New Delhi, Feb. 10 -- In 2013, Arvind Kejriwal had come to the Dainik Hindustan office and told a senior colleague that the newspaper's coverage of the Lokpal Movement, which was of "critical importance", was lukewarm. He expressed a desire to interact with our editorial staff and hold elaborate consultations on Lokpal, corruption, and the right to information. Those were the days in Kejriwal's public journey when he was an activist. He has come a long way since.

His party won Delhi assembly elections thrice and formed the government in Punjab. At the last assembly elections in Gujarat, though AAP was able to win just five seats, it managed to get the tag of a national party by cornering close to 13% of votes.

Against this backdrop, AAP...