Aam Admi Party (AAP) has stunned everybody by its landslide victory in Delhi Assembly elections bagging 67 out of total of 70 seats. Curiously a local party with hardly two years of existence had the luck of decimating two giant national level political parties. The more conspicuous thing is that the arena of a duel between the giant-size parties and the new entrant was the capital city of India. It does mean a lot to be in the riding seat in the national capital.
The reason why such a thrilling victory for the AAP and such a disaster for traditional parties happened needs to be studied and analyzed dispassionately. In the political history of Delhi such a huge margin in seats won and lost has never been there. Undoubtedly for all stakeholders this is a moment of introspection. But before doing that it is important to note that politics in our country should be in the realm of national interests and not spill over to personal rivalries and vengeance. Election means success of some and defeat of others. That is a phenomenon which we have to recognize.
One disheartening scenario that has appeared after the victory of AAP is that dissident satraps are coming up in unison to attribute the failure to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Some of these regional straps have gone to the length of suggesting the Prime Minister to resign for losing trust. This is not justified. Even during the leadership of Indira Gandhi many states were ruled by non-Congress parties. But their leadership never asked Indira Gandhi to resign as Prime Minister. What these satraps are purporting is personal vendetta and that is the saddest aspect of our democracy.
We call them satraps because they are the hangover of traditional political bossism that considers the electorate as their fiefs and would not tolerate any intrusion into them. These dissident leaders are happy that BJP is down than that AAP has won a victory. It has to be remembered that healthy opposition is essential to stabilize and strengthen democracy. AAP is left with no opposition whatsoever and therefore there are many chances of aberration in administrative sphere.
AAP leadership has attributed failure of two leading parties to arrogance. As far as Congress is concerned, the major cause of its debacle is the attitude of Congressmen to remain servile to dynastic supremacy in the party. People have resented it and the party has not so far tried to address this malaise. It has to be remembered that AAP has been powered and commandered by the youth force. That option is lacking in both the traditional parties. The pity is neither Congress nor BJP seriously thought of creating second line of leadership comprising the youth. They failed to understand that 70 per cent of Indian population comprises the youth below 34 years of age. As such, both have remained alienated from the youth of the country. It is difficult for both of them to come out of the iron-cast mindset. On the other hand AAP has carried with it the youth of all classes and ranks and in particular the large middle class of Delhi. This is a lesson they should learn from the emergence of AAP.
Internal dissensions in both Congress and BJP have taken a heavy toll. There could be ideological, operational and individual differences. Unless these are ironed out and uniformity is brought about, a political party cannot make much headway. For example the Congress Assembly candidate and General Secretary Ajay Maken minced no words and said that whenever he went to the electorate and said that his party would ease electric power supply problem or provide shelter to the juggi-jhompri people they said that for 15 years Congress was in power in Delhi why did it not solve these problems then. There has been a big gap between word and deed and that has now boomeranged on the traditional leadership.
As regards the accusation of arrogance, not to speak of dissidents like the leaders in UP, Bihar and West Bengal, even the Shiv Sena Chief has accused BJP of arrogance. Maybe there have been individual cases of arrogance which recoiled on BJP. The point is that it is important to rein in the cadres that are prone to loose talk. BJP leadership had to distance itself from the vitriolic of some of its leaders. A loose talk by a responsible leader spoken in public carries negative impression and if the party leadership tries to make amends, the harm is done. BJP has been the victim of this aberration.
The task before AAP is stupendous just because it has made tall claims as it did in previous election. Its success and popularity depend on delivery. Questions have been raised from day one as to how the party leadership is going to meet the huge expenditures on promised projects. Ordinary voter in Delhi has day to day life concerns haunting him and he found that the agenda of AAP could answer his concerns. We are hopeful that the youthful leadership of AAP will not disappoint them. Arvind Kejriwal, while speaking to his workers after the results were announced rightly said that one of the reasons for the defeat of Congress and BJP in Delhi was their arrogance and that the APP should guard itself against it. The saying goes that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. AAP shall have to be very careful that it is not derailed from the track by absolute power because there will be no opposition in the Assembly. It will have to behave a very responsible administration and meet the requirements of Delhi citizenry. The capital city needs to be given lot more to make it a real modern city. Entire country will be watching the performance of AAP very closely.
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