Arvind Kejriwal

Arvind Kejriwal
Arvind Kejriwal is an Indian politician and the current Chief Minister of Delhi since February 2015. He is the founder of the Aam Aadmi Party and launched in the year 2012. Kejriwal was elected as the Chief Minister of Delhi for the first time in December 2013 and he resigned after 49 days in February 2014. Kejriwal is also the national convener Of Aam Aadmi Party which won the 2015 Delhi Assembly Elections with a majority obtaining 67 out of 70 assembly seats. Arvind Kejriwal is a former Indian Revenue Service officer and is better known for his key role in drafting the Jan Lokpal bill. In 1999, he founded Parivartan, an NGO aiming to assist the citizens in electricity, income tax and public distribution system related matters. In 2011, Arvind Kejriwal along with several other activists including Anna Hazare and Kiran Bedi form the India Against Corruption (IAC). The IAC demanded the enactment of the Jan Lokpal Bill and the campaign evolved into the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement.Born on 16th August 1968 in an upper middle class educated family in Siwani, Haryana, Arvind Kejriwal is the first of the three children of Gobind Ram Kejriwal and Gita Devi. Arvind Kejriwal has a younger brother and a younger sister. His father Gobind Ram Kejriwal was an electrical engineer from Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra. His fathers work has led to many changes in the familys residence. Arvind Kejriwal spent most of his childhood days in towns like Ghaziabad, Hisar and Sonepat. He studied at the Campus school in Hisar and graduated in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. He joined Tata Steel in 1989 and got his posting in Jamshedpur which he resigned in 1992 taking leave of absence to study for the Civil Services Examination. He then later spent some time in Kolkata and volunteered with The Missionaries of Charity and at the Ramkrishna Mission in north east. After qualifying through the Civil Services Examination Kejriwal joined the IRS as an Assistant Commisioner of Income Tax in 1995. He was granted a two years paid leave for persuing his higher studies with the condition that after resuming his work he would not resign from the services for at least three years. Kejriwal rejoined on 2002. According to him, he did not have any grant for about an year and he asked for a 18 unpaid leave. Kejriwal was for an unpaid leave for the next 18 months. He resigned in February 2006. The Indian Government said that Kejriwal has violated his contract whereas Kejriwal said that the sanction of 18 months of leave and the 18 months of work amounted to the stipulated three year period and this was an attempt by the government to defame him because of his participation in anti corruption movement. The case ran until 2011 and Kejriwal had to pay rupees 927,787 as dues but Kejriwal paid the amount on the condition that this must not be considered as an admission of fault. While working with the Income Tax Department, he with Manish Sisodia and others assisted the NGO Parivartan in 1999. Parivartan used to redress public issues mostly related to the Public Distribution System, income tax and electricity. Parivartan became inactive by 2012. Kejriwal along with social activists like Anna Hazare, Aruna Roy and Shekhar Singh came to be recognized as an important contributor for the national level Right To Information Act. In 2011, Kejriwal joined Kiran Bedi , Anna Hazare among others to form the India Against Corruption which demanded the enactment of the Jan Lokpal Bill which would result in a strong ombudsman. During the nation-wide protest against corruption, there were issues in ideologies of Arvind Kejriwal and Anna Hazare. Anna wanted the bill to pass and the movement to be politically neutral, whereas Kejriwal had the belief that there has been no progress of the talks with different parties and it was necessary to be involved in politics. Kejriwal move was supported by Shanti Bhushan and Prashant Bhushan. On 2nd October 2012, Kejriwal announced the formation of a political party and the party would be formally launched on 26th November 2012. Anna Hazare kept himself away from the party and they both parted their ways. On November 2012, the party was launched with the name of Aam Aadmi Party and Kejriwal was eleted as their National Convener. The party name reflects common man. Aam Aadmi Party decided to contest the 2013 Delhi Legislative Assembly 2013 and Kejriwal contested against Sheila Dixit for the Chief Minister candidate. Aam Aadmi party formed the government but dissolved it within 49 days. In 2014, Kejriwl contested against Narendra Modi on the Varanasi seat but lost the election by 3,70,000 votes. In the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections Aam Aadmi Party had a huge win and they acquired 67 out of 70 seats. Arvind Kejriwal became the Chief Minister and he took oath for the second time on 14th February .Arvind Kejriwal married Sunita, a 1993 batch IRS officer. She took voluntary retirement in 2016 as Commisioner of Income Tax. The couple has one kid and one daughter Kejriwal is a vegetarian and he is also diabetic. He won the 2006 Ramson Magsaysay Award for Emergement Leadership for the contribution in empowering the poorest at the grassroot level and implementation of RTI.He created a corpus fund with the award money and founded an NGO Public Cause Research Foundation in 2006. He won the Ashoka Fellow in 2004, in 2005 IIT Kanpur presented him with the Satyendra K Dubey Memorial Award. He is also the receiver of the CNN-IBN Indian of the year award in 2006. In 2009, IIT Kharagpur bestowed him the Distinguished Alumnus Award. In 2011, Kejriwal and Anna Hazare received Indian of the year award from NDTV.The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence awarded Kejriwal, along with Aruna Roy, the Policy Change Agent of the Year award in 2010. Kejriwal is the author of the book Swaraj. The book questions the present democratic system in India and suggests the way people can achieve true Swaraj.
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