Changing times in Delhi

(28 Dec 2013)

Arvind Kejriwal taking oath as Delhi’s youngest ever Chief Minister at the sprawling Ram Leela maidan is a moment of pride for each one of us, for it is symbolic of the coming of the ‘aam aadmi’ which we all are. It’s not been an ordinary assembly election, and how the party has so far done what they’ve done is far from being conventional. Of significant importance is the fact that despite the party coming second to the BJP, the electorate actually thought they had ‘won’! Such has been the magic of AAP.

It is for political pundits to debate whether AAP benefited from the strong anti-Congress wave that was so clearly visible across all the four big states that recently went to the polls. Some may also mourn that AAP has created a dent in the BJP’s otherwise clean sweep of all the other assemblies. Let all of this logic rest in peace for now!

What is far more historic in a sense is that in a country whose mainstream political class has for decades silenced its people’s basic rights through a shameful demonstration of all sorts of anarchism, it is still possible to awaken masses and galvanize them to force a change long aspired but long forgotten. This fairytale success of a political party which is still in its infancy and which has constantly been challenged for its unconventional methods in reaching out to people and engaging them in decision making, is a classic proof that the voter of the largest democracy in the world can no longer be taken for granted. The voter has been taken for a not so rosy ride by the political establishment of the country and as a result he had almost forgotten that an alternative is indeed possible. He’s now woken up and ensured that his voice through exercising voting rights was heard!

Many experts would say it is just too early to write a political obituary of the conventional way of doing politics in India. Yes, they’re absolutely right. The tiny Delhi state elections cannot be equated to the mighty Lok Sabha polls, and with less than five months to the run up to the big day, AAP may find it extremely difficult to replicate the Delhi wave across the country, primarily because they’ll be pitted against the biggies of money power and institutionalized political fraternities.

But, every revolution starts with a few brave and selfless men and women. So has this one. The Delhi elections, unlike what many say, were not fought on local issues. Corruption is not an issue only in Delhi; price rise hasn’t impacted only the people of Delhi; water and electricity are amongst the most burning national issues. It hit the right chord with the electorate because this is the kind of issues AAP highlighted. They did not promise color televisions or a Ram temple.

The new government in Delhi may not run for long, especially with the public perception of the Congress capable of pulling the plug on AAP any time. With AAP promising that they will go after all corrupt officials across party lines, Congress may not find it amusing to be seen as ‘supporting’ them, albeit from outside. The new government will anyway not have plenty of time to bring in new policies as the model code of conduct is due soon, but if they can through speedy delivery prove to the people of the country that what they promised isn’t mere pre-election speech as has been the culture so far, they’ll score a winning point. The Congress will, on the other hand, be extremely wary of annoying the public again, knowing well that public sympathy at the moment is strongly in favor of Arvind Kejriwal’s party.

I congratulate the people of Delhi for the courage they’ve shown to come out of the conventional shell and for being the pioneers of what could one day become the catalyst of a new India. I believe if you could do this, so can rest of India. Good luck! 

AAP: What Next?

(17 Dec 2013)

Despite the unquestionably clean intention behind all the tall promises made by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) before the Delhi legislative assembly elections, what has all throughout remained unclear is just how Arvind Kejriwal and his team would deliver these. Kejriwal time without count in all public and media appearances he made before the polls reiterated that even though his team was largely inexperienced in politics or administration, they would fulfill the promises armed with the right intention (‘niyat’ in Hindi). Although this may be perceived as an abstract plan for achieving some really high targets, people of Delhi have trusted AAP and almost voted them in. The debut they’ve had cannot be termed anything short of historic. It has clearly been more spectacular than even team Kejriwal would have imagined. And, that precisely is the problem for them today!

It is factual truth they don’t have clear majority and they aren’t the single largest party. If it was the anti-defection law era, the BJP, by virtue of being the party with most number of seats, would have aggressively participated in horse trading and Dr. Harshvardhan would be the Delhi chief minister now. Times have changed. Political parties have realized that the voters aren’t as foolish as they perhaps were earlier. There has been a strong anti-corruption wave in Delhi and political parties understood the importance of projecting a ‘clean’ face in their political transactions and dealings. Thanks to all this, BJP expressed its inability to form the government, and the next obvious constitutional choice was AAP. Now, this is where it gets really tricky for AAP.

Quite expectedly, both Congress and BJP are mounting pressure on AAP to ‘form’ the government with outside support from them. They’ve started attacking the party for what they call avoiding responsibility. Kejriwal’s team have maintained that they do not have decisive people’s mandate, and also due to the stark ideological differences with Congress and BJP, they won’t form an alliance for the sake of governing the state. Quite sadly for AAP, many who voted for them have started questioning Kejriwal on why he, despite being offered ‘unconditional’ support by Congress and ‘constructive’ support by BJP, is reluctant to take charge of the state. Honestly, all that people are worried about and interested in is for AAP to fulfill its poll manifesto. After all, in addition to the anti-corruption stand of the party, it is their promises of significantly subsidized delivery of essential services like electricity and water that have aroused the keenness in voters.

Until now, it’s been a winning plot for AAP. But what is next for them? Other political parties have already started going to the electorate with theories of AAP cheating them, of AAP not being serious about fulfilling their democratic commitments, of AAP shying away from responsibility. Many ardent supporters of AAP have started voicing their displeasure with Kejriwal’s – what some would say – delay tactic by indulging into the unique yet superlatively funny SMS voting!

One only hopes that by doing all it has been doing in the last few days, AAP is not plotting a political hara-kiri!