Demonstartions outside the Delhi Secretariat
Arvind Kejriwal lost his cool today when he confronted three different groups of protestors demanding his attention near his government's headquarters. "This is not the way to go about things," the Chief Minister of Delhi vented before walking away after trying to reason with the demonstrators, some of whom were shouting slogans against him.
The three different sets of protestors included representatives of unions for teachers and farmers who blocked main roads around the Delhi Secretariat for several hours today. "Aam aadmi yahaan hai, where is Kejriwal, kahaan hai?" some of them chanted sarcastically, asking for Mr Kejriwal to make an appearance.
After he formed his Aam Aadmi Party a year ago, Mr Kejriwal was a habitual demonstrator, leading marches to the houses of elected leaders including the Prime Minister and then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit to demand their resignation, intervention on issues like electricity and vegetable prices and better safety for women.
Today, he called for a meeting with the capital's Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and police commissioner BS Bassi to discuss the shocking complaint of a Danish woman who was allegedly gang-raped late last night near the city's main train station.
Mr Kejriwal heads a minority government supported by the Congress. His Aam Aadmi Party pitched itself as an organisation determined to expunge corruption and VIP culture among the polity, and was rewarded richly in the Delhi elections, placing an improbable second.
To deliver on his promise of a government that would interact with people often and directly, the 45-year-old held his first janta darbar or public meeting on Saturday, but the crowd of thousands proved too tough to handle and Mr Kejriwal was pulled out by the police. He has since scrapped the weekly janta darbar and has said that he will instead visit different parts of Delhi every Saturday to get feedback and complaints.