Pathetic Aam Aadmi Party (PAAP)

Delhi, the Indian capital and the epitome of political turbulence. The residence of all our national parliamentarians and the foreign embassies. I cannot even fathom about the number of important decisions taken and documents of national importance signed every day here. Right now, it does not concern me but what draws my attention is the other face of Delhi in which it is a state in itself and is currently run by less than two year young party – the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Who in his wildest dream would have thought the way it came in power in December, 2014 lasting for 49 days, clinching the house again this year by a whooping majority (67/70)? But it did. Kudos! But, the 2 year old baby is howling in pain with internal bleeding. Is this episode sad or inevitable?  

My brother Shashikant was an apolitical man before last year. Plenty of attempts of infusing the political spark by me did not bear any fruit unless one day he accidentally heard a name called Arwind Kejriwal somewhere in January after he gave up the chief-minister ship in Delhi. Shashi is an inquisitive guy for sure but he limits his curiosity to his area of interest. Suddenly he googled the man and printed his professional kundali in his mind; went on to watch his agitation, speeches, and interviews. After a thorough study, he then called me on a day and the way I received the fusillade of questions about the man, I could sense that he was smitten by this man called Arwind Kejriwal and his AAP gang.

Shashi is just a common face of the crowd who is part of the mass, heavily impressed by the euphoria created by this team. The promises of bringing Lokpal (majority of supports have no clue about it but yet follow the call), ending the corrupt political system and bringing transparency therein, converting the VIP culture to being part of the mainstream society, exposing big corporate, and most importantly giving plentiful of water(20000lts/month) and electricity (half the price) gave the already haunted and distraught people of Delhi, a ray of hope and sense of positivity. People, especially in the lower middle class and lower class group felt an incarnation was born to do away with all their problems. Shiela Dixit would have had bucketful of haters by then otherwise who fastens his fate to 3 month old party?

The journey wasn't too smooth as it suffered heavy loss in his highly ambitious endeavor of contesting nationwide election. It fielded more than 400 candidates and won only 4 seats. Not bad for a start up party, though. Now was the time to play hard game as Delhi election could be around any time. It restructured the party, sidelined some old faces, made way for new energetic ones, consolidated the constituencies with door to door campaigns, learn from past mistakes, attacked carefully on oppositions and voila! It captured a historic 67 seats out of 70 seats in total.

I had very keenly followed the Delhi elections. The way AK was holding rallies and delivering promises, some very radical ones like opening 1500 schools, a pan-Delhi free wifi and other wishful lists that after coming from such rallies his clear conscience itself would contradict his statements. But people believed him and followed him day in and day out. I could go on war on social media with my friends and Shashi as well against his announcements. They put forward his IRS and IIT KGP credentials making me speechless about my little knowledge of capital spendings and large project deliverables. 

Slowly the cat started coming out of the box. Wifi became wifi­*, with terms and conditions making it almost non usable. It still will go on to provide the said facility resembling a censored porn movie. The recent news threw some light that for the water and electricity, the NMDC demanded 32 cr. every month from the govt. Where is government going to pay this, definitely not from own pocket. Water and electricity tax is the highest source of tax generation from a civic body after the property tax. The sheer thought of communism is not enough to run the government. This is one of the many loopholes in the party’s ways of functioning.

I have never been an admirer of AAP due to varied reasons, its left approach of ideology being one of them. Though it chanted the mantra clean politics and frequently hollered a sense of democracy in the party, I always had my skepticism in mind. The recent sequence of sting operations relating to horse trading, assimilating Muslim voters, and finally the use of abusive language for none other than one of the pillars of AAP, has nothing but bolstered my understanding of politics and shattered the hopes of many budding as well as old politics lovers who romanticized about the insurgence of AAP.

The episode of retaining the national convener post despite oppositions; ending any sort of dialogue other than exchange of letter and finally terminating the likes of Yogendra Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, and Anand Kumar from the post of national executive is extremely despotic. Your threatening to resign like Julius Caesar refused to accept throne despite seeking the opposite, and abusing your own vital members exposes your vulnerability even more gravely. AAP is just an infant and needs to be nurtured and not ruptured part by part. A body cannot function without all its parts playing its delegated role. It is like cricket. You have got to consolidate in initial overs, only then can you you score 272 or more. The sooner you understand the better.

Let me stop by saying that your uprising was like a dream come true for many and like a next to ideal solution for their everlasting agony. Mend your ways for many of those budding believers, or their happiness and felicitous dream will be nipped in the bud.