The Aam Aadmi Party was launched just a few months ago by Arvind Kejriwal and his colleagues who had failed to make an impact as part of the "India against corruption". Frustrated at being able to do nothing as activists, they decided to take the bold step of forming their own political party, something they had tried to avoid.
The party is based on the simple premise of honesty. Its their opinion, which is shared by most Indians and unfortunately accurate, that the political system and government functioning is riddled with corruption. Their single simple goal is to reduce if not completely rid India of corruption.
I was a great fan of the AAP movement. If I was in India, I would be a proud participant and volunteer in whatever way I could help. Their first encounter with the election process was the Delhi elections. And they've done an amazing job.
The first part of any political campaign is funds to manage the campaign. The AAP movement is completely dependent on the Aam Aadmi or common man, funding them. And their success in achieving this is phenomenal. They actually had to close their donation collecting process and inform people that no more contributions were required, as they had already achieved their required targets.
The party, especially its leader Arvind Kejriwal in addition to being a nice, honest person was also brilliant. Its not coincidence that he did his engineering degree and then joined the prestigious government bureaucracy as part of the Indian Revenue Services. They reached out to the people, had meetings at local level and had not only the whole of Delhi, but the rest of the country rooting for the party.
No one gave them a chance. The political parties believed that a newcomer party with no base or cadre to speak of could not pose a threat. Even the media gave them no chance of success and they were widely reported to be a passing fancy. Until this point of time I was rooting for the party.
And then a change occurred. The AAP figured out the first rule of politics. To get votes, make all kinds of promises. And they did. Promised free water and electricity bills would be halved. I started having reservations but was still a well wisher.
And then the party did what to me was the turning point of changing from a party with good intentions to anarchist. They went around inciting the people of Delhi to not pay their electricity bills. The rationale they offered was that the electricity companies were fudging their books. Whilst they had absolutely no evidence of this, lets assume that this were true. In my mind, it doesn't change anything.
No rationale can justify breaking the law and inciting and encouraging the people to follow suit. The moment an individual takes on the role of unilaterally deciding what is good and bad, and then pass judgement as well as diktats on taking illegal actions, is the beginning of the end. Its a sad day to see that a movement with very good people with very good intentions have allowed their righteous arrogance to make completely indefensible decisions.
The results of the elections were announced earlier this month and the Aam Aadmi Party achieved what no party in Indian history has achieved. They won 28 seats of the 70 seats garnering 29%+ of the votes. They did not get a majority and were pipped to the post by the BJP, who won 31 seats as the largest party. The Congress who had a dismal performance could win just 8 seats. Since its virtually impossible that the Congress will support the BJP, there's a good chance that they may support the AAP and that Arvind Kejriwal becomes the Chief Minister. The party which has earlier said they would not take the support of either the BJP or Congress, have now done a u-turn and are seriously considering taking support from the Congress.
Whilst I wish that this does happen, as a well-wisher I would like to offer the Aam Aadmi Party some advise. Please get rid of your arrogance, admit that all illegal decisions made by the party were wrong and a result of growing pains. This will result in disillusioned supporters such as me, coming back. Alternately, you can continue to go the populist route you seem to have chosen and who knows, you could very quickly even become the Prime Minister. But then you'll be just another party like the existing parties and once again dash the hope of the Aam Aadmi.
The party is based on the simple premise of honesty. Its their opinion, which is shared by most Indians and unfortunately accurate, that the political system and government functioning is riddled with corruption. Their single simple goal is to reduce if not completely rid India of corruption.
I was a great fan of the AAP movement. If I was in India, I would be a proud participant and volunteer in whatever way I could help. Their first encounter with the election process was the Delhi elections. And they've done an amazing job.
The first part of any political campaign is funds to manage the campaign. The AAP movement is completely dependent on the Aam Aadmi or common man, funding them. And their success in achieving this is phenomenal. They actually had to close their donation collecting process and inform people that no more contributions were required, as they had already achieved their required targets.
The party, especially its leader Arvind Kejriwal in addition to being a nice, honest person was also brilliant. Its not coincidence that he did his engineering degree and then joined the prestigious government bureaucracy as part of the Indian Revenue Services. They reached out to the people, had meetings at local level and had not only the whole of Delhi, but the rest of the country rooting for the party.
No one gave them a chance. The political parties believed that a newcomer party with no base or cadre to speak of could not pose a threat. Even the media gave them no chance of success and they were widely reported to be a passing fancy. Until this point of time I was rooting for the party.
And then a change occurred. The AAP figured out the first rule of politics. To get votes, make all kinds of promises. And they did. Promised free water and electricity bills would be halved. I started having reservations but was still a well wisher.
And then the party did what to me was the turning point of changing from a party with good intentions to anarchist. They went around inciting the people of Delhi to not pay their electricity bills. The rationale they offered was that the electricity companies were fudging their books. Whilst they had absolutely no evidence of this, lets assume that this were true. In my mind, it doesn't change anything.
No rationale can justify breaking the law and inciting and encouraging the people to follow suit. The moment an individual takes on the role of unilaterally deciding what is good and bad, and then pass judgement as well as diktats on taking illegal actions, is the beginning of the end. Its a sad day to see that a movement with very good people with very good intentions have allowed their righteous arrogance to make completely indefensible decisions.
The results of the elections were announced earlier this month and the Aam Aadmi Party achieved what no party in Indian history has achieved. They won 28 seats of the 70 seats garnering 29%+ of the votes. They did not get a majority and were pipped to the post by the BJP, who won 31 seats as the largest party. The Congress who had a dismal performance could win just 8 seats. Since its virtually impossible that the Congress will support the BJP, there's a good chance that they may support the AAP and that Arvind Kejriwal becomes the Chief Minister. The party which has earlier said they would not take the support of either the BJP or Congress, have now done a u-turn and are seriously considering taking support from the Congress.
Whilst I wish that this does happen, as a well-wisher I would like to offer the Aam Aadmi Party some advise. Please get rid of your arrogance, admit that all illegal decisions made by the party were wrong and a result of growing pains. This will result in disillusioned supporters such as me, coming back. Alternately, you can continue to go the populist route you seem to have chosen and who knows, you could very quickly even become the Prime Minister. But then you'll be just another party like the existing parties and once again dash the hope of the Aam Aadmi.
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