Arvind Kejriwal

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Arvind Kejriwal
ArvindKejriwal2.jpg
7th Chief Minister of Delhi
Incumbent
Assumed office
28 December 2013
Preceded by Sheila Dikshit
Personal details
Born 16 August 1968 (age 45)
Siwani, Haryana
Political party Aam Aadmi Party
Spouse(s) Sunita Kejriwal
Children Two
Residence Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India (Private)
Alma mater IIT Kharagpur
Religion Hinduism
Awards Ramon Magsaysay Award
Arvind Kejriwal (born 16 August 1968) is the 7th and current Chief Minister of Delhi. Born in Haryana, Kejriwal is a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, where he studied mechanical engineering. He worked for the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) as a Joint Commissioner in the Income Tax Department. He is well-known for his efforts to bring and implement the Right to Information (RTI) Act at grassroots level and his role in drafting a proposed Jan Lokpal Bill.
Kejriwal won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership in 2006 for his contribution to the enactment of the Right to Information Act. In 2006, after resigning from the IRS, he donated his Magsaysay award money as a corpus fund to found an NGO, Public Cause Research Foundation. In 2012, he launched the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and he defeated Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in her constituency in the 2013 Delhi Legislative Assembly election.

Early and personal life

Kejriwal was born in the village of Siwani, Haryana, on 16 August 1968 to Gobind Ram Kejriwal and Gita Devi, a well-educated and well-off couple. He has a younger sister and a brother. His father was an electrical engineer who graduated from the Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, and whose work led to many changes in the family's residence. Kejriwal spent most of his childhood in north Indian towns such as Sonepat, Ghaziabad and Hisar. He was educated at Campus School in Hisar.[1]
Kejriwal studied mechanical engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur and then from 1989 he worked for Tata Steel. He left that job in 1992, having previously taken leave of absence in order to study for the Civil Services Examination,[1] and spent some time in Kolkata, at the Ramakrishna Mission in North-East India and at Nehru Yuva Kendra.[2]
Kejriwal is married to Sunita, who is also an IRS officer and his batchmate from National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie and the National Academy of Direct Taxes in Nagpur. The couple have a daughter and a son. Kejriwal is a vegetarian. He has been practicing Vipassana for many years.[1]

Early career

Kejriwal joined the Indian Revenue Service in 1995 after qualifying through the Civil Services Examination.[3] In 2000, he was granted two years' paid leave to pursue higher education on condition that upon resuming his work he would not resign from the Service for at least three years. Failure to abide by that condition would require him to repay the salary given during the leave period. He rejoined in 2003 and worked for 18 months before taking unpaid leave for 18 months.[4] In February 2006, he resigned from his position as a Joint Commissioner of Income Tax in New Delhi.[3] The Government of India claimed that Kejriwal had violated his original agreement by not working for three years. Kejriwal said that his 18 months of work and 18 months of unpaid absence amounted to the stipulated three year period during which he could not resign and that this was an attempt to malign him due to his involvement with Team Anna, a strand of the Indian anti-corruption movement. The dispute ran for several year until, in 2011, it was resolved when he paid his way out of the Service with the help of loans from friends.[4]

Activism

Parivartan

Kejriwal believes "Change begins with small things". In December 1999, while still in service with the Income Tax Department, he helped found a movement named Parivartan (which means "change"), focused on assisting citizens in navigating income tax, electricity and food ration matters in parts of Delhi. The Parivartan organisation exposed a fake ration card scam in 2008[5][6] but, according to a founder member, did not have a great impact generally and was largely moribund by 2012.[7]

Right to Information

Together with Manish Sisodia and Abhinandan Sekhri, Kejriwal established the Public Cause Research Foundation in December 2006, donating the prize money he had received from the Ramon Magsaysay Award as a seed fund.[8] This new body paid the employees of Parivartan.[7]
Kejriwal has used the Right to Information Act in corruption cases in many government departments including the Income Tax Department, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Public Distribution System and the Delhi Electricity Board.[2]

Jan Lokpal Bill

Main article: Jan Lokpal Bill
Kejriwal was the civil society representative member of the committee constituted by the Government of India to draft a Jan Lokpal bill, following a campaign for introduction of such legislation that featured Anna Hazare. He had been arrested for his support of Hazare.[9][10]

Political career

Kejriwal established the AAP in November 2012 as he believed that electoral politics was the next logical step in the fight against corruption.[11] The party name reflects the phrase Aam Aadmi, or "common man", whose interests Kejriwal proposed to represent.[12]
He became one of the five most mentioned Indian politicians on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in the run-up to the Delhi legislative assembly election, 2013.[13] This was the first election contested by the AAP.

Chief Minister

In the Delhi election, Kejriwal defeated incumbent Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in her constituency of New Delhi[14] by a margin of 25,864 votes.[15] The party as a whole won 28 of the 70 available seats, finishing in second place.[16]
The AAP then announced its intention to form a minority government in the hung parliament, with what Dikshit described as "not unconditional" support from the Indian National Congress.[17][18] Kejriwal was sworn in as the second-youngest chief minister of Delhi on 28 December 2013, after Chaudhary Brahm Prakash who became chief minister at the age of 34.[19] He is in charge of Delhi's Home Ministry, Power, Planning, Finance, Vigilance ministries.[20]

Awards

Publications

  • Kejriwal, Arvind (2012). SWARAJ. HarperCollins Publishers India. ISBN 9350299372. (subscription required).

References

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Ramon Magsaysay Award to Activist Arvind Kejriwal". Ramon Magsaysay Foundation.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Arvind Kejriwal | Ashoka – Innovators for the Public". 2004. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Federal Government accepts Kejriwal's resignation after six years in 2011". CNN-IBN. Press Trust of India (PTI). 21 December 2011. Retrieved 21 December 2011.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b "Govt finally accepts Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation". The Times of India. 21 December 2011. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b "Magsaysay Award: "Change Begins With Small Things"". Outlook. Retrieved 31 July 2006.
  6. Jump up ^ "One family, many ration cards and a major scam". The Hindu. 8 July 2008.
  7. ^ Jump up to: a b Anand, Panini (13 August 2012). "The More They Change: Kejriwal’s original experiment in Sundar Nagri lies in tatters". Outlook India. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
  8. Jump up ^ "Public Cause Research Foundation | About | People's empowerment through transparent, accountable governance". Pcrf.in. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
  9. Jump up ^ "Anna to stay in Tihar till venue is ready". The Times of India. 18 August 2011. Retrieved 26 June 2013.
  10. Jump up ^ Arpit Parashar (9 April 2011). "Members of JanLokPal Draft Committee". New Delhi: Tehelka. Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  11. Jump up ^ "Exclusive Interview With Arvind Kejriwal". India Opines. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  12. Jump up ^ "Arvind Kejriwal formally launches Aam Aadmi Party". India Today. Retrieved 26 November 2012.
  13. Jump up ^ "Can Social media be a gamechanger in 2014 Lok Sabha elections?". Daily Bhaskar. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  14. Jump up ^ "Assembly election 2013: Arvind Kejriwal sweeps Sheila Dikshit right out of her constituency". NDTV. 8 December 2013.
  15. Jump up ^ "Election Commission of India Official Results". Retrieved 23 December 2013.
  16. Jump up ^ "28 AAP MLAs choose Arvind Kejriwal as leader in Delhi Assembly". IBN. 9 December 2013. Retrieved 19 December 2013.
  17. Jump up ^ "Arvind Kejriwal to be Delhi's youngest CM; who will his ministers be?". Zee News. 23 December 2013.
  18. Jump up ^ "Fulfill promises, Sheila Dikshit tells Aam Aadmi Party". NDTV. IANS. 23 December. Retrieved 23 December 2013.
  19. Jump up ^ "Arvind Kejriwal becomes Delhi's youngest Chief Minister". IBN. 28 December 2013. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
  20. Jump up ^ "Kejriwal sworn-in as Delhi's Chief Minister". The Hindu. 28 December 2013. Retrieved 28 December 2013.
  21. Jump up ^ Profile "Satyendra K. Dubey Memorial Award". IIT Kanpur Alumni Association.
  22. Jump up ^ "CNN-IBN Indian of the Year". Retrieved 25 August 2011.
  23. Jump up ^ CNN-IBN (20 June 2007). "Indian of the Year: Big winners". New Delhi: IBNLive.in.com. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
  24. Jump up ^ "Distinguished Alumnus of IIT Kharagpur". Retrieved 22 August 2011.
  25. Jump up ^ "Association for India's Development". Retrieved 1 November 2011.
  26. Jump up ^ "ET Awards: The top 10 of 2010". The Economic Times. 7 October 2010. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  27. Jump up ^ "NDTV Indian of the Year 2011". NDTV. 18 October 2011. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  28. Jump up ^ "CNN IBN Indian of the Year". CNN IBN. 20 December 2013. Retrieved 21 December 2013.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arvind Kejriwal.
Political offices
Preceded by
Sheila Dikshit		 Chief Minister of the Delhi
28 December 2013		 Incumbent