Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal’s Vipassana trip to Punjab triggered a political row on Wednesday, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) criticising him for moving in a ‘lavish’ convoy of bulletproof Land Cruisers.
Kejriwal left for Hoshiarpur in Punjab for the meditation course on Tuesday evening for a Vipassana session at a centre on March 5. The meditation session, which will continue till March 15, comes nearly a month after Kejriwal’s party lost power in Delhi to the BJP.
“Arvind Kejriwal, who once pretended to be a common man in a WagonR, now moves in a lavish convoy of bulletproof Land Cruisers, over 100 Punjab Police commandos, jammers and ambulances like a VIP Maharaja all for Vipassana, a retreat meant for peace. If power was his test, he has failed miserably. AAP’s truth is out, deception, hypocrisy, and VIP arrogance at its peak,” BJP’s Manjinder Singh Sirsa, who is now a minister in the chief minister Rekha Gupta-led cabinet of Delhi, said.
Vipassana is an ancient Indian meditation discipline and requires practitioners to abstain from all types of contact, including verbal and gestural communication.
Vipassana since 2013
Kejriwal has been practising Vipassana for a long time and has travelled to several places, including Bengaluru and Jaipur, in the past years to practice the ancient meditation system. He attended a 10-day session at Dhamma Dhaja Vipassana Centre in Anandgarh in Hoshiarpur in December 2023. At that time, Kejriwal faced summons from the Enforcement Directorate for questioning in a money-laundering case linked to Delhi excise policy case.
Here is a list of instances since 2013 when Kejriwal embarked on Vipassana before his latest retreat:
Assembly poll victory
The AAP chief’s first publically knownVipassana session came way back in 2013 days after his party contested first assembly election in Delhi on December 4. Then an anti-graft activist-turned politician, Kejriwal returned from the meditation session just before counting of votes on December 8.
And as it turned out, the AAP won 28 of the 70 Assembly seats in Delhi election. Kejriwal became chief minister for the first time, with support from the Congress party.
Kejriwal stepped down 49 days later due to the inability to pass the anti-corruption Jan Lokpal Bill, with the Congress refusing to support it.
The Lok Sabha Election 2014
Kejriwal’s second meditation session was in 2014 in Haryana. This retreat was days before the 2014 Lok Sabha election results were announced. Kejriwal had contested elections against Narendra Modi from Varanasi. He finished second with 109,238 votes. Modi, then BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, won the seat by bagging 981,022 votes.
The AAP won four of the 432 Lok Sabha seats it contested in the 2014 general elections.
The 2015 win
In August 2016, Kejriwal joined a Vipassana session again, but this time in Dharamkot of Himachal Pradesh. This was months after AAP secured a landslide in the Delhi assembly election 2015, winning 67 of the 70 seats. Kejriwal had become the chief minister for the second time.
Around the same time, Delhi High Court ruled that the Capital “continues to be a Union Territory” under the administrative control of the Lieutenant Governor and “does not acquire the status of a State” in a major setback to AAP and its chief.
Maharashtra and Rajasthan
In September 2017, Kejriwal took part in another 10-day meditation trip in Igatpuri, Maharashtra. This was soon after the AAP won the Bawana bypoll in Delhi.
In September 2021, months before the AAP contested its first Chandigarh Municipal Corporation election, Kejriwal joined a retreat in Jaipur, Rajasthan. “Returning rejuvenated after attending a 10-day Vipassana course,” said Kejriwal after the retreat.
During the course, he had no access to newspapers, televisions or any other media platform and was neither allowed to attend any political programme.
MCD win in 2022
In December 2022, AAP won the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), ending BJP’s three-term rule in the civic body. The AAP also opened its account in the Gujarat Assembly elections, winning five seats.
Kejriwal joined a Vipassana session once again.
ED summons in 2023
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned him for questioning in the Delhi excise policy case in December 2023. But Kejriwal left for a 10-day retreat in Punjab. The CM had also skipped the previous two ED summons.
The BJP targeted Kejriwal over the trip, questioning its timing and also that he went to Punjab. Finally Kejriwal was arrested by ED in March 2024 only to be released in September 2024.
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