It was January 2024 when Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) boss and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal nominated 39-year-old Swati Maliwal to the Upper House, axing Sushil Gupta and re-nominating sitting Rajya Sabha MPs Sanjay Singh and ND Gupta. For the young activist, it was an unprecedented honour to enter Parliament.
The AAP did not have a woman MP in Parliament and the top leadership of the party had expected that Maliwal would be its woman face in the House. An old colleague of both Kejriwal and his former PS Bibhav Kumar — their association goes back more than 15 years. The party had never doubted that Maliwal would be loyal and work to strengthen it. And, by rewarding an ‘old face’, the signal was that volunteers and work matter. After all, Maliwal had carved a space for herself as an outspoken and fearless voice.
Elections in Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana and Assam — states where the AAP is contesting — were roughly five months away. Additionally, other top leaders of the party — Sanjay Singh, Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and communication in-charge Vijay Nair — were already behind bars. There was strong speculation that the Delhi chief minister would be next. It is in this backdrop that Maliwal was made an MP with the expectation that she would lend her shoulder to the AAP’s wheel in protests and campaigns, hold the party together and be available for other leaders. It was evident that she enjoyed the trust of the chief minister.
That, however, was January 2024. Barely a month later, Maliwal left for the US, even while three former AAP ministers and its communication in-charge fought and lost court battles for a bail, and speculation was rife that the next to be arrested would be Kejriwal. She left despite hints being dropped that she should stay in India and be available for party work. On February 18, 2024, Maliwal posted on social networking site X: “Honoured to speak at the Harvard University @HarvardIndiaCon USA, with National Award filmmaker Vibha Bakshi & @rahulsen_ on the topic “Building Bridges: Gender, Allyship and Social Change. #ICH2024.I thank Harvard University for this opportunity.”
Her prolonged absence continued despite Kejriwal’s arrest on March 21. This compounded her problems as resentment against her within the party grew and even the BJP taunted the AAP. Maliwal did not cut short her trip even then. While several of AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs — notably from Punjab, including Raghav Chadha — were missing on the ground as the party went through its worst crisis, Maliwal was different precisely because of the reasons that she has highlighted — after all, she is a “two-decade-old karyarta of the party”.
The MP returned to India almost a month after Kejriwal’s arrest and started campaigning for AAP from April 26. Kejriwal was released on interim bail just 14 days later on May 10.
One of the reasons that Maliwal was away for so long was clarified by her on X in reply to BJP’s Amit Malviya on March 29. “Bas thoda sa waqt khair maan lo IT cell fake news factory …behen ka ilaz pura ho rha hai aur bahut zaldi aa rhi hun”. In other words, she said she would be back as soon as her sister’s treatment was over.
Unfortunately, for Maliwal, post her US trip, neither Kejriwal nor his wife Sunita Kejriwal gave her an appointment for a meeting. While nearly all others had a meeting with Kejriwal or his wife who led the AAP’s campaign in his absence and got their pictures clicked, Maliwal did not. She had clearly misread the signals and perhaps understood that neither her boss nor her colleagues were keen to accommodate her interests. Perhaps, if she had been patient, Kejriwal would have met her. But Maliwal did not wait.
On May 13, three days after Kejriwal’s release on interim bail, Maliwal reached his house early morning without an appointment and demanded to meet him. This is confirmed from both sides as Maliwal, even in her complaint, has not mentioned that she had taken an appointment. Bibhav Kumar, the one she has accused of grievous charges of assault, abuse and more, mentioned clearly that she did not have an appointment. Vandana Singh, an AAP volunteer sympathising with Maliwal, posted on X saying: “Even if she did not have an appointment will you get her beaten up? In any case, she always met the chief minister without any appointments.”
Maliwal’s call to 112 from the chief minister’s residence and her going to the Civil Lines police station was perhaps the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. Despite the unpleasantness, AAP and Maliwal did try for a reconciliation. AAP MP Sanjay Singh met Maliwal and issued a statement admitting to the alleged assault and promising action against Kumar. Singh was confident that Maliwal would not file an FIR. However, after Kumar was spotted in Lucknow with Kejriwal and Singh, Maliwal dialled the police again. Effectively, Maliwal has burnt all bridges with all the senior leaders in the party.
Maliwal was not with the AAP as the party fought its first elections in 2013 as she did not agree with the anti-corruption movement splitting to go political. She returned in 2014 when her former husband Naveen Jaihind was given a ticket to contest from Haryana. She stayed on and, for a brief while, was in-charge of Swaraj Sabhas. Her big opportunity came when she was appointed as the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson in 2015, a position she held until she quit to become a member of Parliament.
AAP suspects that Maliwal is in touch with a BJP leader and had come to Kejriwal’s residence to ‘harm’ him. AAP minister Atishi claimed that the BJP hatched a conspiracy and sent Maliwal. “Swati Maliwal is the face of BJP’s conspiracy,” she claimed. The BJP, meanwhile, rubbished AAP’s charges while mounting pressure on Kejriwal.
Delhi elections are less than 10 days away and the Swati Maliwal controversy could not have come at a worse time for AAP — especially with Dalit-Muslim-Woman consolidation in favour of the AAP-Congress alliance. On the other hand, the BJP will milk the controversy to raise questions about AAP’s commitment to safety and dignity of women.
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