8/12/2019 From Movement to Government (DONE)

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january 4, 2014

Economic & PoliticalWeekly EPW JANUARY 4, 2014 vol xliX no 1 7

From Movement to Government

Running the Delhi government will test the Aam Aadmi Partys ability to transform itself.

The Aam Aadmi Partys (AAP) decision to form a government

with the support of the very party it has been bitterly

opposed to since its inception was not surprising. Ideally

the party, which made a spectacular debut in the assembly elec-

tions just a few months after deciding to enter the fray, would have

preferred to consolidate its support base by being in the opposition.

The party sought to overcome this dilemma by engaging in an

informal referendum, asking its supporters through telephone

calls, text, emails and, most importantly, through ward meet-

ings on whether it should form the government. The overwhelm-

ing response in favour of assuming office forced theAAPshand.

The inability of the single largest party, the Bharatiya Janata

Party (BJP), to form the government without horse-trading and

the prompt support provided by the Congress left it with little

choice. Moreover, had theAAPrefused to form a government it

would have disappointed a large section of the urban poor whoseem to have voted for the party based on its promises to reduce

the cost of essential services.

TheAAP sentry as a political force in the historically bipolar

political system in Delhi has put the BJPand the Congress in an

uncomfortable bind. The BJP refused to form a government,

despite being short by only four seats, knowing that any

manoeuvre to garner support by luring legislators from other

parties would have backfired on the party in the coming gener-

al elections. The AAP s strident use of the anti-corruption

plank prevented the BJPfrom indulging in horse-trading.

For the AAP too, there would have been no guarantee of

renewed support, especially from the poor, if the party had refused

to form a government and looked at a re-poll coinciding with

the Lok Sabha elections. From theAAP sperspective then, as a

party that has relied on an agenda that is not drawn from partic-

ularisms (caste, religion or region) to garner support, meeting

expectations through governance becomes vitally important.

TheAAP srise and the manner in which it has achieved power

(even if in a small, symbolically important, state) has had few

precedents in Indias democracy. It managed to bring together

a cross-section of Delhis population and successfully converted

a single-point mass movement into a political party with

diverse support. Its support base has included members ofthe upper-middle and middle classes who have bought into the

anti-corruption message and have interpreted it as governance

delinked from inefficiency and malfeasance. The urban poor

especially those living in slum clusters extended support on the

promises to ensure the supply of 700 litres of free water for house-

holds, to reduce power tariffs by 50% after a thorough audit of the

electricity supplying companies, and to regularise the illegal

and unauthorised residential areas, including slum clusters.

WhetherAAPmanages to grow out of Delhi into a national

political force depends, to a large extent, on how it performs in

Delhi. Its rise has been helped by some fortuitous factors like

the relatively less importance for caste in urban Delhi, its large

migrant population and the saturation coverage of its activities

by the media. Delhis compact geographical space also helped.

Such advantages will be lacking in other states. The AAPhas

also resisted the adoption of ideological positions and has

chosen not to present a clear vision of the society it wants to

build. It has focused instead on offering proximate and prag-matic solutions to widely felt problems. This has worked well in

its short rise, as it has allowed its largely left-of-centre leaders

and mass base to take along a large section of the right-of-cen-

tre middle class. It appears that the AAPleadership expects to

sustain their cross-class support base by staying away from clearly

enunciated economic policies and foregrounding the fight

against corruption and inflation. There is, however, no guaran-

tee that this tightrope walk can be sustained for long; after all

the definition of corruption itself is different for those who live

in fancy south Delhi and those who live in that citys slums.

In terms of the political positions the AAP has taken, the

partys rhetoric has itself showed a slow but clear shift to the

left-of-centre position. This will, if it continues on this path,

make it a replacement for the Congress, much of whose mass

base and populist imagery the AAP is adopting. If the AAP

is to succeed in this, it will be forced to stand increasingly

in stark opposition to the right-wing BJP. For both replacing the

Congress as well as providing an alternative to the BJP, theAAP

will need to articulate clearer political positions and take

ideological stands. Its willingness, and ability, to do so will

perhaps decide whether it will grow to be a national force. Not

doing so may have been a strength but may soon turn into a

liability. However, theAAPhas surprised most political observerswith its success against all predictions of failure; perhaps it

will do so again.