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SIMPLE MAJORITY
The emergence of the Aam Admi Movement in 2010-2011 as a Civil Society and the tremendous success of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) under the leadership of Arvind Kejriwal securing 28 seats out of 70 in the last Delhi Assembly election as a first time opener has given a thrust and the party has now started its efforts to spread its wings to other states of the Indian Union. It is understood that the AAP is also contemplating to contest in the next 2014 general election to Parliament.
The strength derived by the AAP is all due to its two years of continuous mobilization of public opinion as a crusader against corruption and sincere efforts in this regard by its ombudsman Anna Hazare. Although Anna Hazare and his followers stated that they would not form themselves into any political forum, his most trusted lieutenant Arvind Kejriwal, against the explicit wishes of Anna Hazare entered politics by forming the Aam Admi Party (AAP) as its convener and later became its Chairperson.
The factors which contributed to this amazing success of the AAP are, firstly, the party workers campaigning door to door. Secondly, due to the price rise of almost all the essentials commodities of daily life and the failure of the Government to show any accountability when it comes to the common people’s concern which, notwithstanding is an all India phenomenon, the voters become fed up of the non-responding politicians at the helm of the affairs. Thirdly, there is a tendency of non-Congress and non-BJP space expanding very rapidly all over the country including in the capital Delhi area. This had created an interesting situation of choice and possibility of charge. The other most important reason is that the political class has created such a trapping of identity politics that therefore there developed a tendency of becoming less interested in the common man’s cause. Even the AAP has evaded issues of ideology or a long term political frame work. Its ‘vision’ statement is silent on these aspects of vital importance like poverty, communalism, caste and economic policy, etc. The main opposition in the Delhi Assembly is the BJP with 31 MLAs. The Congress with only 8 MLAs supported the AAP Government and time will tell whether this support is only to discredit it in the end as the Congress has sensed that although AAP has made tall promises to the voters, their delivery towards fulfillment of these promises is bound to fail in the long run. In other words, it is doubtful in as much as it will be a futile attempt on the part of the AAP Government to combat the problems of inequitable distribution of water and rampant leakage other than the illegal activities by the Jal-Mafias. The AAP’s proposed cut in power tariff is ridiculous on the mere assumption that the previous Government and the private companies distributing electricity together had inflated the bills.
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Mamata Banarjee and her simplicity: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banarjee left the India National Congress in 1997 after she alleged that Congress was behaving as a stooge of the CPI (M) in West Bengal in 1996 and stated that she wanted a ‘clean Congress’ after which she founded the All India Trinamool Congress in 1997 itself. She pulled off a landslide victory for the TMC-Congress alliance in 2011 by defeating the 34 year old Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left Front Government in West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee entered politics while still in school by joining the Congress (I) party, West Bengal and serving it in a variety of positions. She was the youngest Parliamentarian ever in 1984 defeating veteran communist leader Somnath Chatterjee from the Jadarpur Parliamentary constituency in West Bengal. In 1999 she joined the BJP lead NDA Government and become the first woman Railways Minister. She resigned in 2000 from the NDA led ministry protesting against the hike in petroleum prices. However, later she withdrew her resignation. In 2001 after the Tehelka exposure Mamata Banerjee walked out of the NDA cabinet and allied with the Congress for the West Bengal election in 2001 and again returned to the NDA in 2004 and held the Coal and Mines portfolio. In 2009 Ms Mamata Banerjee joined the UPA-II as Railway Minister supporting the Congress party with her 26 MPs. The TMC threatened to withdraw support from the UPA-II in protest against the Government’s decision to allow FDI in the retail market and also for the hike in petrol and diesel prices and ultimately withdrew support from the UPA-II and ran independently in September 2012. Prior to becoming the Chief Minister of West Bengal in 2011, Mamata Banerjee served twice as the Railway Minister in the Union Cabinet besides being the first woman to hold this august post. Mamata Banerjee dislikes long cavalcades of vehicles and excessive security arrangements. Unlike her cabinet colleagues, as a Central Minister, she would move around in an old model Maruti-zen which belongs to a close associate of her based in the capital - when she was the Union Railway Minister. Things have not changed much even after she became the Chief Minister of West Bengal. On a visit to Delhi recently she preferred to travel in a Maruti 800 and as usual sat in the front passenger seat of the car. Throughout her political career, Mamata Banerjee had been maintaining an austere lifestyle always dressing in simple traditional Bengali cotton sarees called ‘Tant’ shunning all jewelry and cosmetics and always has a cotton bag slung over her shoulder. In this sense there is a marked similarity with the simplicity of Manik Sarkar who also leads a very simple life. Sarkar, it is learnt, donates his salary and allowances as Chief Minister of Tripura to his party CPI (M) which in turn pays him Rs 5000/- (equal; to 80 USD) as subsistence allowance. Manik Sarkar is a Chief Minister with the least assets in the whole of India. Mamata Banarjee was voted as India’s most honest politician in May 2013 in an internal poll by members of India against corruption, India’s largest anti-corruption coalition. |
Be that as it may, both the Congress and the BJP although are saying that the emergence of the AAP is not a threat to them. Even then they have been found to have started “Chinton” meetings in their respective houses formulating strategies. Criticism by the Congress of the BJP being communal authoritarian and the BJP on the corruption of the Congress are highly disapproved by the common man in India. People of India are now matured voters after the passage of time since 1951. The election strategies applied by the political parties are not unknown to them and the Delhi election result in December, 2013 has given a hint of this.
Also, there was such an upheaval of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the North East corner State of Tripura in the sixties. The 1966-67 food scarcity and the then Congress Government’s wrong food policy caused serious distrust among the common people. Mal administration under the then Chief Minister Sachindralal Singha and the mishandling of other core departments of public importance caused further dissatisfaction as has now been expressed by the people at Delhi recently in forming themselves into a civil society raising and pointing fingers to the corrupt practices of the politicians in power. As the movement gained support from the common people in Delhi so also the movements in Tripura had gained momentum with the support of the masses. The Kishan movement had virtually taken the shape of non-co-operation by the agriculturists against the policy of the then Congress Government in 1969 imposing levy on paddy at throw away prices, although a democratic movement in the State unlike in the present day was not that strong. Opposition political parties were much weaker against the ruling Congress. All India student Federation and the United Students Front and other student unions were in the field of activities working under the guidance of the teachers. Like the Aam Admi Party (AAP) at Delhi, the CPI (M) started gaining ground slowly in drawing the student communities under its fold. Then there came the Bangladesh Freedom movement in 1971 in the neighbouring State of the then East Pakistan and the resultant influx of refugees which Tripura, being a border State, had to shoulder a considerable burden and the people in Tripura formed a common forum to put pressure on the Central Government to come forward and extend help to the Mukti-Bahini. Next was the Emergency in 1975. All this had together caused a political change in Tripura and the CPI (M) first came to power in 1978 after a long fight for a decade, whereas, it is amazing that the AAP at the capital Delhi could gain power by working roughly for two years only.
| Sarkar, it is learnt, donates his salary and allowances as Chief Minister of Tripura to his party CPI (M) which in turn pays him Rs 5000/- (equal; to 80 USD) as subsistence allowance. Manik Sarkar is a Chief Minister with the least assets in the whole of India. |
History tells us that a sudden rise is always susceptible to a sudden fall. The base of the AAP is not as strong as that of the BJP or the Congress and not even as strong as other State based regional parties like the Samajwadi and Bahujan Samaj Party in Uttar Pradesh, AIDMK in Tamil Nadu and Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. AAP is without a definite caste or ethnic-State identity and confined to one region (Delhi) having a limited type of voters, a majority of whom are slum dwellers and their only agenda is corruption in public life which is not the only issue from which the people of India are suffering particularly in the last three decades or so. There are other issues of importance like poverty, inequality, communalism, terrorism, economic policy and economic reform and above all international relations and a host of others. Time will reveal the fate of this newly established political party behind which is the young blood and in the lead is the young Arvind Kejriwal.
| The AAP’s proposed cut in power tariff is ridiculous on the mere assumption that the previous Government and the private companies distributing electricity together and inflated the bills. |
Although there is similarity between the CPI (M) in Tripura and AAP in Delhi in their respective rises, the men behind both the movements are young at heart. The young man then in Tripura was Manik Sarkar who entered politics at a comparatively young age of 19 years as a student leader and a graduate in commerce and Arvind Kejriwal of the AAP at Delhi is also of the same standing being an IIT graduate. All people are entitled to enjoy the fruits of their labour but are prevented from doing so in a capitalist economic system in the principle with which Manik Sarkar plunged into politics and had worked under constraints to extend the benefits of development to the men of the lowest rung. The AAP youth however were equipped with the aid of Right to Information Act 2005 to hack at the roots of the menace of corruption and to wipe it out by creating fear among the wrong doers.
Both the leaders in principle like to maintain austerity in public life. However, in contrast, Manik Sarkar who has been dubbed an icon of honesty is now a national figure as a Chief Minister and a member of the CPI (M) politburo which is the principal policy making body besides being a matured politician. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1993 and China opening its economy to the rest of the world, the standing of the Communist Parties or the left front particularly in India has not become irrelevant and it will not be so as long as Indian economy remains agrarian and tillers of the soil do not become owners due to the lack of proper land reforms whereas eradication of corruption is the common cry of all the political parties at least at face value in the public eye, which is however not a new phenomenon because power makes its holders corrupt in a democratic country in particular where common people are often at the helm of every affairs of State. A large percentage of the members of Parliament and the State Assemblies now are there with criminal backgrounds. Political parties have taken the shape of corporate houses. Their economic resources are never socially audited although members of the society are in one way or the other at least in mind affiliated to a political party and support the candidates nominated by the party. As such the movement by the Aam Admi as a civil society created an image of fearlessness which the public who are the sufferers have come forward and supported. These crusaders are susceptible of getting their ideals diluted as powerful political party or parties at the center would in all possible ways put pressure on these ‘greenhorns’ to follow the norm and this is the factor wherein lies the success or failure of the AAP.
