hatred for Modi borders on the personal. He has called Modi the worst coloured names and he would gladly give up his signature hand to anybody who would write Modi’s political obituary.

Kejriwal doesn’t accept “Modi’s black ordinance”, but he’s not in position to do a Rahul Gandhi. The Gandhi scion tore up an ordinance, while Kejriwal can only wait for the ordinance to meet its Waterloo in the Rajya Sabha. Arvind Kejriwal says with the ordinance, Modi stands exposed and “now dictatorship runs Delhi”.

The Delhi Chief Minister will be at the June 23 Patna Conclave with the entire Opposition leadership minus a few honourable mentions, but Arvind Kejriwal will be the only one there, other than Rahul Gandhi, with a personal grievance against Prime Minister Narendra Modi – it’s because of Modi that Arvind Kejriwal is a less powerful Chief Minister than Bhagwant Mann, who enjoys complete control over the Punjab Police while Delhi Police answers only to Modi’s diktats! For the time being, Arvind Kejriwal has quelled his prime ministerial ambition. (IPA Service)