Arvind Kejriwal - An Insignificant Man: Life before 2011

Updated: 4/1/2024
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Childhood[1]

  • Arvind Kejriwal was born and brought up in Haryana
  • Born on 16 August 1968, that day was ‘Janmashtami’. So Arvind was called Krishna at home
  • Born in ‘Sewani Mandi’, district Hisar, Haryana

Family[2]

  • Arvind’s father Govindaram is an electrical engineer from Mesra’s Birla Institute of Technology
  • Mother Gita Devi, a housewife, Arvind was the eldest of three siblings
  • In his first memories Arvind recalls- “I had huge pressure to come first in class, and I did.”

Dedication to the cause: Anecdote from his school days[3]

Friends speak of an incident when

  • Arvind had been selected to represent his school in a debate, but got high fever the night before the competition
  • No one expected him to turn up the next day
  • But he reached the venue riding pillion on his father’s scooter wrapped in blankets, determined to not let the school down

Responsible brother[3:1]

When his younger sister Ranjana took ill the night before a Class VIII exam, unable to study, he stayed up all night reading textbooks to her so she could revise without having to concentrate too hard. Ranjana is a doctor now.

B Tech from IIT Kharagpur[4]

  • A mechanical engineering student from 1985-89
  • Arvind Kejriwal’s CGPA was more than 8.5 in IIT[5]
  • Kejriwal stayed in D Block, Top West (The West Wing, Third Floor) Nehru Hall
  • More than two decades later, hostelers still refer to him as “our man”

Honesty in the blood[6]

Pradip Gupta, who runs the canteen at Nehru Hall, recalls that the time AK became mess secretary

“One thing I noticed was that he never had a free meal, which he could have had as in-charge of the mess. He was always very honest”

True Nationalist: Dedicated to country's cause, not after money[3:2]

Another batch-mate, George Lobo, who now lives in the US says

While the rest of them were busy planning careers overseas, Kejriwal would always talk about doing something that would change India

“He(AK) was a bright student with a world of opportunities in front of him. How many of us dedicate our lives to the nation when we have a lucrative career in front of us?”

“I’m making good money here in the US and Arvind was ten times smarter than me.”

His Early Inspiration

His early influences were V.P. Singh, whose honesty in the Bofors scam as defence minister and whose efforts for social justice by implementing reservation on the basis of the Mandal Commission report as prime minister, inspired a young Kejriwal.

Professional Career

  • After IIT graduation, he began his career at TATA Steel, Jamshedpur (The biggest Steel Plant of India)
  • Worked for almost four years from 1989 till 1992.
  • Arvind resigned, as TATA officials refused his request to transfer him to their social work department[3:3]

Mother Teresa, Ramakrishna Mission & the turning point in his life

  • He worked with Mother Teresa and then at Ramakrishna Mission and Nehru Yuva Kendra.
  • This was the real turning point in his life, when he went to meet Mother Teresa in Kolkata after resigning from Tata Steel

Kejriwal explains[7]

“Kolkata is very close to Jamshedpur. I’d heard of Mother Teresa, so I thought I’d go meet her. There was a long queue. When my number came, Mother Teresa kissed my hand and I expressed my wish to work with her. It was a divine moment for me. She asked me to go and work at her Kalighat Ashram. I was there for two months,”

“I used to clean their wounds, which were often almost gangrenous, and give them a bath.”

In 2016, Arvind Kejriwal was extended invitation from the Papacy for the canonisation ceremony and he attended in Vatican city[8]

IRS Service

He joined the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) as an Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax in 1995, after qualifying  UPSC Civil Services.[9]

Marriage

  • It was during his IRS training in Mussoorie in 1993 that Kejriwal met Sunita, a fellow IRS officer
  • He got to know her better during the 62-week induction programme for IRS officers in Nagpur
  • They were married in 1994 before they both got their first postings in New Delhi[3:4]

“We admired each other. She’s a very shy person, a very decent person. One day, I just knocked on her door and asked her: ‘Will you marry me?’ And that was it,” Kejriwal was quoted

Shocking experiences as an IRS officer[10]

On his first day working in the Indian Revenue Service, Arvind Kejriwal had a heart-to-heart talk with his boss. “In the first few years of your service, you should make sufficient money for yourself so that you can appear to be honest for the rest of your life,” the young Kejriwal was advised. Slowly and gradually, it started dawning on him that almost everyone was corrupt.

In 1998, he and his boss conducted a IT raid on the offices of a multinational and found evidence of extensive tax evasion. A huge penalty was imposed on the company.

“They did not even appeal our verdict. The CEO, a foreigner, threatened us. He said ‘we control your Government, we can get anyone transferred.” recalls Kejriwal and his boss was transferred in a week.

Quitting IRS and loan to reimburse the government

Kejriwal would leave IRS three years later to focus on his NGO Parivartan.[11] His close friends from college days helped him raise loans to reimburse the government when he took his voluntary retirement from the civil services.[12]

NGO Parivartan, Social Activism & RTI law

After quitting the revenue service, Kejriwal started an NGO, Parivartan, with donation money

  • Parivartan NGO became a champion of the right to information and anti-corruption issues.
  • “Don’t pay bribes!” campaign at the tax department, which resulted in getting the tax commissioner to implement tax reforms that made the tax department more transparent and less capricious[10:1]
  • He campaigned extensively to bring in India’s first Right to Information Act, he succeeded when Delhi Govt accepted his demands to pass RTI act in 2001.
  • Kejriwal used RTI in corruption cases in many government departments including the Income Tax Department and others[13]
  • Kejriwal put the new RTI law to good use in Sundernagari, a New Delhi slum[14]
  • In 2004, Parivartan also stopped the World Bank project for the water supply privatization, which would have resulted in a likely ten-fold hike in water tariffs by the then Delhi Govt led by Sheila Dikshit[15]
  • The Parivartan-led movement also resulted in a court order that required private schools, which had received public land at discounted prices, to admit more than 700 poor kids without a fee.
  • Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia launched Kabir, a registered NGO named after the medieval philosopher Kabir, it was focused on Participatory Governance and aimed to provide quality education to underprivileged children[16]

Ramon Magsaysay Award - “Nobel Prize of Asia”

  • His works earned him the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2006
  • He donated his prize money, a whopping $50,000 as seed fund for an NGO – Public Cause Research Foundation. Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi served as the Foundation trustees.[17]

For more detailed article by the author: https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2023/06/arvind-kejriwal-the-man-the-myth-the-legend-his-days-before-2011/

References:

  1. https://theasianchronicle.com/arvind-kejriwal-was-born-on-the-day-of-janmashtami/ ↩︎

  2. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/arvind-kejriwal-delhi-s-chief-micromanager-thoughtful-tactician/story-x1J4VDZASIiiE7UFVqmZ0M.html ↩︎

  3. https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/20140106-newsmaker-2013-arvind-kejriwal-aam-aadmi-party-iit-graduate-769499-1999-11-29 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. https://indianexpress.com/article/news-archive/web/the-honest-bachcha/ ↩︎

  5. https://www.deccanherald.com/content/557005/kejriwal-got-563-rank-jee.html ↩︎

  6. http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/the-honest-bachcha/1212862/2 ↩︎

  7. https://www.news18.com/news/india/my-days-with-mother-teresa-my-coming-of-age-kejriwal-1288183.html ↩︎

  8. https://www.india.com/news/india/arvind-kejriwal-accepts-vatican-invitation-to-attend-sainthood-ceremony-of-mother-teresa-on-september-4-1361845/ ↩︎

  9. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/journey-of-an-aam-aadmi-all-you-need-to-know-about-arvind-kejriwal/story-CyY9DiY5I7VIArc8pXelcJ.html ↩︎

  10. https://www.rmaward.asia/awardee/kejriwal-arvind ↩︎ ↩︎

  11. https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/from-the-india-today-archives-2013-arvind-kejriwal-the-arsonist-2367122-2023-05-01 ↩︎

  12. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/people/arvind-kejriwal-the-man-and-his-moments/family-time/slideshow/27844476.cms?from=mdr ↩︎

  13. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/photo/india-today-newsmaker-arvind-kejriwal-368971-2012-12-27 ↩︎

  14. https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/change-begins-with-small-things/232016 ↩︎

  15. https://www.moneylife.in/article/rti-expose-of-how-world-bank-had-arm-twisted-delhi-jal-board-for-water-privatisation/23217.html ↩︎

  16. https://www.ngofoundation.in/ngo-directory/kabir-society-in-delhi-delhi_i43330 ↩︎

  17. https://fountainink.in/essay/the-evolution-of-arvind-kejriwal ↩︎

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