The avowedly “clean” Aam Aadmi Party is ready with its first list of poll promises for Delhiites. It assures the people a break from drudgery under professional politicians while committed workers routinely impress citizens by taking local authorities to task for their failures
Since the day the civil society group called India against Corruption (IaC) launched a movement for what it called the Jan lokpal, speculations were rife whether this would turn into a political party. The existing parties, in fact, challenged it to form one, and several political commentators asserted that forming a party, seeking the people’s mandate and turning into legislators was the only legitimate route to making a law of one’s liking. The prospect was, however, fraught with implications on the group’s unity and the probable party’s sustenance.
First, the mascot of the movement with a saintly halo around his persona was not likely to descend to the level of being identified as a regular politician. Second, the three-dozen-odd NGOs that were supporting the movement, living as they do off State grants, would never agree with the proposition of an all-out confrontation with the ruling party. Third — the most important — the extent of public support the new, independent political entity would enjoy was not clear.
But what was the alternative way of bringing about a change in the system, which India needed badlyIJ For one, it must switch from a mere representative democracy, where the people can do nothing but watch both the right and wrong actions of government for five years before the next election arrives, to participatory democracy. The flagbearers of the Jan lokpal movement also sorely missed a provision in the Indian Constitution that allows “initiatives”, wherein a section of the population institutionally presses for the enactment of a law they feel they require, and the demand is taken up for deliberations by Parliament or state Assembly, whichever is applicable. When a Bill proposed by the legislature sparks a nationwide debate, people also miss the provision of referendum.
The desideratum for regime change was felt as it was becoming clearer by the day that the mutual rivalry of the two biggest parties was only for public consumption. Irrespective of the government of the day being headed by the Indian National Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party, a set of industrialists ruled de facto, throughout. Neither party ever moved Court against the opponent despite making a lot of noise about the other’s alleged acts of corruption while being in the opposition. And the politicians with business links in each party bagged a series of government contracts, no matter who ruled at the Centre or a given State.
If not a mainstream political party, was a bloody revolution the solutionIJ While some in this country romance with the idea, experienced activists opine that, bringing only one city to a standstill, so that a beleaguered government is brought down on its knees to concede your demands, calls impossible logistics. As no activists’ group had such a stupendous crowd-pulling appeal, and since the masses at large did not seem ready to take to arms, the dreams of a Tahrir Square or Bolshevik Revolution in India had to be dumped.
Another romantic idea was first floated by Baba Ramdev of Bharat Swabhiman and then repeated by IaC’s Anna Hazare: tour the country to choose ‘good’ people for 545 lok Sabha constituencies — they rarely thought or talked about Vidhan Sabha seats, municipal wards and panchayats — make them win elections and send them to the Centre. They were never asked how these hundreds of disparate individuals would manage to put their heads together to work on any given agenda of governance. But politics was deemed evil by these ‘saints’ (who also presumed making people pour into the streets to pressure governments wasn’t politics), and their idea was impractical for other prominent activists on stage.
The periods 1977-80, 1989-91, 1996-98 and 1998-2004 have shown that a non-Congress government could hardly address the plight of the teeming millions of poor, impoverished people, whom Congress governments neglected. There are incentives for dishonesty and hardship for the honest in this country. Issues concerning localities that can be easily addressed by the inhabitants of the region are sought to be addressed from New Delhi or a State capital with little or no success. Schools continue to be assembly-line manufacturing units of clerks that serve the ruling class alone. A penal code of 1860’s vintage still guides the police force that rides roughshod over ordinary citizens. The minimum support price offered to farmers for their unsold crops does not even cover their production cost.
The AAP does not even claim that it comprises only honest people whereas all its rivals are full of crooks. It does claim that it will bring in a system that will make corruption virtually impossible even for the inmates of its own camp. And, before it assumes office, as and when some charge of corruption is levelled against a member of the party, the organisation will not rally behind the accused in his or her defence. This is evident in the manner in which the party spokespersons handle television debates. While other parties leave no argument unused to establish that the alleged wrongdoers in their respective folds did no wrong, or that the wrongs of other parties make their wrong right, the AAP urges the establishment to go ahead with prosecution if it has enough evidence against any member of this party.
To fight graft, the all-encompassing Jan lokpal — unlike the ombudsman proposed by the Treasury Benches that leaves out the prime minister, judges and lower bureaucracy — for which an ostentatious movement was launched two years ago, is only a curative measure. The expert committees are also devising preventive measures comparable to the Metro train service where ticketless travel is unconceivable, or to a bank where a teller never claims that the cash you have deposited have a few currency notes less than what you have claimed in the deposit slip. The solution being offered is a multi-pronged approach incorporating technology, administrative and judicial measures not only to tackle corruption but also to instil the fear of getting caught in the act that should act as a deterrent for potential wrongdoers.
The AAP owes its strength to its mass base which comprises apolitical people desperate for change. When something goes wrong in a neighbourhood, they immediately take the authority concerned to task. They even defy the general atmosphere of awe and fear for the men in khaki. When a hapless five-year old girl was raped and brutalised in a resettlement colony recently, it was the relentless effort of the local volunteers that forced the police to register an FIR, move the victim from a municipal hospital to the state-of-the-art All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences, and track down the two accused within two days of commitment of the crime. A situation has now arisen that for every little problem an ordinary citizen of Delhi faces, he approaches this political party rather than a state authority meant to offer redress in the particular case.
Seeing the AAP thus endearing to the masses, all other political parties active in Delhi have perhaps assumed it has a magic wand to dictate people’s moods. Ergo, the party has started determining the political discourse in the National Capital Region. Following both the December and March gang-rapes, the youth wings of other political parties only followed volunteers of the AAP to demonstrate against Central and State governments across the city, and in some other parts of the country. Then, during the 15-day long fast undertaken by Kejriwal, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit offered rebates on the electricity bills and the BJP’s State unit chief Vijay Goel promised its government, if formed, would revise the rates. The changed tune in which the rivals have started singing their political songs signals a moral victory of the Delhi’s homegrown party.
As things appear now, both the Congress and the BJP are going to lose massive chunks of their traditional voters to the AAP. Come November, the only possible way the competition can beat the “common citizens’ party” is taking recourse to electoral malpractices.
Surajit Dasgupta | (The writer is a member of the AAP’s National Council)