If Arvind Kejriwal were a product, his instruction label would have read “Best used when under fire."

The Delhi chief minister’s penchant for confrontation is well known and has been diligently documented by the media, which he believes has taken a “supari to finish” the Aam Aadmi Party. Besides blowing hot, blowing cold at the press, Kejriwal has taken up the cudgels against the prime minister, the lieutenant governor, the commissioner of Delhi Police, the bureaucracy and even his own party men who dared to question him.

Throughout 2015, Chief Minister Kejriwal itched for a good fight, none of which he could win outright, certainly not the spat with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley over the alleged graft in the Delhi and District Cricket Association. Faced with a defamation suit, Kejriwal just about managed to hold on, claiming that his allegations were against the cricketing body and not Jaitley per se.

Till December end, the Delhi chief minister didn’t have much to show for, neither in schoolyard fights nor in administration. Most of his grandiose promises remained comatose – like sending Sheila Dikshit and corrupt public servants to jail, exposing power distribution companies (via a CAG audit), and opening up numerous hospitals and colleges. Far from eradicating VIP culture in the capital, Kejriwal was dealing with more prosaic issues like the deadly outbreak of dengue.

In such circumstances, getting a rap from the court for not doing enough to control the noxious pollution in the city would have been a body blow. But Kejriwal saw opportunity in adversity and quickly grabbed the chance to usher in perhaps the biggest government-citizen participation campaign in the history of Delhi: the odd-even rationing of road space.

Political considerations

While there will be endless debates over the quantum of pollution reduced (if any), there is hardly any argument over the fact that the Odd-Even Plan was largely obeyed by the public, boosting the political equity of Arvind Kejriwal. It was much like Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan – a noble initiative on the face of it, but driven by clear political considerations.

Wiping off a sizeable number of cars from Delhi’s roads was never going to fully solve the pollution problem. Until the core issues of urban waste disposal and industrial pollutants are addressed, road space rationing will remain but a cosmetic step. But the need to do something drastic, to visibly act against pollution suited AAP’s brand of firebrand politics just fine.

True, the Odd-Even Plan was fraught with risks and could have backfired on the chief minister if people had openly flouted the norm. But the risk-taking maverick stuck to a path that few politicians would have taken and reaped rich rewards. Kejriwal, the master communicator, proved yet again that if the messaging is right, people can be drafted into government initiatives. For a city that didn’t care to stop at red lights, ditching cars on alternate days, that too voluntarily, is nothing short of a miracle.

But would the Odd-Even Plan work in the long run? What is the practicality of the move in a city with a notorious public transport system? Only the courts were left asking these questions, while national and international attention poured over the novel experiment. Suddenly, a chief minister battling half a dozen political fires was the toast of town. The euphoria on witness in Delhi right now is akin to the excitement that greeted the prime minister’s pet projects of Swachh Bharat, Smart Cities and bullet trains. All these schemes sounded great in speeches and in the short run, but went on to get mired in the real world of practicality and implementability.

Still, in the world of politics, publicity has always scored over policy – Modi and Kejriwal are only taking the juggernaut further.

Serving two purposes

While Kejriwal is basking in his Swachh Bharat moment, the win has come at a big cost. Like Modi, the chief minister didn’t shy away from deploying the Delhi government’s massive Rs 526 crore publicity kitty to generate awareness about the Odd-Even Plan. Kejriwal took over the radio waves, asking people to make the plan a success for the sake of Delhi’s future. Since chief ministers’ appearances in television adverts is barred by a Supreme Court order, Kejriwal used his muffler-clad persona to skirt the rule.

With a personality-centric campaign, Kejriwal made it clear that this was as much about reducing pollution as it was about increasing his publicity. There wasn’t much of a difference between the Odd-Even Plan and the Swachh Bharat ploy, where absolutely no-one could educate India on cleanliness but Narendra Modi himself.

In pollution Kejriwal has found an opponent who isn’t backed by any political party and where his actions command the support of the people, the courts and even the media. Just like Swachh Bharat, this is one civic initiative that any party is loath to criticise (despite the self-publicity). No wonder then that the modest noises made by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress over the Odd-Even Plan quickly died down.

It doesn’t take an oracle to predict that come February 14, when the AAP government competes its first year in office, the Odd-Even Plan will be tom-tommed as a key achievement – marking the anti-corruption crusader’s transformation into a more convenient anti-pollution champion. However, when the cameras and microphones are switched off and packed up, Kejriwal would have to come around to addressing the core issue of implementation sooner than later. Just like Modi.