The prima donnas face off in Delhi

'There is more that is common between Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi than what might separate them. In fact, what divides them can be spelt out in just two words: Clashing ambitions,' says Virendra Kapoor

Arvind Kejriwal will now have to compete for media space with Kiran Bedi.

The undisputed Aam Aadmi Party boss and the wannabe Bharatiya Janata Party boss can soon be seen slugging it out on everything under the sky, including, hopefully, how to make the capital city of India a better place for its teeming millions.

But make no mistake about it. There is more that is common between the two than what might separate them. In fact, what divides them can be spelt out in just two words: Clashing ambitions. Both believe they are cut out for bigger things. And that belief has often led them to defy good sense and propriety.

Let us begin with commonalities. Both were in government service, she the first woman Indian Police Service officer, he a mid-level member of the Indian Revenue Service. Both started and ran NGOs while still in service. And both boast of Magsaysay Awards.

Bedi made much of the fact of her being the first woman IPS officer, hogging the media limelight to acquire a high public profile. Despite being in a uniformed force, she often thumbed her nose at her superiors, bypassing them to reach out to her political bosses.

Small wonder, then, she was not really on the best of terms with a large number of her male cadre colleagues. Her public image essentially won her the Ramon Magsaysay Award, another of those 'achievements' which gave her a swollen head.

Soon she went on to founded her own NGO while still in service and controls it fully, running it like most NGO entrepreneurs do from her own home.

Sometime ago, it was revealed that she billed for executive class air tickets while actually traveling economy. Once it became public, she claimed that that she deposited the difference in cost into her NGO account.

Earlier, while posted in Mizoram she had got into trouble for getting her daughter admitted in a medical college using the reserved quota meant for Mizo tribals.

Now to Kejriwal. A mechanical engineer from IIT Kharagpur, he joined the IRS but was never really interested in a bureaucratic career. Soon, he too helped found an NGO and got increasingly involved in its activities.

His superiors were fed up with his playing hooky, and pulled him up a number of times. However, his involvement with the NGO won him the Magsaysay Award and he was soon done with 'file-pushing.'

He resigned from government service without fulfilling the commitment to serve at least three years after the conclusion of his two-year paid study leave. He blamed the United Progressive Alliance bosses for penalising him for his role in the Anna Hazare anti-corruption campaign.

But the truth is that he was legally committed to reimburse the government for resigning before three years. Eventually, pay he did, but, according to him, the money came from his well-wishers and not from his own pocket.

That would be the first of many times he would use others to pick up his bills. Not unlike other run-of-the-mill politicians, Kejriwal, the self-styled anti-corruption messiah, too seems to believe that being in the business of public service entitles him to source funds for his private use from 'friends and well-wishers.' That was how he had continued to occupy for more than a year the chief minister's bungalow though he was entitled to it for '49 days' plus one month.

Again, on his own admission, he relied on unnamed friends to pay the market rent for the said bungalow. A strong sense of self-denial and self-respect alone could have dissuaded him against accepting such financial bail-outs from nameless others.

Between Kejriwal and Bedi, the former is better placed to run his party very much the way he wants. Kejriwal is the public face, the sole leader, indeed the lone arbiter of the AAP. Period.

All others must play second fiddle to him. For evidence, notice the numerous axed-AAP 'leaders.' One of them Shazia Ilmi has promised to 'expose' the AAP. Voters in Delhi wait with bated breath to know what Ilmi, once the AAP's most vociferous voice, has to say about Kejriwal.

As for Bedi in her new role as a card-carrying BJP leader, well, she will have to curb her tendency to play prima donna. The BJP is a party with a formal organisational structure. It certainly does not take kindly to anyone who might want to play the lone ranger.

As against the family-owned parties, the BJP does things after considerable deliberation. Individuals suffused with their own sense of importance have invariably come to grief in the BJP.

Therefore, Bedi will have to curb her 'command and control' tendencies and try and become a team player. Name recognition gives her an advantage alright, but it does not give her the license to lord over her colleagues.

Yes, Kejriwal is the chief ministerial candidate of the party founded and being controlled fully by him. And the BJP has named Bedi as its candidate. This has ruffled feathers in the party. But her being in the BJP has certainly added an extra zing to the party's campaign. Voters have got a 'face' to identify the Delhi BJP with when it comes to countering the relentless Kejriwal media onslaught.

Bedi should try and counter tall claims about stupendous achievements claimed by Kejriwal during those tumultuous 49 days as a novice CM. He lies when he says there were no raids on traders during those 49 days; lies about Delhi becoming corruption-free. Is truthful when he tells a meeting of traders that he too is a Bania, but then exposes his own opportunistic streak.

Admittedly, there is a lot of artifice in the public personas of Bedi and Kejriwal. Both rode the Anna Hazare bandwagon to acquire for themselves larger than life images. Voters in Delhi are set to choose one of them a winner on February 7.

On balance, Bedi seems to be on the winning side.