A milestone in Indian politics
The landslide victory of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi state legislative assembly elections (held on Feb7) within a span of a year is indeed historic. AAP won 67 seats out of 70, with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) securing remaining three and Congress unable to even open its account. The re-emergence of AAP is a milestone in Indian politics. The return of Magsaysay award winner and anti-corruption campaigner Arvind Kejriwal as Chief Minister of Delhi indicates a paradigm shift in Indian politics. The AAP victory is not only a resounding verdict on the steadfastness, self-belief and hard work of largely volunteer-driven common man’s party; it is equally a reminder to the ruling Narendra Modi–led BJP government that public goodwill cannot be sustained if promises remain unfulfilled.
At the national level, Modi, who came into power with a thumping majority on the plank of clean governance and development — soon, was seen as a man not eager to look at the issue of corruption and black money through a common man’s lens. Rather than focusing on governance that brings reprieve to the common man, Modi has so far chosen to craft symbolic pillars and exhibit the slogan about development and governance.
Even at the state level in Delhi, BJP never walked the talk. Despite initially refusing to form the government, as it was short on numbers, why did it make frantic attempts to form government in Delhi by horse-trading over the last several months? Secondly, while the general public suffocated with sustained corruption and inefficiency in offices, the BJP controlled Delhi Municipal Council found no improvement in quality of local infrastructure; rather it thrust a larger than life portrayal of its prime minister. It goes to the credit of Kejriwal that his party was able to highlight this duplicity and at the same time thwart the efforts of government formation by BJP by hook or crook. Despite the fact that media and intellectuals had written off Kejriwal’s politics, the diminutive figure kept his peace and kept demanding for what a common man aspires — right to better civic facilities and some grace.
Delhi assembly elections 2015 are a watershed moment in the history of Indian politics. What started as a hiccup and bump experiment in 2013 now enjoys approval in Indian politics
The paratrooping of Kiran Bedi by BJP initially seemed to be a masterstroke by party strategist and president Amit Shah. But in retrospect she did a disservice to her newfound love by needless utterances, grumbling tone and tenor. Similarly, Modi on a path to leverage Obama’s visit to impress upon Delhi voters, went on to wear a 10 lakh suit with embroidered pinstripes with his name in golden colour. It left the men on the streets gasping for breath.
With BJP ascending to power succeeding Congress-led UPA government of Dr Manmohan Singh in May last year, the local state unit of BJP was in a formidable position to serve the public through its Members of Legislative Assembly (MLAs) and a supportive Lieutenant Governor, but it chose to direct its energy on personally attacking Arvind Kejriwal and continuously labelling him as a ‘bhagoda’ (absconder). Rather than taking cue from the transparent manner of fund-raising by a fledgling AAP, BJP preferred to vilify AAP. Buoyant with Lok Sabha victory, BJP also chose to rake up divisive politics based upon religion.
Slowly and steadily it is becoming clear to the public that Modi is not a reformer. He wants to maintain the status quo of administration, sprinkling it with a little dose of development. Had he been serious about reforms, the crucial appointments of Chief Information Officer (CIC) and Lokpal would have been made without delay. Similarly, what is preventing him from bringing legislation through Parliament leading to transparency in political finance?
Delhi assembly elections 2015 are a watershed moment in the history of Indian politics. What started as a hiccup and bump experiment in 2013 now enjoys approval in Indian politics. AAP has amply proved that elections can be fought with white money legally donated by the public. It also has exemplified that if there is a will, money influence can be decreased in politics.
The overwhelming response of people coming from out of Delhi and even abroad to volunteer their time and skills is a testimony to mass-mobilisation
AAP also set a new standard in Indian politics by advocating what we call the phenomenon of primaries or caucuses to choose the candidates for elections. While AAP itself has not been able to put this fully in practice, the party has given people a talking point about concepts like ‘internal democracy’ and primaries. AAP also stirred Indian politics by rejecting the caste and community equation in fielding the candidates.
In Delhi elections, caste and religion were not the primary basis of selecting a candidate and the election results have shown that it went well with the electorate. The elections have reinforced another interesting phenomenon of what we call ‘citizen politics’. AAP deciding to contest elections and successfully winning several seats jolted the usual stereotypes that politics was a domain of the wealthy and the privileged few. Also, the methods adopted by AAP like door-to-door campaigning, engaging people in ‘nukkad’ (street-corner) meetings, music walks, metro train campaigns not only gave them time to connect to the electorate, they also proved to be very economical models of election campaigning. In fact, Gandhi topi (cap) and ‘jhadoo’ (broom) were good eye catchers for the public.
The spirit of volunteerism in politics is another fascinating aspect that AAP has been able to successfully demonstrate and sustain. The overwhelming response of people coming from out of Delhi and even abroad to volunteer their time and skills is a testimony to mass-mobilisation. Whereas other parties have an established culture of paid workers, AAP was able to mobilise public participation for political action. With the emergence of what Kejriwal-led AAP terms as ‘clean politics’, the other political parties would be forced to adopt the agenda. AAP has come in clear support of measures like political parties coming under (right to Information) RTI scanner, a stronger Lokpal Act, electoral reforms like ‘right to reject’ and ‘right to recall’. Thus, other political parties will be forced to re-examine their stands. Let us hope an era of new politics demanding more accountability and transparency has arrived!
