Arvind Kejriwal (16 August 1968) is an Indian politician and former bureaucrat who served as the 7th Chief Minister of Delhi from 28 December 2013 to 14 February 2014. He is the leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Kejriwal is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He worked for the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) as a Joint Commissioner in the Income Tax Department. He is known for his efforts to enact and implement the Right to Information Act (RTI) at the grassroots level and his role in drafting a proposed Jan Lokpal Bill. Kejriwal is a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership, often considered as Asias Nobel Prize, in 2006 for his contribution to the enactment of the Right to Information Act. In 2006, after resigning from the IRS, he donated his Magsaysay award money as a corpus fund to found the Public Cause Research Foundation, a non-governmental organization (NGO). In 2012, he launched the Aam Aadmi Party, and he defeated Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in her constituency in the 2013 Delhi Legislative Assembly election. Following the election, he took office as the Chief Minister of Delhi on 28 December 2013, and resigned 49 days later, on 14 February 2014 as his government could not pass the anti-corruption legislation that he had proposed due to lack of support from other political parties. Contents [hide] Kejriwal was born in Siwani, Bhiwani district, Haryana on 16 August 1968, the first of the three children of Gobind Ram Kejriwal and Gita Devii. His father was an electrical engineer who graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, and whose work led to many changes in the familys residence. Kejriwal spent most of his childhood in north Indian towns such as Sonepat, Ghaziabad and Hisar. He was educated at Campus School in Hisar.[1] Kejriwal graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, majoring in mechanical engineering. He joined Tata Steel in 1989 and was posted in Jamshedpur. Kejriwal resigned in 1992, having taken a leave of absence in order to study for the Civil Services Examination.[1] Kejriwal spent some time in Kolkata, at the Ramakrishna Mission in North-East India and at Nehru Yuva Kendra.[2] Early career Kejriwal joined the IRS in 1995 after qualifying through the Civil Services Examination.[3] In 2000, he was granted two years paid leave to pursue higher education on condition that upon resuming his work he would not resign from the Service for at least three years. Failure to abide by that condition would require him to repay the salary given during the leave period. He rejoined in 2003 and worked for 18 months before taking unpaid leave for 18 months.[4] In February 2006, he resigned from his position as a Joint Commissioner of Income Tax in New Delhi.[3] The Government of India claimed that Kejriwal had violated his original agreement by not working for three years. Kejriwal said that his 18 months of work and 18 months of unpaid absence amounted to the stipulated three year period during which he could not resign and that this was an attempt to malign him due to his involvement with Team Anna, a strand of the Indian anti-corruption movement. The dispute ran for several year until, in 2011, it was resolved when he paid his way out of the Service with the help of loans from friends.[4] Activism Parivartan Kejriwal believes Change begins with small things. In December 1999, while still in service with the Income Tax Department, he helped found a movement named Parivartan (which means change), focused on assisting citizens in navigating income tax, electricity and food ration matters in parts of Delhi. The Parivartan organisation exposed a fake ration card scam in 2008[5][6] but, according to a founder member, did not have a great impact generally and was largely moribund by 2012.[7] Right to Information Together with Manish Sisodia and Abhinandan Sekhri, Kejriwal established the Public Cause Research Foundation in December 2006, donating the prize money he had received from the Ramon Magsaysay Award as a seed fund.[8] This new body paid the employees of Parivartan.[7] Kejriwal has used the Right to Information Act in corruption cases in many government departments including the Income Tax Department, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Public Distribution System and the Delhi Electricity Board.[2] Jan Lokpal Bill Main article: Jan Lokpal Bill Kejriwal was the civil society representative member of the committee constituted by the Government of India to draft a Jan Lokpal bill, following a campaign for introduction of such legislation that featured Anna Hazare. He had been arrested for his support of Hazare.[9][10] Political career Kejriwal established the AAP in November 2012 as he believed that electoral politics was the next logical step in the fight against corruption.[11] The party name reflects the phrase Aam Aadmi, or common man, whose interests Kejriwal proposed to represent.[12] He became one of the five most mentioned Indian politicians on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in the run-up to the Delhi legislative assembly election of 2013.[13] This was the first election contested by the AAP. Chief Minister of Delhi In the 2013 Delhi Legislative Assembly elections, Kejriwal defeated incumbent Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in her constituency of New Delhi[14] by a margin of 25,864 votes.[15] The AAP won 28 of the available 70 seats.[16] AAP formed the minority government in the hung assembly with outside support from the eight Indian National Congress MLAs, one Janta Dal MLA and one independent MLA.[17][18] Kejriwal was sworn in as the second-youngest chief minister of Delhi on 28 December 2013, after Chaudhary Brahm Prakash who became chief minister at the age of 34.[19][20] He was in charge of Delhis Home Ministry, Power, Planning, Finance, Vigilance ministries.[citation needed] Resignation On 14 February 2014 he resigned as Chief Minister after failing to table the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly. He recommended the dissolution of the Assembly.[21] Kejriwal blamed the Indian National Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party for stalling the anti-corruption legislation and linked it with the government’s decision to register a First Information Report (FIR) against industrialist Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries.[22] In run-up for 2014 National Elections Kejriwal said in January, prior to his resignation as chief minister, that he would not contest a seat in the 2014 Loksabha elections.[23] Later in that month, party members persuaded him to change his mind, [24] and he has said that he will accept the partys nomination in Varanasi against Narendra Modi if the party nominates him.[25] However, as of 16 March 2014, his name has not been included on Aam Aadmi Partys first six lists of candidates for the elections.[26][27][28][29][30][31] On 13 March 2014, Mumbai Police registered a case against Kejriwal and his supporters on the charge of unlawful assembly outside the domestic airport of Mumbai. A police order had been issued that prevented groups numbering more than five people from congregating unless such groups had obtained permission from the police to do so.[32] Personal life Kejriwal is married to Sunita, his batchmate from National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie and the National Academy of Direct Taxes in Nagpur. The couple have two children. Kejriwal is vegetarian and has been practicing Vipassana for many years.[1] Kejriwal is known to be averse to ceremony and does not celebrate his birthday. He is diabetic.[33] Awards 2004: Ashoka Fellow, Civic Engagement[2] 2005: Satyendra K. Dubey Memorial Award, IIT Kanpur for his campaign for bringing transparency in Governance[34] 2006: Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership[5] 2006: CNN-IBN Indian of the Year in Public Service[35][36] 2009: Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT Kharagpur for Eminent Leadership[37] 2009: Awarded a grant and fellowship by the Association for Indias Development.[38] 2010: Policy Change Agent of the Year, Economic Times Awards along with Aruna Roy[39] 2011: NDTV Indian of the Year along with Anna Hazare[40] 2013: CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2013-Politics[41]
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 11:01:06 +0000
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