From a Humble Civil Servant to Delhi Chief Minister ; Arvind Kejriwal
Become the kind of leader that people would follow
voluntarily; even if you had no title or position — Brian Tracy
A leader is a person who successfully rallies his partners to achieve specific goals. A great leader is
one who can lead in a variety of situations day after day, year after year and inspire all those around
him.
Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi Chief Minister, has been playing such an inspirational role for the last
seven years. His government has focused heavily on education and healthcare during this period. He
may be the supremo of the party and government but he is still known as Aam Aadmi (common
man). A former bureaucrat and social activist, he is also noted for his role in the development of the
Jan Lokpal Bill.
Arvind Kejriwal, who is the convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party, was born on August 16, 1968, in
Sewani, Haryana, in an upper-middle-class Agrawal family. Because Kejriwal was born on
Janmashtami, his pet name is Krishna. Govind Ram Kejriwal is his father's name, while Geeta Devi is
his mother's. His father, the head of a humble family, was an electrical engineer. Arvind Kejriwal has
two younger siblings: a sister and a brother.
Arvind Kejriwal grew up in the cities of Ghaziabad, Sonipat, and Hisar. Due to his studies at the Missionaries
School, he has had a deep love for church prayer from childhood. At the same time, few people are
aware that Kejriwal attended a Missionaries School for his primary education. Kejriwal was a
frequent visitor to the Ramakrishna Mission and the Nehru Yuva Kendra.
Arvind Kejriwalgraduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, with a degree in mechanical
engineering in 1989. He got a position with Tata Steel after finishing his mechanical engineering
degree, but he left the company to study and become a civil servant. He joined the Indian Revenue
Service after passing the civil service examination in 1993.
Arvind Kejriwal
With his distinctly political ideas and passion for public service, his social life blossomed when he
started the Parivartan movement in 1999 to uncover the false ration card scam and assist Delhi
residents with income tax, energy, and food rations. He resigned from his job in 2006 to devote
more time to social causes and founded the Public Cause Research Foundation.
Arvind Kejriwal founded the Public Cause Research Foundation in December 2006 alongside Manish Sisodia
and Abhinandan Sekhri. In 2006, Kejriwal received the Raman Magsaysay Award for his contribution
to the RTI Act. He gave the Ramon Magsaysay Award prize money to a charity. Along with the three
founders, Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi served as trustees for the Foundation.
Arvind Kejriwal
It was in 2006 that he joined hands with social activist Anna Hazare, who was protesting the
government's failure to enact the Jan Lokpal Bill. This paved the way for one of the most important
crusades against corruption in Indian history.
In 2011, Kejriwal founded India Against Corruption (IAC) movement alongside activist Anna Hazare
and others to oppose the government's failure to enact the Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen's Ombudsman
Bill). Despite the movement's failure, Kejriwal's fight earned him supporters all around the world. He
founded the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), a new political party, in 2012. In the 2013 Delhi assembly
elections, Kejriwal ran for the New Delhi seat, where he took on Congress leader Smt. Sheila Dikshit,
who had served as Delhi's chief minister for 15 years. He won by 25,864 votes over Sheila Dikshit.
Arvind Kejriwal was elected Chief Minister, but the government was overthrown in less than 50 days.
Following a year of President's rule in Delhi, Kejriwal's AAP won a landslide victory in the 2015
Assembly elections in Delhi, winning 67 of the 70 seats. He was re-elected as CM and has held the
office ever since.
Arvind Kejriwal has written a book titled Swaraj. In the book, he questions India's current democratic
structure and proposes a means for people to attain true Swaraj (self-rule). Gandhi's notion of
Swaraj, or home-rule is proposed in this book. In 2014, the Aam Aadmi Party founder even beat
Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make to the top of Time magazine’s readers’ poll of the world’s
100 most influential people. Kejriwal was voted first in the readers’ poll for the ‘2014 TIME 100,’ an
annual list of people who have influenced the world for better or worse in the previous year.
Arvind Kejriwal married Sunita, an IRS official from the 1993 batch, in 1995. She completed her education at
the National Academy of Direct Taxes in Nagpur, Maharashtra, and holds a master’s degree in
Zoology. Sunita Served as the Commissioner of Income Tax at the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in
New Delhi and retired from the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) on July 15, 2016, after 22 years of
service, under the voluntary retirement plan (VRS). The couple have a son and a daughter. As the
wife of Delhi Chief Minister, Sunita is working shoulder to shoulder with him for the AAP wherever
party decides to make inroads and the recent Punjab victory is a great testimony to how her
participation and contributions are adding tremendous value as well as instilling renewed confidence
to the party cadre working at the ground level.
Arvind Kejriwal
Arvind Kejriwal may be a one of a kind leader but he believes in simplicity. He believes in putting in long
hours. In Indian politics, Arvind Kejriwal stands out for his unique political beliefs and desire for public
service
