The other side of AAP

Aam Aadmi Party was born with a pledged commitment towards democracy and transparency. Its core ideology revolves around curbing corruption and establishing ‘Swaraj’. Since its formation, AAP proclaimed to be the only party which used to involve people’s consent in decision making. It always enjoys the support of intellectual class of the country. People have seen it as a hope; they put their all faith in it and served it wholeheartedly. Sadly, today the case is not same.  If the recent developments are any indication, the party, which was perceived to be different and cashed it in this perception, now seems to be no different from its counterparts.

From last one month, there was a tussle going on among the senior leaders of party. On one side Arvind Kejriwal, party’s national convener with his coterie accusing others of anti-party activities while on the other side Yogender Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, two of AAP’s very senior and respect leaders questioning the autocracy of Arvind Kejriwal. Yesterday the fight turned ugly when four of party founder members including Yadav and Bhushan thrown of national executive of the party.

What comes out till now shows that Arvind Kejriwal seriously lacks the leadership skills. His autocratic style of functioning could work in an ‘Andolan’ but can’t work in a political party. Today, he is the Chief Minister of Delhi and enjoys support of majority of volunteers but that is not enough for him. If we go by the trend of social media then many of the volunteers and well wishers of AAP are angry with the way Arvind has handled this matter. Many of them are standing behind Yadav and Bhushan. Even few of the Delhi MLAs and one MP from Punjab are openly backing Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan. This clearly indicates, party is on the verge to getting divided.

One thing which is easily predictable, that Arvind Kejriwal thinks he can work well in Delhi and gain his lost ground. It is true that people have a weak memory and party infighting is not an issue directly related with them. But here things are different. What happens in last few days has just shattered the credibility of Arvind Kejriwal as a leader. Today’s politics is all about perception and now, AAP seems to be similar to all the parties which were accused by them for autocracy and lack of internal democracy.  

By going in details of the problems AAP is facing, it is clear that Yadav-Bhushan camp wants to keep principles on the upper side rather than winning elections and on the other side, Kejriwal thinks politics is all about winning election. For any other party, Kejriwal’s view seems to be right but that is not the case here with AAP. This party was never formed to become another ‘election machine’ infact it came into existence to change the rules of politics and make it clean and transparent.

Arvind Kejriwal has to understand that AAP has just won Delhi for now and there is a long way to go if he really wishes to see a corruption free well developed India. He has signaled in his very first speech after becoming CM that he wants to focus on Delhi for now and turn it into a model state. Theoretically, it seems to be the easiest way to grow big instantly but after a time period. But in a diverse county like India, winning elections on the basis of work done in some other state is not an easy task. This is the time when Arvind Kejriwal should start building leaders in other states too and act like a leader, who is even ready to work with people having distant point of view.

It would have been much better if Kejriwal camp could have answer the questions raised  by Yadav and Bhushan before kicking them out from the top decision making body of party. No doubt, their questions have enough weight and if not rectified quickly, then in coming time AAP has to suffer because of that. 

Personality Driven Politics: A Contradictory truth of today’s India

On 14^th February 2015, it was a sunny morning in Delhi. Thousands of people flocked to a rally at historical Ramlila Maidan, not because they were asked to, but because they wanted to be a part of the jubilation, the ecstasy of a victory, the celebration of a man who had created history. And the moment in which the man himself arrived, the crowd which was holding its breath for long, roared in approval. The decibel levels reached a feverish pitch with the crowd chanting in unison. Yes, here the man is none other than Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi.

The whole nation has witnessed the same charisma for Narendra Modi during the 2014 general elections. This throws up an important question. Has the electorate evolved over vote bank politics and has moved towards leader driven politics?

Be it Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar or Jayalalitha, they all possess some sort of magnetism which attracts people towards them. Be it on a national level or state level, all the elections won by any of the parties have one common thing; the party having the more face value won the election. And this is the reason, day by day Congress is downgrading to its lowest since formation because it has failed to build up Rahul Gandhi as leader of the masses.

Even if you could bring your attention towards the slogans chooses by parties during elections; ‘Har Har Modi’, ‘Abki Baar Modi Sarkar’, ‘Paanch Saal Kejriwal’, etc makes convincing that election nowadays fought in-between personalities not parties or ideologies.

It is well understood that people have become more mature with their political understanding and now they want a credible leader. But that credibility should be counted by the way in which leader follows his party’s ideology? What’s happening is completely different, wherever elections have won on a leader’s face value, that leader is dictating and deciding on which ideology the party and government will run.

Many think that Narendra Modi has come like a savior for BJP and is being too lucky for the party but later in time, people will realize its consequences. BJP, largely described as ‘Party with a Difference’ has completely lost all of its ‘Differences’ under Modi’s rule. There remains no democracy inside the party, galaxy of leadership has been sidelined and it will not be premature to say now ‘Modi is BJP & BJP is Modi’. It speaks a lot about a party largely known as a political offshoot of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

It’s not just about BJP, every other political party works under a ‘Boss’ these days. It would suffice to say that the outcome of all recent elections was largely polarized by the voter’s faith in one man. A political pundit will tell you that Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi had done it in the past. But it was past and India has seen so many colors of politics after that.

However, this might be the beginning of a new era in Indian politics. An era where individual leaders with public backing might be more influential than a group of convincing leaders, where the concentration of leadership in the hands of a select few might be the way forward, where coalitions might not make as much sense as they used to, where the electorate is more volatile and demanding than ever.

With a great mandate comes an even greater level of expectation.