There's a new kid on the block. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), suddenly, is the most talked-about political movement in the country. While the party itself has been in existence for over a year, this is the first time it has captured the collective imagination of millions of Indians. And this has happened by virtue of their sterling performance in the Delhi State Assembly elections. It has been interesting to watch the ebb and flow of popular perception about the party over the last one year - and I have tried hard to maintain a liberally impartial view of the AAP brand of politics over this period. Here is an honest account of my views about the AAP movement, and how they have evolved with time.
I must confess - I started out as an ardent supporter, not of the AAP itself, but of the IAC (India Against Corruption) movement - the larger umbrella organization which fathered the AAP (and which included stalwarts like Anna Hazare and Kiran Bedi). But as I have come to ponder a little deeper, the issues and ideologies espoused by the AAP, I have certainly vacillated. As things stand today, I am rather middle-of-the-road in my assessment of the party (as well as the larger political movement it epitomizes). My own opinions on the issues raised by them are neatly split - between enthusiastic admiration and cynical disapproval.
What I appreciate:
1) Commitment to grassroot issues -
What the AAP has proposed to tackle head-on, are the quotidian, almost unromantic issues that face the ordinary Indian. Problems like water, public toilets, environment, health centres and public schools. These issues, while often part of 'electoral promises', rarely occupy centre-stage in a party's ideology. Sadly, voters in India, contrary to their demands in public, have privately almost never voted on developmental lines (except in recent rare cases where leaders like Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Nitish Kumar have been voted back into power solely on the basis of their delivery on the developmental agenda): there have been umpteen instances where narrow considerations like caste and favours/handouts have defined electoral arithmetic.
2) The promise of transparently funded politics -
Nearly all political parties, cutting across the ideological left and right have resorted to inscrutable sources of funding. The AAP is the first platform that transparently declares their funding sources and maintains accounts. The campaign funding for the State Assembly elections in Delhi seemed to be largely crowd-sourced, with a scientific efficiency of allocation aided by some savvy analytics and social media/telecom use.
3) A thus-far principled stand on issues -
How many times have we seen parties prevaricate on important issues and stances? The AAP has thus-far stuck to their principled stand of not soliciting support from either of the two national political parties to form a cobbled-coalition government in Delhi.
What I don't appreciate:
1) Luddite promises -
AAP promises to cut electricity tariffs by 50%. In a state that already has one of the lowest tariffs across urban centres in India! (funnily, they are the highest in the avowedly populist Mamata Banerjee's Kolkata) If power generators/discoms were making 50% margins, India wouldn't be an power-deficit nation. Corporates would be falling over themselves to set up power plants and distribution companies. Instead, power producers are among the financially sorriest companies in the country today, with a large number of generators making a beeline before banks for restructuring their loans. What AAP fails to realize is that India is a fuel-deficient nation (despite having the highest reserves of coal in the world, but that is a debate for another day), and must pay a price for not encouraging cheaper sources like nuclear and hydroelectric energy. The real scandal in electricity distribution is in leakages, a problem which is largely far removed from Delhi - there are entire industries in other parts of India whose business model depends on free electricity - which is either stolen or siphoned off in the name of agricultural use (electricity is free or subsidised for most farmers in India).
2) Mob justice masquerading as 'decentralisation of democracy' -
One of the AAP's marquee ideologies is 'decentralisation of democracy' - they radically propose that most decisions would be made by 'Mohalla sabhas' or neighbourhood gatherings, which would have the power to delay payments to contractors and would 'vote' for which public facilities would/would not be constructed in the neighbourhood. If decision-making could so easily be outsourced to crowds, why would we need leaders in a democracy in any case? Why not have public gatherings to try criminals and pass laws too? What the enthusiastic supporters of such Mohalla sabhas fail to realize is that crowds are not equipped to take unpopular decisions that might actually benefit them in the longer term or even benefit a collective that is larger than the individual neighbourhood which votes on the issue concerned. Oddly enough, such ideas remind of the kangaroo courts which the Scarecrow (Crane) runs in the epic move, The Dark Knight Rises. Yes, our leaders do not always take decisions which are in the best interest of the public, but the solution is not to crowd-source their decisions. It is to elect better leaders.
3) Right to Recall -
The AAP intends to implement a system where a government (or an individual representative) is recalled or dismissed by the electorate before the end of its stipulated five year term if it disagrees with its policies or is dissatisfied with its performance. Again, one must remember that the policies of governments seldom see immediate results. In their quest for immediate gratification, people could well end up recalling well-meaning governments every time an unpopular decision is taken. Let me give you an example. Every time fuel prices are hiked in India, we see large-scale protests and collective crying-foul. Almost no one realises that these are tough decisions which must be taken in an oil-importing nation exposed to the vagaries of international oil prices and a floating exchange rate. In the absence of price hikes, India would have continued to consume larger quantities of oil, importing more of it and hence fueling even more inflation because of higher current account and fiscal deficits. So in the longer-run, these price hikes are a bitter pill, which must be taken to prevent uglier ailments. Electorates, unfortunately, do not find long-run economic decision making palatable.
So, on balance, I remain equivocal in my assessment of the AAP. My views, like the party itself, are rather nascent and in a state of flux - I would rather wait to see the AAP tested out in the grind of daily governance before passing judgment. It is easy to oppose - but rather difficult to face the music on the hot seat of government. Having said that, I sincerely wish and pray for the success of movements like the AAP - it is not often that a political party reinstates our faith in Indian democracy.
I must confess - I started out as an ardent supporter, not of the AAP itself, but of the IAC (India Against Corruption) movement - the larger umbrella organization which fathered the AAP (and which included stalwarts like Anna Hazare and Kiran Bedi). But as I have come to ponder a little deeper, the issues and ideologies espoused by the AAP, I have certainly vacillated. As things stand today, I am rather middle-of-the-road in my assessment of the party (as well as the larger political movement it epitomizes). My own opinions on the issues raised by them are neatly split - between enthusiastic admiration and cynical disapproval.
What I appreciate:
1) Commitment to grassroot issues -
What the AAP has proposed to tackle head-on, are the quotidian, almost unromantic issues that face the ordinary Indian. Problems like water, public toilets, environment, health centres and public schools. These issues, while often part of 'electoral promises', rarely occupy centre-stage in a party's ideology. Sadly, voters in India, contrary to their demands in public, have privately almost never voted on developmental lines (except in recent rare cases where leaders like Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Nitish Kumar have been voted back into power solely on the basis of their delivery on the developmental agenda): there have been umpteen instances where narrow considerations like caste and favours/handouts have defined electoral arithmetic.
2) The promise of transparently funded politics -
Nearly all political parties, cutting across the ideological left and right have resorted to inscrutable sources of funding. The AAP is the first platform that transparently declares their funding sources and maintains accounts. The campaign funding for the State Assembly elections in Delhi seemed to be largely crowd-sourced, with a scientific efficiency of allocation aided by some savvy analytics and social media/telecom use.
3) A thus-far principled stand on issues -
How many times have we seen parties prevaricate on important issues and stances? The AAP has thus-far stuck to their principled stand of not soliciting support from either of the two national political parties to form a cobbled-coalition government in Delhi.
What I don't appreciate:
1) Luddite promises -
AAP promises to cut electricity tariffs by 50%. In a state that already has one of the lowest tariffs across urban centres in India! (funnily, they are the highest in the avowedly populist Mamata Banerjee's Kolkata) If power generators/discoms were making 50% margins, India wouldn't be an power-deficit nation. Corporates would be falling over themselves to set up power plants and distribution companies. Instead, power producers are among the financially sorriest companies in the country today, with a large number of generators making a beeline before banks for restructuring their loans. What AAP fails to realize is that India is a fuel-deficient nation (despite having the highest reserves of coal in the world, but that is a debate for another day), and must pay a price for not encouraging cheaper sources like nuclear and hydroelectric energy. The real scandal in electricity distribution is in leakages, a problem which is largely far removed from Delhi - there are entire industries in other parts of India whose business model depends on free electricity - which is either stolen or siphoned off in the name of agricultural use (electricity is free or subsidised for most farmers in India).
2) Mob justice masquerading as 'decentralisation of democracy' -
One of the AAP's marquee ideologies is 'decentralisation of democracy' - they radically propose that most decisions would be made by 'Mohalla sabhas' or neighbourhood gatherings, which would have the power to delay payments to contractors and would 'vote' for which public facilities would/would not be constructed in the neighbourhood. If decision-making could so easily be outsourced to crowds, why would we need leaders in a democracy in any case? Why not have public gatherings to try criminals and pass laws too? What the enthusiastic supporters of such Mohalla sabhas fail to realize is that crowds are not equipped to take unpopular decisions that might actually benefit them in the longer term or even benefit a collective that is larger than the individual neighbourhood which votes on the issue concerned. Oddly enough, such ideas remind of the kangaroo courts which the Scarecrow (Crane) runs in the epic move, The Dark Knight Rises. Yes, our leaders do not always take decisions which are in the best interest of the public, but the solution is not to crowd-source their decisions. It is to elect better leaders.
3) Right to Recall -
The AAP intends to implement a system where a government (or an individual representative) is recalled or dismissed by the electorate before the end of its stipulated five year term if it disagrees with its policies or is dissatisfied with its performance. Again, one must remember that the policies of governments seldom see immediate results. In their quest for immediate gratification, people could well end up recalling well-meaning governments every time an unpopular decision is taken. Let me give you an example. Every time fuel prices are hiked in India, we see large-scale protests and collective crying-foul. Almost no one realises that these are tough decisions which must be taken in an oil-importing nation exposed to the vagaries of international oil prices and a floating exchange rate. In the absence of price hikes, India would have continued to consume larger quantities of oil, importing more of it and hence fueling even more inflation because of higher current account and fiscal deficits. So in the longer-run, these price hikes are a bitter pill, which must be taken to prevent uglier ailments. Electorates, unfortunately, do not find long-run economic decision making palatable.
So, on balance, I remain equivocal in my assessment of the AAP. My views, like the party itself, are rather nascent and in a state of flux - I would rather wait to see the AAP tested out in the grind of daily governance before passing judgment. It is easy to oppose - but rather difficult to face the music on the hot seat of government. Having said that, I sincerely wish and pray for the success of movements like the AAP - it is not often that a political party reinstates our faith in Indian democracy.
