A wake-up call

by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group

Harish Gupta

The mad rush for image makeover in the mainline political parties before the general election in April-May is already evident. The party bosses are in a hurry to re-tune the set-up, and their aides are racking their brains thinking up what is known, in the management jargon, as out-of-the-box ideas.

The shock of the fledgling Aam Aadmi Party's unexpected tally of seats in the assembly election in the city-state of Delhi last month has got both Congress and BJP rattled. Till the other day, AAP was seen as a ragtag band of street protestors, comprising lefty screwballs and out-of-work intellectuals, who had taken to the streets at the call of Anna Hazare and parted from him subsequently to give electoral politics a try.

But, with 28 seats in the 70-member Delhi assembly, this newbie has made seasoned political managers nervous. It has trumped Congress to the gutter, leaving it with no option but to supporting the very AAP government led by Arvind Kejriwal whose leaders won the election by calling it a "party of thieves". With a disgracefully low tally of eight seats, the 'grand old party' also finds its chances of driving the government from the backseat very limited. And if Congress is the unwilling horse, BJP has reasons to feel even more dispirited after having lost the race for Delhi. Despite winning the largest number of seats, it must now sit in the opposition benches.

Why were the big national parties upstaged in Delhi? Can the same fate await them across the nation in the Lok Sabha elections? They are still pretending to be the big boys, after all, but they unmistakably appear to have brought a knife to the gunfight. What did they lack?

In the Congress, there is already an internal tussle which the party is finding difficult to keep under wrap. Vice president Rahul Gandhi, who will, in all probability, be declared the party's PM candidate in its conclave Friday (17 January) next, is caught between his two powerful aides, one for his Hindi communications, Janardan Dwivedi, and the other for English, Jairam Ramesh, with the latter in favour of being on the same page with AAP and the former not so impressed. Rahul cannot but walk a tightrope. He has ordered state selectors of party candidates for the Lok Sabha election to look for only those who have kept their nose clean, yet have proven winning potential. It is an oxymoron in today's India where honest candidates are the least likely to win elections. But never mind. Besides, Rahul was the first to serenade AAP by saying his party had a "lot to learn" from it. It seems he's not certain what is to be learnt.

But BJP is more daring in the art of imitation. Copying AAP, BJP leaders are now turning out in party meetings wearing saffron caps with the lotus symbol emblazoned. In line with Kejriwal's now famous refusal to accept security cover (Congress Home Minister Sushil Shinde says Kejriwal's security ring is very much in place though there are no visible regalia), newly elected Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje of BJP too has bid farewell to her security personnel.

However, the strategists of Narendra Modi, BJP's candidate for prime minister, are still at a loss. With 22 per cent of voters being between 18 and 23 years of age, they are guessing that AAP got unexpected youth support because of its novelty. Like younger people who like new gizmos. Acting on such 'original' conclusions, a section of the "saffron intellectuals" have recently sent yoga instructor Swami Ramdev on a mission to convince Modi that it would be a grand idea if he promises to discontinue income tax, thus relieving the "common man" of the annual trouble of filing the tax return. It will be revue neutral; it is argued, as an identical yield is expected from tax on banking transaction. It is a bizarre idea in a nation of less than 3 per cent taxpayers and nearly half of the population holding no bank account. Besides, direct tax is the largest contributor to the public exchequer. No major country in the world has experimented with abolition of income tax.

I think both Congress and BJP are erring on taking AAP as a role model, and not as a wake-up call, which it really is. As role model, AAP is a disaster. It says it will waive the electricity bills of those consumers who'd defaulted since last March. Thereafter, when Harsh Vardhan, chief of the BJP legislature party and an astute leader, points out that it's an invitation to anarchy as his party too can give a no-payment call now, Kejriwal realises the stupidity of his move and ducks, saying no decision has been taken. Be it free water or security or government bungalows or cars or referendum in the terrorism-hit J&K state. AAP is giving a clear indication that its still a motley crowd, not a party.

Still, the AAP phenomenon is a warning call that political parties can't afford to ignore. Despite its amateurish conduct in the first fortnight of its holding public office, it is enlisting new members across the country at an electrifying speed. Those who're signing up are not just celebrities- like a famous denseuse, a corporate executive and a top cop-but students, housewives, school teachers, auto drivers, and many ordinary people.

What do they find lacking in the political establishment of the country?

I think it is equality. A party does not appear to be upholding equality if it is run by a gaggle of youngsters whose fathers were party bosses in the past. In fact, family culture militates against equality. Nor does a party promote equality yet project someone of questionable past records as the answer to all the ills of India.

Stung by AAP, at least some Congress leaders (notably Ramesh) have begun flying Economy class. And BJP is on a frenetic mass subscription drive, perhaps to find a suitable answer to the charge that Modi and others are hobnobbing with corporate tsars. But AAP has spurred voters to demand of the political parties that they should not be run like big  offices bristling with managers, and a CEO shining at the top.

They want parties like neighborhood clubs, where you can button-hole anyone you like, differ or agree, and nobody bothers about your caste, religion or pedigree.

All is not lost.

Parties have 30

days to respond

to AAP

(The author is National Editor of 

Lokmat group of newspapers 

and based in Delhi)