Post Delhi elections, Arvind Kejriwal seems to be the most popular man on the block. His Twitter followers have increased meteorically, mufflers are back in fashion despite the weather getting warmer and even the Internet trolls are now singing a new song – 5saalKejriwal! His cool quotient is now practically shooting through the roof after he appeared in that short spoof video released by The Viral Fever videos, Barely Speaking with Arnub.
But as a woman, what we like the most about him is his public acknowledgement of his wife. On February 10, when Kejriwal and AAP’s landslide victory in Delhi elections was announced, his first pictures were that of him hugging his wife. In fact, the first picture that he tweeted post elections was one with this wife, where he thanked her for having stood by him all these years. “Thank u Sunita for always being there “, he tweeted.
Thank u Sunita for always being there “@rsaraf007: Sunita Kejriwal and @ArvindKejriwal first pics after winning pic.twitter.com/eDLxfxKMbd”
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 10, 2015
This is the first time that we have seen any Indian politician even publicly acknowledge his wife, let alone appreciate her. It’s a simple, impulsive act, but in that moment of joy, to remember the one person who stood by you in your darkest times, is a sign of tough moral fibre and something decent right there. In fact, it’s what most of us aam junta, would have done to celebrate an achievement, hug our spouses. We at iDiva had earlier written that we hope the regime of a younger party like AAP will be a sign of better times for women in Delhi, when it comes to safety. Although we are yet to see the AAP government in action, we hope that his evident respect for his wife is an indication that we did not think wrong.
In fact, apart from hugging and thanking her, he also pulled her affectionately towards the balcony to jointly address the crowd gathered below about their victory. With his arm around her shoulders, he told the cheering crowd, “This is my wife. I have dragged her here today. I told her the government will not take any action… I would not have been able to achieve anything without her. I can do nothing alone, I am a small man.”
What Kejriwal was referring to when he mentioned that the ‘government will not take any action’ was Sunita Kejriwal’s successful career as an Indian Revenue Service officer. In fact, Sunita is not the weepy, sacrificial Indian woman that our politicians love to play up. A strong, independent woman in her own right, she put food on their table when her husband quit his soaring IAS career to join politics. She is truly the force behind this tornado.
While we are quite used to seeing husband-wife duos as public officials, they hardly feature among our Indian politicians. Playing a square shooter right until the last minute, Sunita stayed away from the limelight as it is a conflict of interest for a government official to be spotted amidst political activities.
Kejriwal himself went up in the public’s estimation when he talked with obvious affection about his wife in the short viral video, Barely Speaking with Arnub. While allowing himself to be subject to in-person impersonation and good natured ribbing in the video (which is sooo cool!) he also spoke about how he met his wife at the National Academy of Administration in Mussorie and how he proposed to her. Of course, we couldn’t help but laugh when the anchor acidly commented that ‘Had she not said yes, we bet you would have held a dharna outside her dormitory’. The fact that even Kejriwal laughed at it is uber cool!
While we are all just going awww here, we couldn’t help but compare him to the other most popular guy in the nation today, Narendra Modi, our Prime Minister. And his reluctant acknowledgement of his wife, Jashodaben, whom he referred to only under oath. They are estranged, of course, but what’s with all this secrecy?
As mentioned earlier, nobody knows how the AAP government will be in action. But we are totally in admiration of this First Couple of Delhi, who we can totally relate to because they are a lot like most of us, aam aadmis and aam aurats. It is only fitting that this aam First Couple of Delhi will having their swearing in ceremony on Valentine’s Day. Mushy, but fitting, don’t you think?
Image Courtesy: BCCL
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