A recent essay in the The Economist (December 12, 2024) deliberated the proposition ‘Are People Becoming More Stupid?’ According to the normatively anonymous writer of this essay, a fifth of adults do no better in maths and reading than might be expected of a primary school child.
This is also true of India’s political class. The dramatic fall from grace of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) founder-supremo Arvind Kejriwal in the Delhi legislative assembly election whose results were announced on February 8, is proof enough. A former aide of anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare, Kejriwal stunned the nation with massive back-to-back Delhi legislative assembly election victories in 2014 and 2019 despite the Narendra Modi-led BJP having swept the General Election in those very years. But in the recently concluded legislative election, Kejriwal not only lost his two-term chief ministership but also his seat in the assembly, with AAP ceding its overwhelming 62 majority in the 70-strong assembly to BJP which bagged 48 seats against AAP’s 22.
Kejriwal’s fall from grace is the outcome of media having thoroughly exposed the opulent Sheesh Mahal (ornate palace) into which Kejriwal transformed his official chief minister’s bungalow in Delhi at a reported cost of Rs.33 crore to the public exchequer.
Among the amenities installed by the former chief minister: kitchen equipment valued at Rs.39 lakh; TV console Rs.20.34 lakh; treadmill and gym equipment Rs.18.52 lakh. Any individual with an iota of common sense would have known that masons and carpenters working on this project would tip-off opposition parties and/or media. Evidently, this didn’t occur to this prize duffer, an IIT-Kharagpur grad.
Nor is the unlamented Kejriwal an exception among stupid politicians bleeding the country dry. In Telangana, former chief minister K. Chandrashekar Rao was trounced in the assembly election of 2023 for the very same reason. And in Andhra Pradesh, Jagan Mohan Reddy in 2024. Such political epicureanism in a country in which the average family of five resides in homes averaging 100 sq. ft and in which according to Census 2011, 13 million homes are not fit for human habitation.
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