Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Biography: Early Life, Education, Wife, Children, Age and Career

Arvind Kejriwal is the seventh Chief Minister of Delhi and an Indian politician and activist. He is known for his collaboration with activist Anna Hazare to push for the People’s Ombudsman Bill. Before joining politics, Kejriwal worked for Tata Steel and also served as Joint Commissioner of the Income Tax Department in New Delhi.

Arvind Kejriwal: Early Life, Family and Education

Arvind Kejriwal was born on August 16, 1968 in Shivani, Haryana, to Gobind Ram Kejriwal and Geeta Devi in ​​an upper-middle-class family. Kejriwal’s father was an electrical engineer who graduated from the Mesra Birla Institute of Technology.

Arvind Kejriwal was educated at Campus School, Hisar and Holy Son School, Sonipat. In 1985, Kejriwal passed the IIT-JEE examination with an All India Rank (AIR) of 563. He graduated in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. In 1989, Kejriwal joined Tata Steel in Jamshedpur but resigned in 1992 to prepare for the Civil Services Examination.

Kejriwal met Mother Teresa in Kolkata and volunteered with the Missionaries of Charity and the Ramakrishna Mission in Northeast India and the Nehru Youth Center.

Arvind Kejriwal: Career after passing Civil Services Exam

In 1995, Arvind Kejriwal passed the civil service examination and joined the Indian Revenue Service (IRS). He served as Assistant Commissioner of the Income Tax Department. In 2000, Kejriwal applied for a two-year paid leave to pursue further studies. He was granted leave on the condition that he would not resign for at least three years after reinstatement, and if he failed, he would repay the salary during this period.

Kejriwal joined the company in 2002 and did not work for a year. However, he received salary during this period. Therefore, Kejriwal applied for 18 months of unpaid leave, which was approved.

In 2006, Arvind Kejriwal resigned as Joint Commissioner of Income Tax in New Delhi. However, the Indian government claimed that he had violated an agreement reached in 2000 and had not worked for three years. In 2011, Kejriwal paid the outstanding dues of Rs 927,787 to the government with the help of his friends.

Arvind Kejriwal: A career as an activist

In 1999, Arvind Kejriwal along with Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia launched a movement called “Parivartan” in Delhi’s Sundar Nagar area. The movement was aimed at addressing public grievances over the Public Distribution System (PDS), public works, social welfare schemes, income tax and electricity. The movement operated on individual donations. In 2005, Arvind Kejriwal along with Manish Sisodia launched “Kabir” – a registered NGO focusing on RTI and participatory governance. Unlike Parivartan, “Kabir” accepts institutional donations and is primarily managed by Manish Sisodia.

In 2000, a PIL (Public Interest Litigation) was filed by ‘Parivartan’ demanding transparency in the IT sector (public transactions). In 2001, the Delhi government enacted the RTI Act in the state, which allowed citizens to get information from the government by paying a small fee.

In 2002, ‘Parivartan’ obtained government reports on 68 public works projects through RTI and revealed embezzlement worth Rs 70 lakh in 64 of them. In 2003, Privartan exposed a PDS scam in which ration shop dealers colluded with municipal officials to embezzle subsidized food grains.

In 2004, Parivartan obtained reports on water privatization through RTI and questioned the huge expenditure of the government on the project. Later, the project was shelved as Arvind Kejriwal and other activists believed that it would increase water tariffs tenfold, thereby cutting off water supply to the poor sections of society.

Parivartan also cited a court ruling that a private school built on public land acquired at a discount must admit more than 700 poor children free of charge.

Arvind Kejriwal along with other social activists – Anna Hazare, Shekhar Singh etc., campaigned for a nationwide RTI Act which came into force in 2005. In 2006, Arvind Kejriwal was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Emerging Leadership Award for his Parivartan project.

In 2006, Arvind Kejriwal co-founded the Public Service Research Foundation with Manish Sisodia and Abhinandan Sehri, donating the prize money from the Ramon Magsaysay Award as seed money. Prashant Bhushan and Kiran Bedi are the trustees of the newly established foundation.

In 2010, Arvind Kejriwal protested against corruption in the Commonwealth Games and argued that the CVC had no power to take action against the guilty, while on the other hand, the CBI could not conduct a fair investigation against the ministers who controlled it. Kejriwal advocated for the appointment of Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayuktas in the states.

In 2011, Arvind Kejriwal, along with Anna Hazare and Kiran Bedi, formed India Against Corruption (IAC) to demand the enactment of the People’s Ombudsman Bill. Later, the movement evolved into the India Against Corruption Movement 2011. In response to the movement, the National Advisory Committee drafted the People’s Ombudsman Bill. The bill had no power to take action against the Prime Minister and other ministers involved in corruption and was criticized by Kejriwal and other activists.

Activists criticized the election process of the Ombudsman, transparency clauses, etc. During this period, the government formed a committee to draft the Ombudsman Bill, and Arvind Kejriwal was one of the civil society representatives. Arvind Kejriwal accused the elected representatives of the committee of ignoring the suggestions made by activists and behaving like dictators.

Later, Anna Hazare declared a hunger strike and Arvind Kejriwal and other activists were arrested for violating their written commitments. The activists were released and Kejriwal slammed the government police for arbitrarily detaining and releasing them. In 2011, the government and the activists reached a settlement.

2024 Arrest

On March 21, 2024, Arvind Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for missing nine summonses and the Delhi High Court rejected his request for preventive bail in connection with the Delhi liquor policy money laundering case. This was the first time in the history of India that a sitting chief minister was arrested. On May 10, 2024, the Supreme Court granted him interim bail till June 1, 2024.

The Supreme Court later granted bail to Kejriwal in the corruption case on September 12, 2024, and he was released after nearly six months in detention. Kejriwal, a prominent leader of the opposition alliance against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was initially detained in March as part of a long-running corruption investigation, which his supporters claimed was a “political conspiracy” by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

On June 2, 2024, after the expiration of his interim bail, Kejriwal surrendered to Tihar Jail. His judicial custody was then extended till July 3, 2024. On June 20, 2024, he was granted bail but his release was postponed due to an appeal filed by the ED. On June 26, 2024, the CBI arrested him and further extended his custody till July 12, 2024.

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