Sunday Times 2
India anti-graft hero sworn in as Delhi top leader
View(s):NEW DELHI, Dec 28 (AFP)- Anti-corruption champion Arvind Kejriwal was sworn in today as chief minister of India’s national capital region in what supporters hoped would mark a turning point in the nation’s graft-ridden politics.
Huge cheers rang out as Kejriwal, who arrived for the ceremony on the city’s subway, took the oath office in front of tens of thousands of supporters assembled in a Delhi park wearing white caps emblazoned with Kejriwal’s slogan, “I am a common man”.
India's Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man's Party) leader Arvind Kejriwal (AFP)
“I will do my duties as a minister honestly, without any fear or bias,” Kejriwal said as he took the oath on a flower bedecked dais.
Cries of “Long Live the Aam Admi — Common Man — Party” and “Mother India” rang out from the sea of supporters while some waived placards saying “Today Delhi, Tomorrow the Country.” Police estimates of the crowd ranged as high as 100,000.
Kejriwal’s upstart Aam Admi Party made a stunning electoral debut, winning 28 assembly seats in recent state polls and delivering a stinging defeat to the Congress party which rules at the national level.
“It is the common man’s victory,” Kejriwal declared ahead of taking the subway to his swearing-in — unprecedented for any Indian dignitary going to an oath-taking ceremony.
“If we all come together then we can can change the country,” he said. The former tax inspector’s decision to use public transport echoes his pre-poll promise to end the VIP culture of Delhi’s political elite and set a down-to-earth tone for his new administration.
The grounds are considered ground zero of India’s corruption movement where some of the biggest rallies against a string of government graft scandals were held two years ago.
Some observers believe Kejriwal’s victory in Delhi could be mark the start of a national election campaign.
The rookie party’s symbol is a broom — to underline its commitment to sweeping away India’s culture of bribery and corruption that critics say has become endemic in politics and in daily life.