The Congress will pay dearly in the coming days for supporting the Aam Aadmi Party's Government in Delhi. People have begun questioning the move
The Congress has shot itself in both feet by deciding to support an Aam Aadmi Party Government in Delhi from outside. The AAP doubtless put up a startling show in the election to the Delhi Assembly, but the results fell markedly short of its proclaimed expectation which, as stated on December 1, 2013, by one of its principal leaders, Mr Yogendra Yadav, was that it would secure an estimated 35.6 per cent of the votes polled and 38 to 50 of the 70 seats at stake. In the event, it secured 29.49 per cent of the votes and 28 seats, way short of an absolute majority and what it had expected.
The Congress could have left things there, particularly given the vitriolic attacks the AAP had launched against it and its leaders, besides stridently ruling out forming a Government with its support. Had it not extended support, Delhi would have been under President's rule, administered by the lieutenant Governor, Mr Najeeb Jung. It could have used the intervening period to set its own house in order and brush up its image. On the other hand, the AAP would not have got the boost its prestige has received by forming the Government; nor would Mr Arvind Kejriwal have received the visibility and salience he now has as Chief Minister. Nor would the party have had a chance to indulge in activities like law Minister Somnath Bharti's ordering the police to raid at night a house in Khirki village inhabited by African women, when it was patently illegal to do so, or when the AAP supporters assaulted and traumatised four African women travelling in a taxi.
The incident, though utterly condemnable, is reportedly likely to benefit Mr Bharti whose action is said to have local support. Equally, one has heard that Chief Minister Arvind Kerjriwal's totally unwarranted and illegal dharna near Rail Bhavan, to press his demand for the suspension of four Delhi Police personnel who had refused to follow the diktats issued by Mr Bharti and another AAP Minster, Ms Rakhi Birla, to act contrary to the law, has boosted the party's support among the masses — though sharply condemned by the politically discerning, The gains accruing from such mob action as well as gestures like getting an NDMC hospital inaugurated by a rickshaw-puller may widen the AAP's support base though one does not know by how much. Equally, the accompanying enhancement of its prestige is likely to increase its support outside Delhi, particularly, in Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, which will have a seriously adverse impact on the Congress fortunes. Mr Rahul Gandhi may himself find the going tough if he faces a politically sharp opponent like Mr Kumar Vishwas.
It will be a disaster for the Congress if Mr Rahul Gandhi loses, as it will be for the country if the AAP's political methods and the underlying wider strategy — progressively larger mobilisation of the masses even in support of illegal action — attracts more followers. Such mobilisation can one day assume proportions that can destroy India's democratic institutions and pave the way for a AAP dictatorship. At every step, as well as in the final climactic moment, the threat can be: Do as we say or we unleash the mobs.
Meanwhile, people will ask: Can one really depend on the Congress at the Centre when it can commit such a huge political blunder as supporting the AAPIJ Most of those who want to freeze the AAP in its tracks will turn to the BJP as the only party that can do it. Some of the masses still with the Congress will switch to the AAP. The Congress may then fall between two stools, for which it will have only itself to blame.