Who is Arvind Kejriwal?

Who is Arvind Kejriwal?

Now every Indian might be knowing who, Arvind Kejriwal is and all about his Aam Aadmi Party. Still many may not follow Indian politics that seriously, or have less interest. For them the name Arvind Kejriwal may seem not so familiar. With Delhi voted in record numbers on Wednesday (67%), there may be resurgence in knowing about Arvind Kejriwal. This article may serve them to know him better.

Personal life

Arvind Kejriwal is now a well known Indian politician and social activist. He was born in Hisar, Haryana on 16th August, 1968 in a well educated, financially strong family and is a highly qualified person. He is the son of Gobind Ran Kejriwal (an electrical engineer by profession) and Gita Devi. He spent in school days in Campus School , Hisar and did his graduation from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT KGP) in Mechanical Engineering. He first worked in Tata Steel (1989) and came to Kolkata to prepare for civil service examinations. After qualifying in the civil service exam he joined as an officer in IRS (Indian Revenue System) in 1995 and resigned as a joint commissioner of Income Tax Department in 2006.

His wife, Sunita is an IRS officer and the couple has two children (a daughter and a son). He is a vivid follower and performer of Vipassana Meditation and is a complete vegetarian.

Parivartan movement

Arvind Kejriwal started a movement called “Parivartan” i.e. “Change” in 1999 to assist citizens in income tax, electricity and food ration matters in various parts of Delhi, which revealed the massive ration card scams in Delhi. His belief that change comes through small matters came to reality.

Jan Lokpal Bill and Right to Information (RTI)

When Government of India constituted the committee to draft the Jan Lokpal Bill, Arvind Kejriwal was chosen as a representative of civil society. This came after the campaign (also featuring famous Anna Hazare) demanding such bill. He was also arrested for supporting the campaign. He came into the instant limelight for his role in drafting the famous Jan Lokpal Bill and also for his tireless effort in implementing the RTI (Right to Information) in all levels of Government sectors like Income Tax Department, Public Distribution System, Delhi Electricity Boards, Municipal Corporation etc. starting from the grassroots level. He also worked hard to bring life to the poorest Indian citizens. As a result he has been awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent leadership in 2006. He donated the award money to form an NGO (Public Cause Research Foundation) after resigning from the IRS. He also got several other awards including Ashoka Fellow for Civic Engagement in 2004, 'Satyendra K Dubey Memorial Award' from IIT Kanpur in 2005 (for his efforts at transparency in Government sectors), CNN-IBN, 'Indian of the Year' in Public Service (2006), Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT Kharagpur for Eminent Leadership in 2009 and the Policy Change Agent of the Year from The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence (2010). He also received a grant and fellowship from Awarded a grant and fellowship Association for India's Development and in 2011 received along with Anna Hazare the NDTV Indian of the Year award.

The launch of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)

The Aam Aadmi Party represents the “common man” was established by Arvind Kejriwal in November 2012. The party has the sole goal of representing the common man. The recent Delhi assembly election is the first test for this party and the results will come on Sunday (8th December, 2013) where he has given his nomination paper against three times Chief Minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit. He is heavily present in popular social networking sites and also published a book entitled “Swaraj” in 2012.

Feature image photo courtesy: Wikipedia