AAP: India’s Future?
For the longest time, India’s race for leadership has been divided between two parties — Congress, the original and longest-serving; BJP — India’s current leaders.
However, AAP, a promising new kid on the block, is flourishing as we speak, turning heads, and a few states, against all odds.
Could they indeed topple the Modi regime? Presented as a debate, the article will use the following criterion to evaluate AAP’s future in India -
- What is their ideology and what do they promise?
- What have they done?
- A national government?
A background
Before we delve into the evaluation, we must consider the opposing parties involved. Our resident Hindutvas, the BJP, as well as the Congress, led by Mr Comedian himself, play a large role in determining the success of AAP as a whole.
The BJP continue to place nationalism and the Hindutva movement as the basis for its political ideology. In terms of development, it appears to be difficult to mock the Modi government.
From an objective point of view, the Hindutva regime appears to be flourishing, with Modi’s reforms, economic, political or foreign, continuing to be generally effective.
One thing is certain, the Indian nation’s voice on international forums is being heard louder than ever, with the Chaiwala himself being seated as the president of the G20.
However, like any other government, the BJP possesses their fair set of flaws. The cost of the promise of development is our loss of individual freedom and secularism. The Modi government prioritises lying as a way of life. Orwellian principles shine through here, as the nation continues to make public statements, without really saying anything.
The BJP’s governing Hindutva principles, continue to negatively affect minorities, acting as a defining characteristic of the party. The influence of these principles governs the country extrajudicially, with increased appearances of hate crime, and other “instances” of state persecution against minorities.
Moving over to the Congress, their incompetence in recent years can be visualised by RAGA’s response to his favourite fruit — ‘I do Vipassana. The mind constructs the flavour of the fruit. You can like or dislike any fruit you want. You can choose to like mango, you can choose to hate it.’
The Congress’ very political ideology seems to be incomplete these days, with it being wholly centred around an ‘anti-BJP’ stance; a far throw from their original promise of secularism.
Their unwillingness to move away from the Gandhi family, who demonstrate no capability to govern the largest democracy, leaves them with a political organization that is the second-rate compromise for most BJP aspirants.
While that is certainly an exaggeration, it is not far from the truth, with so many individuals in their current fleet being more than willing to switch over to the opposition for no apparent reason, demonstrating a clear lack of trust and faith in our longest-serving party.
This leaves us where we are today. The Congress doesn’t seem to show a pertinent challenge to the BJP, while AAP continues to have a very limited, although effective, sphere of influence.
The Modi regime is not going to fall anytime soon. The question is, does AAP have the capability to dethrone the BJP and replace the INC as a true government for us, by us?
My following evaluation of AAP shows a perspective you can consider.
Evaluation
Ideology and promises
The Aam Aadmi Party stemmed from the Indian anti-corruption movement, and as a result, uses these principles to govern itself.
In terms of ideology, they have none, at least in theory. The field of ideology-free politics is a utopian one, with immense debate surrounding its functioning, rationale and morality in recent times. AAP intends to portray this as a major selling point, a living example of liberty and justice for all.
AAP’s promises have been the basis for their successes in Delhi. They promise development as a whole, regardless of class, creed or religion, with nothing written between the lines. They have also demonstrated their ability to walk the walk as well, being one of (perhaps even the only) parties in Indian history to raise funds through (supposedly) clean means.
What have they done so far?
For now, there seem to be no major controversies regarding these promises.
Yes, there have been a few promises that have been left unfulfilled, but Kejriwal’s party seems to have delivered for the most part, with clear signs of change in Delhi, be it the revamping of the government schooling system: a system shunned for so long, or the Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics, which promise good healthcare facilities for the underprivileged.
For statistics geeks, lower-middle class and poor residents of Delhi have begun to visit healthcare facilities at higher rates, due to the Mohalla clinics’ free nature, going from an average of one time a year to close to the global average of three times a year.
The AAP administration has also jabbed at the education sector, while also attempting to tackle Delhi’s most famous issue — its pollution. The education sector in Delhi has been handled decently, with the state claiming to have made more than 1 lakh students literate in the year 2016 itself, while also constructing more classrooms, and looking for better prospective solutions concerning faculty training at government schools.
The pollution problem, however, is hit or miss. In 2015, before their victorious electoral campaign, AAP showed a clear roadmap for everything; everything but pollution. There have been a few strides towards this issue, such as the large AQI monitors or AAP’s revolutionary car rationing program, both of which have been largely ineffective campaigns.
However, the future looks bright for this as well, since AAP’s victory in Punjab means that they now have control over agricultural practices in the area, and can finally impose firmer restrictions and fines on malpractice such as stubble burning, which are directly linked to a lot of the pollution in Delhi.
This brings us to the question of what AAP is going to be like in Punjab. The administration has promised a reenactment of the Delhi system, following its general success, in the state of Punjab. However, the implications, execution and response by the public may vary, and time may be the deciding factor.
A national government?
The Aam Aadmi Party is not a national party… yet. As one of the fastest-growing Indian political parties in the 21st century, AAP promises a bright future, but will they continue to prosper as they are? Maybe.
As stated previously, AAP’s fundamentals lie in its unique approach towards politics — the idea of a corruption-free government, that prioritises service delivery over all else. However, this fairytale-like structure has not been rigid and has certainly seen its share of pitfalls in the last decade.
By walking the thin line of centralist politics, decision-making seems to suffer. Kejriwal, the party’s founder, yearns to appease both the Hindus and the Muslims, which frequently emerges to be paradoxical. A classic example of ‘You can’t have the cake and eat it too.’. Being labelled ‘Anti-Hindutva’ by nationalists and Hindus alike, closely associated with Congress-like beliefs, to traversing a soft Hindutva line, AAP’s original idea of clean politics seems to be waning.
Reinforcing this idea of Kejriwal as AAP’s paragon introduces a multitude of issues regarding the AAP’s capability to become a national party.
Arvind Kejriwal’s influence only spans the minute utopian regions around Delhi, and recently Punjab. Indeed, his name is only known to a small percentage of voters, which may result in disaster, especially compared to parties like the BJP, whose leader is known nationally.
This issue is exemplified by the fact that AAP is completely dependent on Kejriwal as a means to win elections. In other words, people vote for the individual, not the organization.
Not only does this affect their influence, but it also damages their very integrity as a party. The AAP is not so much of a democratically structured organization as it is Kejriwal’s party. Simply put, this means that the very existence of AAP is dependent on Kejriwal’s leadership, and if that were to dissipate, as it eventually will, the party will be in deep trouble.
Takeaways
The future of India, as of now, is heavily dependent on the success of the Modi government. With a majority of the population placing their faith in the Hindutva regime, the chaiwala is destined to be our leader, until he steps off the mighty BJP throne.
The answer lies therein.
The BJP as a national party is constructed around this idea of Narendra Modi as their lord and saviour. What happens when he decides to step down? The stubborn Congress, who are unwilling to let go of the Gandhi family, certainly don’t seem to be better off as candidates as time goes by.
The people surely don’t want to be represented by Rahul Gandhi, who would? The future thus beckons AAP. The promise of ideology-free politics is one of impending importance for the Indian nation, a fantasy that the people have yearned for since independence, but will their character fade away with increasing power? Only time will tell.
