How Mark Zuckerberg and Arvind Kejriwal share a trait
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, during his testimony before the United States Congress, apologised several times for his social media company’s failures. After Zuckerberg’s “sorry”, Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hit out at the Congress saying party president Rahul Gandhi should apologise and promise not to manipulate voters.
While Prasad might have targeted Rahul Gandhi, back home Zuckerberg’s admission of guilt came quite close to the apology spree by Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal.
As far as apologising is concerned, Zuckerberg and Kejriwal seem to have at least one trait in common.
MARK ZUCKERBERG
During his testimony, the Facebook CEO conceded that his social media company must work harder at ensuring the tools it creates are used in “good and healthy” ways. “We have made a lot of mistakes in running the company,” he said.
While testifying before the US Senate after a firestorm erupted over Facebook’s alleged failure to protect its users’ data, Zuckerberg conceded that 2018 is an “important election year” in countries including India. He assured that Facebook would do everything to “protect the integrity” of the upcoming elections.
ARVIND KEJRIWAL
Zuckerberg may have apologised for the first time but Arvind Kejriwal has earned the dubious distinction of saying “sorry” several times and on more than one occasion.
The Delhi chief minister apologised perhaps for the first time in 2015. That year his government was sworn in for the second time. Kejriwal repeatedly and profusely apologised to the Delhi voters for having quit power in February 2014 in a huff.
He admitted his guilt and promised that he would never quit power ever again.
Last month, Kejriwal apologised to Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia for having levelled “unfounded” allegations related to involvement in drugs trade against the latter.
Subsequently, the AAP chief went on to say sorry to four other people – Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal, his son Amit Sibal and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Jaitley filed a Rs 10-crore defamation suit filed against Kejriwal and five others – Raghav Chadha, Kumar Vishwas, Ashutosh, Sanjay Singh and Deepak Bajpai – of the AAP. They had alleged irregularities and financial bungling in the DDCA when Jaitley was its president between 1999 and 2013.
Senior AAP leaders said that Arvind Kejriwal was fighting more than 20 defamation cases filed against him in several parts of the country. The apologies were being made to get rid of such cases which were hampering the work of the Delhi government.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minisrter Manish Sisodia said they, by saying sorry, had not spared time for court but for themselves so that they could fight for people.
