Kejriwal vs lesser devils: Delhi is eyeing an untested exorcist

At a small South Delhi bar, a left-leaning fellow journalist declares his support for the Aam Aadmi Party. His reasoning: “They are doing something different. So why not give them a chance?” AAP pops up again at a meeting with an old friend, a card-carrying member of the Lutyens elite who is mulling a hefty donation. He could never vote for the BJP, but with the AAP, he now has a way to express his disillusionment with the ruling Congress party and its outrageous track record of corruption. Arvind Kejriwal’s party is gaining friends in unexpected places. [caption id=“attachment_1159877” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal. AFP[/caption] This morning, the nation’s leading intellectual, Pratap Bhanu Mehta, came as close as he possibly can to open advocacy: It would be presumptuous for a column to endorse any party; voters do not need to be told what they should do. But to not acknowledge that something new is afoot would also be a mistake. The potential demonstration effect that AAP’s success may have on politics in other cities is not negligible. While politics is often local, successful examples are empowering. It will force national parties to raise their game. That’s a whole lot more than what he said in the anti-UPA column which made waves as an indirect endorsement of the BJP. Mehta’s column praises a number of AAP virtues: Arvind Kejriwal’s role in “transforming the discourse on corruption”; for advocating decentralisation and “administrative simplicity”; building “a civic political party whose base is not just a social or regional identity” etc. There are caveats aplenty about ideological rigidity and naivete, but in the end he ends up in the exact same space as my journalist friend: “But at least there is something radically fresh in what they are attempting; there is an infusion of new people, ideas and a platform that can evolve.” Congress Chief Minister Sheila Dixit is betting on familiarity carrying the day. She dismisses AAP as “nuisance value” in Open magazine, a marginal party that can at best “cut into our vote share and somewhere into that of the BJP.” But if Kejriwal cuts too deep, his party may, as another Congress leader tells Open, “be in a position to decide who forms the government.” A position that AAP may find equally difficult since coalition dharma runs contrary to its rabble-rousing ‘outsider’ brand. The vaulting rhetoric about swaraj does indeed evoke a nervous giggle in the average urban professional. Policy should be determined behind closed doors by experts not by vote in raucous public assemblies. “All that extreme populism makes me nervous,” grumbles high-paid executive at a media firm. But there is no mistaking the chutzpah involved in picking a Muslim woman as a candidate in a constituency where Muslims account for barely 4.5 percent of the population. When Shazia Ilmi declares, “I want to be in politics as a citizen of this country, not as a Muslim,” it is difficult for even the most ardent sickularist-hating rightwinger to object. This willingness to innovate, break rules, and take risks will in the end earn AAP the ‘kuch to kar rahein hain’ vote. An A for effort may not be a ringing endorsement in any other field, but in the arena of Indian politics — characterised by bad faith and base calculations — sincerity and commitment are rare and compelling virtues. Tired of opting for the lesser devil, many Delhites are leaning toward the aspiring and untested exorcist. There remains the possibility that the exorcist, possessed himself by the addiction of power, may eventually fall from grace. This would be hardly surprising to an electorate that has been repeatedly let down by good leaders gone wrong. Wondering if, at the time of reckoning, we will opt once again for that familiar devil, Mehta asks, “Deep down, have we reconciled ourselves to the thought that in the final analysis, politics changes people more than people change politics?” The answer, I suspect, is ‘Not yet.’