Whatever - India needs AAP and the likes of Arvind Kejriwal

The recent general elections results seem to have weakened the ‘forces’ in Aam Aadmi Party. Some prominent personalities like Shazia Ilmi and G.R.Gopinath have left the party soon after the general election debacle and Yogendra Yadav resigned from the party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC). These exits are creating an impression that the party is disintegrating and also throwing bad light on Arvind Kejriwal and AAP which is not actually the case.

The fact that AAP won four seats in Punjab in its maiden 2014 Lok Sabha elections after a remarkable performance in Delhi Assembly elections is by itself no mean an achievement.  The same is getting projected badly because AAP in a hurry to ‘change’ India and ‘fight’ corruption unnecessarily contested in 434 Lok Sabha seats. It is surprising though that the highly educated team at AAP failed to understand the basic principle of preparation. Didn’t they know that only a well prepared student can crack the exams and only a well-trained sportsperson can excel in the sport? Have some of them not been good students at IIT’s and the likes? No wonder 414 candidates forfeited deposits. They probably got carried away by the huge wave of support in Delhi Assembly elections and making a giant-kill by defeating the three-time CM Sheila Dixit. One win doesn’t mean another is guaranteed. Assembly elections are not the same as Lok Sabha elections.

It is just coincidental that AAP was formed on the same date (26) November 2012 as Narendra Modi was sworn in as the PM (26) May 2014. The election results were out on 16th May,in which the party fared poorly in comparison with the number of seats contested. However, it is just an 18-month old party which has achieved results that no other party in the world can pride of. The very same achievement in such a short term has also become a negative factor for AAP because of the undoing of some of its leaders. The basic problem with AAP and its top leadership is that they are men in too much of hurry starting with Arvind Kejriwal. It is imperative to note that BJP which 283 seats in the present Lok Sabha had just 2 seats in 1984. It took BJP many years of efforts and steady contribution from several stalwarts of the party to reach the present levels of support and vote share. Narendra Modi, who led the party to such a stupendous victory, is himself a grass roots leader who worked his way up the ladder.

Unlike in the corporate world where IITians and IIMers are given a lateral entry, it is not so in politics (with exception of dynastic politics). Even so the people of Delhi have given IITian Arvind Kejriwal and his party a lateral entry in politics straight at the top of the charts. That he did not keep the job as CM and left it in 49 days is a different story.

The recent results are not the final progress card for AAP. It is just the beginning of the journey. Politics and public service are such journeys that have no final destination. There are no annual exams in politics, only term-ends. The baton gets passed to the next man standing. It is not about how much Arvind Kejriwal or other leaders achieve individually in their life time but how much they can pass on collectively as AAP to the next lot of leadership whenever it happens. For that, they should work cohesively without basing themselves on recent election results but grounding firmly on how much they can be useful to the common man. The party leadership has expertise in people movements and agitations. The party can work to create awareness on how the governments function and should continue to fight for the right causes while at the same time strengthening the organization as a political outfit on all fronts. The base and support are already in place; all that is required is the patience and perseverance to build AAP as a sustainable political entity going far beyond individuals and personalities.

India needs AAP because it is truly a common man’s party as the name suggests. No other party got such support base in such a short time. The very entry of AAP in the political main stream of India changed the way the existing parties conducted their affairs in public. The older parties now know fully well that if they do not perform to the satisfaction of people, AAP is always there and so will constantly be in tenterhooks to work as desired for progress and inclusive growth, thereby changing the landscape of politics and governance of this country.

The leaders who came and went are not ‘common’. Their entry and exit is not a cause of concern at all. AAP’s leadership has to worry only if more ‘aam aadmis’ leave or their support base shrinks because the party belongs to them and not to ‘khaas aadmis’ who anyways come and go.

AAP must evolve as an APP that sweeps the nation not swipe itself.