The Rise Of Aap

By Author: Srishti Janpratinidhi
Total Articles: 52
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Delhi has risen in unison. Arvind Kejriwal, the gate crasher has stormed the fortress. Blitzed by daily corruption and massive scams, the city has raised up a force for its own transformation.

As Delhi begins its new tryst with destiny, it must also take note of the lady who gave the city hope for new start fifteen years ago. Sheila Dikshit governed the city with elan and attempted to make it a city with a style of its own. She was lucky in many ways and unlucky in some. The proximity of the city to the Centre meant easier conversion of policies and other benefits. But the inability to make the BRT corridor a success and the compounding problem of lack of safety for women became the Achilles’ heels for the incumbent government. She, however, gave the city a modern outlook to the city and considerably contributed to raising the per capita income of the people.

A city with one of the highest per capita income in India, a city of upwardly mobile migrants who have no vote-bank ties and care only about urban governance and securing a better life for themselves, an educated and politically aware voter largely impervious ...
... to liquor, money and muscle power; these are the factors that make Delhi pervious to the rise of a party like the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Moreover with AAP’s stress on grassroots politics ever since the inception of the India against Corruption movement, their connect with the masses was undeniably etched in the public mind.

Just a year old, the AAP has got 28 seats, 31% of the votes casted and lost 11-12 seats by just 5,000 votes. Out of 12 reserved seats it has won nine, showing a capture of SC and poor voters, traditionally a Congress bastion. The capture of votes by AAP is all the more stunning when one sees that it has won in economically backward areas like Seemapuri and Ambedkar Nagar and also in upscale areas like Greater Kailash and New Delhi. This coalition of all the classes for ‘Jhadoo’ is a clarion call to rise against corruption and also to sweep away apathy and create a new spirit of citizen action.

What needs to be kept in mind is that creating a government that delivers following a set of policies is very different from a political revolt against the governing political class. Crowdsourcing everyday government work by putting every decision to a referendum by 'mohalla committees' may be a quixotic.

The current political stalement over BJP’s and AAP’s inability to form a government is an ill-fated outcome to a great election. AAP’s indulgence in self-righteousness in the belief that all those who disagree with their vision are corrupt creates a dangerous 'them' versus 'us' mindset. If the AAP plays the politics of untouchability in the belief that it is uncorrupted so much so that it cannot even have dialogue or partnerships with any other "dirty" party then it might only polarize voters.

No matter the current state of affairs, AAP has surely planted a seed of quaint idealism and the National Capital Territory has shown the way for other cities in that clean urban politics is possible.

Janpratinidhi.com provides a great platform to the voters from all the constituencies of the country to evaluate themselves on the basis of certain questions and find out which political party suits them in the feature called ‘Which political party suits me?’ Compare, connect and monitor the performance of the leaders and ascertain their work, individually and comparatively. Get all the constituency news and other related news from all over the country.