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AAP The road ahead

By - Published: 12/11/2013 - Section: Domestic

This article was submitted by Rakam Singh Bhati, an AAP volunteer from Trilokpuri Delhi. Published after minor semantic changes approved by the author.

Aam-Aadmi-Party

The underdog has performed. David Kejriwal has slayed the mighty Goliath Sheila. The work that started under Anna three years back, blossomed into a political movement last year. The blood and sweat of thousands of volunteers over last one year has paid off. Based on the reactions we got from public, we knew AAP has a chance but to see it trump the congress and stop the BJP is a real achievement. For the first time people have a real alternative.

But the actions of party and top leaders in last few days has been conflicting with the principles and ideology we set out to propagate. We refused to work with any one in order to form a government because everyone else is corrupt. Aren’t we practicing the same Brahminical untouchability? No one touches us because we’re pure and everyone else is impure. Democracy will always see participation from all sorts of people. Caste, religion, socialist, rightist all sorts of emotive and ideological issues will continue to be part of election agenda and we cannot wish them away. I agree with Kiran Bedi that a common minimum program can form the basis of an AAP-BJP government. Our priority is to deliver a corruption free government that fulfills the promises we made to the people. AAP has every chance right now to do that since both congress and BJP have hinted on support.

By insisting on an absolute majority to govern, AAP is only fueling the accusation that Arvind Kejriwal wants an authoritarian rule. If leaders are concerned that Congress or BJP will not let us implement reforms and pull the plug mid way, we always have the option to go to the people and let them know we tried but failed and ask for absolute majority. We’re anyways headed for reelection, why not at least show the people that we tried. Congress or BJP on the other hand will be exposed and people will not vote for them.

The decision not to give or take support, not even based on a common minimum program smacks of political one-upmanship where future of party takes priority over promise to people. Somewhere it also seems our leader are scared of making a mistake and then losing all that was gained. We can’t hide behind inaction for the sake of self preservation. The only benefit of making a mistake in a majority government is that we’ll still get to rule for 5 years no matter how many mistakes. But isn’t that something we accused congress and BJP of doing?

We started by prioritizing common man’s issue of ration cards, cleanliness, water, electricity etc and now that we’ve got the votes, our priority has changed to get more votes. Personally, i’d have preferred if we started by contesting Municipal/Nagarpalika/Panchayat elections since most issues of common man are handled by these bodies. Since these bodies are infested with rampant corruption, we could have made a real difference and helped the common man by streamlining services.

Instead our leaders seem caught in media glare. Frankly i’m not sure if i know anyone apart from Arvind but a lot of them have started talking about contesting Lok Sabha elections. I fail to see the point. We can’t even show the maturity of forming a state government despite massive mandate in Delhi. What’s point of contesting parliamentary election where our chances of getting majority is almost nil. Even if we win few seats, we wouldn’t be able to get things done unless we work with other parties, something we’re refusing to do in Delhi.

I’m one of those AAP voters who thinks Narendra Modi has offered an alternative against corruption on national scale. He has provided years of honest and growth oriented administration and i’ll choose Modi in national elections. AAP has enjoyed unprecedented support on the promise of corruption free and honest administration. Now that we’ve won, we need to act, people won’t support us only based on empty rhetoric.