Often perceived as a leader not unwilling to pander to Hindutva sentiment — or unprepared to risk the political wages of majoritarian ire — AAP boss and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has turned out to be quite the Sangh baiter.

In his first public meeting in the capital after resigning as chief minister, Kejriwal attempted, not for the first time, to drive a wedge into what he sees as a rift between the BJP and its ideological fountainhead, the RSS.

At his Janata Ki Adalat (People’s Court) meeting on Jantar Mantar Road on Sunday, Kejriwal posed five questions to RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat.

Referring to BJP president J.P. Nadda’s statement in May that the BJP no longer needs the RSS to run the party, Kejriwal asked: “The RSS is called the matrutulya sansthan (mother-like institution) of the BJP. Has the son grown up so much that he has started aankhein dikhana (defying his mother)? The son whom you nurtured and made Prime Minister, that son is today turning around and showing his defiance towards the mother organisation, the RSS. I want to ask Mohan Bhagwat, what went through your heart when J.P. Nadda said this? Don’t you feel sad?”

Kejriwal’s other questions to Bhagwat were:

• “The way PM Modi is breaking the leaders of other parties across the country by luring, threatening and intimidating them with the ED and the CBI, resulting in the toppling of governments — is this right for the country?”
• “The leaders whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi and (home minister) Amit Shah themselves called the most corrupt until just a few days ago were included in the BJP shortly after. Does Mohan Bhagwat agree with this type of politics?”
• “Has Mohan Bhagwat ever stopped the PM from doing these wrong things?”
• “It was you who made the rule that anyone who crosses the age of 75 should retire…. Now, Amit Shah is saying that this rule will not apply to Narendra Modi. But I want to ask Mohan Bhagwat whether he agrees that the rule which applied to Lal Krishna Advani should not apply to Narendra Modi.”

Since 2019, Kejriwal has projected himself as a benign Hindu competitor to Modi and in 2021, he declared that his government’s goal was “Ram Rajya”.

The AAP’s rhetoric against Rohingyas and Bangladeshis has often echoed the BJP’s, and Kejriwal went so far as to demand that images of Hindu deities be printed on currency notes. He also edged out a Dalit Buddhist minister for publicly reciting B.R. Ambedkar’s vows of renouncing Hinduism in 2022. He was for multiple reasons perceived as Hindutva Lite.

In a speech soon after the Lok Sabha polls, Bhagwat had said: “The kind of things that were said, the way the two sides castigated each other (during the elections)… the way no one cared about social divisions being created… because of what was being done… and for no reason the Sangh was dragged into this… untruths were spread with the use of technology.”

Delhi BJP vice-president and former AAP minister Kapil Mishra hit out at Kejriwal saying: “Instead of asking questions of the RSS-BJP, give answers to the people of Delhi. What happened to Jan Lokpal (ombudsman bill)?... Why is the Yamuna not clean? Why is the air polluted? Why are the roads broken? Why are temporary employees not being made permanent?”

Kejriwal said at the rally: “I am not a leader, I do not have a thick skin, it matters to me. When the BJP people call me a thief, corrupt or abuse me, it makes a difference to me. Today I am very sad from within, my soul is in pain. That is why I resigned. I have no bank balance; my party’s coffers are empty. I have only earned respect and honesty in my life….

“When I came out of jail,I thought in my mind that until the court does not honourably acquit me, I will not sit in the chief minister’s chair again. But my lawyers told me that this case can drag on for a very long time, maybe 10 to 15 years. So, I decided that I would go to the court of my people, who should tell me whether I am honest or not. Forget about working with this stigma, I cannot even live with this taint.”

He waved a broom — the AAP symbol — and said: “This broom is not only the election symbol of the AAP but also a symbol of faith…. Press this broom button only if you think Kejriwal is honest; otherwise don’t press this broom button.”

A short-term AAP government under Atishi took office on Saturday; it is intended to remain in office until Assembly polls are held early next year. Kejriwal is out on bail in the liquor policy case.

In the interim, Haryana will go to the polls; it’s a state where the Congress and the AAP declared ambitions of an alliance, but little seems to have worked out.