Common-man’s Party from Activism to Governance: Myth and Reality of Indian Politics
-DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL
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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal is making the choice of heading a minority government with Congress support from outside The rise of the Aam Aadmi Party has been a welcome change in Indian politics but also agree that the party’s poll promises are somewhat “unfeasible”.
So now India’s debutant Aam Admi Party needs to get out of its activism mode and must meet people’s expectations as it looks set to form a government in Delhi.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), or Common Man’s party, is a minority government with 28 of the 70 seats won in the assembly polls, well short of 8 MLAs to form ministry on its own, and has decided to govern Delhi with support from the Congress.
The rise of AAP is threatening to the Congress and BJP, now more the BJP which seeks to attack Congress and win votes. .AAP shares BJP votes considerably. True, Congress finds it difficult to defend their corruption cases. Kejriwal would target the Congress as well as BJP if he aims very high in Parliamentary polls.
All political parties are power hungry, both national and regional. Congress and BJP vie for power by attacking each other, though anti-Islamism and anti-Mosque politics bind them all together.
All parties have assessed their costs and benefits in making their moves and are hoping that in the next couple of months, the dice will roll their way – at the Lok Sabha elections due in April-May. The risk the BJP is courting is the prowess of Kejriwal. Kejriwal can manage to consolidate on his Aam Aadmi positioning and the BJP would lose not only Delhi, but also a few Lok Sabha seats at national level. Aam Aadmi party can subsume and replace BJP’s role of opposition but without Hindutva agenda.
With too many illegal mining and bribery cases hanging around its “patriotic” the neck, BJP cannot claim to be corruption-free, but it is widely seen as less corrupt and it is also a right-wing party, and more pro-business. Plus it has a projected leader who is seen to be well on governance right now.
BJP is wonder if Kejriwal could announce all kinds of anti-corruption probes of several years of Congress-BJP reigns even while being CM.
The BJP’s political calculation in not staking a claim to form a government despite being the single largest party in Delhi is prompted by the need to be seen as not power hungry before the Lok Sabha polls. The BJP party may be willing to sacrifice a CM post in Delhi in order to win bigger in the Lok Sabha polls. Any covert or overt moves to buy MLAs – not easy in the given scenario anyway – would expose the party’s clean image claims. A factor the BJP probably took into account was the possibility of having to face a belligerent Kejriwal disclosing one corruption scandal after another under its watch. The BJP rules the Municipal Corporation of Delhi. Perhaps the party is gambling on the fact that in government, Kejriwal will be under greater scrutiny for missteps – if any. It may also be gambling that a Kejriwal who has to run government will not be able to spread the AAP’s tentacles to other metro cities quickly enough before the next Lok Sabha polls.
AAP can eat into the Modi magic and deny BJP a good seat count. Both Congress and BJP calculate Kejriwal might rule only for two months – and few people can presume that he will lose all his goodwill in two months. No party that has just won a big mandate ever loses public support so early.
Kejriwal has probably been cornered by a tactical Congress move to give him support and the BJP’s unwillingness to risk a minority government before the Lok Sabha. After playing holier-than-thou to Congress, Kejriwal risked being seen as someone unwilling to shoulder responsibility when offered a chance. He has two months to make his moves – on Jan Lokpal, free water supplies, and power tariff audits. In a crunch all this is possible to demonstrate before the Lok Sabha election code kicks in around end-February. Even if he cannot achieve all his goals, he can claim he needs a majority to make his moves – and most Delhi voters may give him the benefit of doubt.
The “jan sabhas” (people’s assembly) held to decide whether AAP should form a government – which turned out to be free publicity shows for Kejriwal – were extensively covered by the media, while both Congress and BJP are left out in the cold.
BJP knows well that it was AAP poll campaign that helped the party to win so many MLA seats in Delhi though AAP also got so many seats- not expected by BJP which wanted to reap all benefits of AAP campaign.
AAP has occupied the pro-people space that the Congress always sought and is almost the same kind of non-communal populist party Congress wanted to be.
For Congress, however, BJP and its supportive media remains the top opponent at all India level chiefly because AAP has not yet expanded its canvas being Delhi. .
Observation
AAP has been amplified due to the party’s overt criticism of other political parties. Given the manner in which the AAP has attacked all political parties, accusing them of betraying the trust of the people, it will have to deliver on its promises double quick once it takes over the government. And therein lies the will of the government to deliver.
Indian political history reveals that anti-corruption platforms are difficult to sustain, while governance is a larger platform to own for a political party. They lose the steam and both Congress and BJP defeated them eventually. AAP needs to change that view and mindset with good performance.
Perhaps, anti-corruption alone is not a good enough plank for the long-term, for it is governance that matters. This does not mean AAP will not dent the BJP in 2014. But it does mean that over the long term, its economic plank will become more important than its pure anti-corruption rhetoric.
Perhaps corruption and bribery are inherent in Indian consciousness and will come out sooner than later when Lokpal, under pressure and other mischief by politicians, cools down.
Good governance can make the AAP look larger than Congress and BJP put together.
The task of governance, it will find, is not about pleasing everyone all the time, but of weighing competing claims, making choices and taking responsibility for them.
Now that their favorite AAP has come to power, Delhiites expect quite a lot from the new rulers who are people friendly. AAP must fulfill its promise of auditing private electricity distribution companies and slashing power bills by 50%. While an audit is welcome, a massive reduction in power tariffs is improbable given rising coal and gas prices. But AAP must keep its word given to the people of Delhi and slash the tariff to 50%. And let the future requirements could settle the matter in favor the people. AAP may have to adjust its approach as it now has to govern Delhi.
The AAP’s journey from mass movement to curb corruption to political office in just one year is without a parallel in Indian electoral history but “the real test of the AAP’s commitment to clean politics and transparent governance begins now.
د. عبد راف
–BY DR. ABDUL RUFF COLACHAL has been an educationist, Columnist-Commentator on world affairs Expert on Mideast Affairs, Chronicler of Foreign occupations & Freedom movements (Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Xinjiang, Chechnya, etc.) Chancellor-Founder of Centor for International Affairs(CIA); Former university Teacher; Editor:INTERNATIONAL OPINION; FOREIGN POLICY ISSUES; Author of books;website: http://abdulruff.wordpress.com/ mail: abdulruff_jnu@yahoo.com/Phone: 91-8129081217—(Account: No 62310377429 – CIF No: 78215311481- State Bank of Hyderabad, India)
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