In the summer of 2018, appointments of 10 advisers of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ministers of Delhi were cancelled based on an advice by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. But a fuming Manish Sisodia, then Education Minister, focused only on one name: Atishi Marlena.
“This orders’ actual intention is to remove the adviser to Education Minister, Atishi Marlena… Their target is Atishi Marlena. She is that woman who is working to take the Delhi government’s education to new heights. She has studied from the Oxford University, but works as the adviser at a salary of one rupee,” Mr. Sisodia, who is considered to be number 2 in the AAP, said while addressing a press conference.
Back then, she was not one of the prominent faces of the AAP.
Fast forward six years. Ms. Atishi, now the Education Minister, while addressing a gathering, breaks down and stops to drink a sip of water. “Delhi’s education revolution’s founder Manish Sisodia, who was arrested in a false case and jailed for 17 months, got bail today… Today, truth has won.”
At this time, Ms. Atishi held about 13 portfolios in the Delhi government — the highest at the time by any Minister and was considered to run the Delhi government with both Mr. Sisodia and party chief Arvind Kejriwal in jail.
The two events also, to an extent, explain Ms. Atishi’s meteoric rise from a backroom person in the AAP government to the party’s choice for the Chief Minister’s post.
Party insiders say she is “extremely hard working” and “loyal”, and it is because of the trust Mr. Kejriwal has on her that Ms. Atishi, a first-time MLA and Minister, was picked as the CM over multiple founding members.
But it did not come easy.
Oxford to AAP
Born to Tripta Wahi and Vijay Singh, both professors, Ms. Atishi did her schooling from Springdales School in New Delhi and went on to study history at St. Stephen’s College. She pursued her Master’s on a Chevening scholarship at the Oxford University. A few years later she earned her second Master’s from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar in Educational Research.
After coming back to India, she taught at a school for a while and then she spent several years in a village in Madhya Pradesh, engaging in organic farming and progressive education systems. She joined the AAP in 2013 and played a crucial role in shaping the party’s policies, including as a key member of the 2013 Manifesto Drafting Committee of the AAP.
Later that year, the AAP came to power in Delhi, but it was only for 49 days. Ms. Atishi continued to work behind the scenes. In 2015, the AAP won the Assembly election and came back to power in Delhi.
“She started off with the party in 2013 by spending 25% of her time for the AAP. That was the deal she had. But after the 49-day government fell, she started spending more time with the party. But with the historic mandate that we got in 2015, Arvind ji and others asked her join full time and she did,” an AAP insider said.
But shortly, a spat ensued between founding members Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav versus party chief Mr. Kejriwal. Ms. Atishi, who was considered to be close to the former camp, was removed as a spokesperson of the party.
It was under these circumstances that she picked a side.
She wrote an email to Mr. Bhushan and Mr. Yadav and said that though she would continue to hold both of them in the highest regard, their paths could not be common any more. Within days, both the founding members were expelled from the party. And in July 2015, she was appointed as the adviser to the Education Minister.
Sporting a kurta and dupatta and a small sling bag, she worked behind many of the Delhi government’s education programmes, including “mission buniyaad” (to enhance students’ foundational literacy and numeracy skills) and happiness curriculum.
The AAP started allocating 22-23% of the annual Budget for education and made education a cornerstone of what was later coined as the ‘Delhi model of governance’ or the ‘Arvind Kejriwal model of governance’.
After she was removed as adviser in 2018, she was announced as the AAP’s East Delhi candidate for the 2019 Lok Sabha election. This also marked the beginning of Ms. Atishi’s transformation as a politician.
Ahead of the election campaign, she dropped her surname ‘Marlena’ from Twitter and the party also started using only ‘Atishi’ in official communication. She had been given the name Marlena, referring to Marx and Lenin, by her parents. This was apparently in response to a BJP campaign to label her as a Christian.
She also attended a Kshatriya community event that referred to her as ‘Atishi Singh’. Closer to the election, Mr. Sisodia even tweeted that she was a ‘Rajputani’ and her full name was ‘Atishi Singh’.
She lost the election, but later won the Delhi Assembly election from Kalkaji in south Delhi, in 2020.
Over the years, the AAP’s electoral politics crystallised into a promise of the ‘Kejriwal model of governance’, which is a slew of welfare measures and pro-people policies, peppered with Hindutva and nationalism.
Ms. Atishi, like many others, toed the party line.
In 2022, when communal clashes happened in Delhi’s Jahangirpuri, the AAP, including Ms. Atishi, blamed Rohingyas and Bangladeshis.
Later that year, when Mr. Kejriwal demanded that the Indian currency notes should have images of Hindu gods Lakshmi and Ganesh as it will help improve the economy, Ms. Atishi defended the AAP supremo.
Minister Atishi
When Mr. Sisodia was arrested in the Delhi excise policy case in March 2023, Ms. Atishi’s role further expanded in the party. She was soon inducted into the Cabinet and she formed the front line of defence of the party along with Saurabh Bharadwaj.
“She was an academic and a teacher and never thought she would become a full-time politician. In 2013, if you had asked her what her ideal Sunday would be like, she would have said it would be to sit down and read a book. But by the time she was made a Minister, it was impossible for her to even think about it as it would be filled with meeting people. But she has grown to enjoy it,” the AAP insider said.
When Mr. Kejriwal was also arrested in the same case in March this year, Ms. Atishi took the reins from him and ran the government, even though he continued to be the Chief Minister. Ms. Atishi is a member of the party’s political affairs committee (PAC), the highest decision making body.
It was during this time that she proved to be even more effective, another party insider said. “She met with Kejriwal ji in jail and carried out his directions and was in touch with all MLAs and councillors. She showed that she can run the government,” the insider said.
Two days after Mr. Kejriwal was granted bail by the Supreme Court on September 13, he announced that he would step down as CM as he wants to face ‘Agni Pariksha’ in the public’s court and would sit in the CM’s seat only after they elect him again.
In reality, Mr. Kejriwal’s bail conditions limit his powers as CM to certain extent, and a fully empowered Chief Minister could mobilise a welfare crescendo ahead of the election, due in February 2025. Also, the BJP has been relentlessly trying to paint the AAP and its chief as corrupt with three of its top leaders being arrested in the Delhi excise policy case.
In that moment of need, Mr. Kejriwal wanted a safe choice with an unblemished record — in short, Ms. Atishi.
For the time being, Ms. Atishi has got exactly what the AAP supremo was looking for — unwavering faith and loyalty. But the big question is, will Ms. Atishi continue to remain so?
Published – September 22, 2024 01:12 am IST
