Modi just filling vacuum, opposed to idea of India, says AAP's Yogendra Yadav

Call it daredevilry or a political blunder, but the Aam Aadmi Party believes that the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is no phenomenon, viewing him instead as just an individual filling a vacuum at the top because there is no challenger at the moment.

“Narendra Modi is opposed to the idea of India. Modi’s rise happened because of the Congress and UPA’s lack of courage…  There is no need to go back to 2002 repeatedly. There are other faults too that Modi has committed. The vacuum at the top has helped Modi to gain attention,” AAP ideologue and leader Yogendra Yadav told CNN-IBN’s Sagarika Ghose during an interview.

Not only that, Yadav is also convinced that there is no Third Front and that the AAP could very well emerge as the third largest party in the Lok Sabha polls later this year.

“There is no Third Front in India. It is just an expansion of the third space but when it grew bigger it disintegrated. The Third space is a vacuum. AAP is a natural third. In 1977 and 1989, we saw a third force but these were carved out of the first and the second fronts. This is the first time that the third has been carved out of people outside the first and second fold,” the AAP leader said.

From being a non-entity to a growing political force to reckon with, the addition of Aam Aadmi Party to India’s political theater has been dramatic and awe-inspiring enough to generate a cult following. Within the span of a year, the party successfully led by Arvind Kejriwal dethroned the 15-year Congress government in Delhi under Sheila Dikshit. Now, an impatient nation wants to know if AAP is fit for a national role.

“The AAP formula can work outside Delhi. We chose Delhi to start off because we have a good organisational strength in Delhi. We also felt the media presence would help us grow,” Yadav said. “AAP is a small organisation. We have become the vehicle of a new politics. We were not sure initially but the people did it for us,” the AAP leader said explaining how the turnaround in Delhi happened.

“AAP is not a concept of mobocracy as well. We need participative democracy. We are not going towards mobocracy. For instance, issues like human rights, Dalit problems etc should not be left to the people,” Yadav said, seeking to set the record straight.

Analysing the prevalent political style in the country Yadav felt that the country needs to emerge out of the politics of banners and posters.

“There is no need for faces. why can’t we have elections without faces? I have no idea though if it would be feasible,” he said. Making it clear that AAP belongs to a different genre of politics, the AAP member said, “AAP is not suited for routine elections where muscle and money power are used.” As an example, Yadav said, “Routine electioneering won’t help us in Haryana.”

The party is trying to develop roots in the  state which is scheduled to go for Assembly polls later this year. Despite the buzz, Yadav said the party has not taken any decision so far to nominate him as the chief ministerial candidate for Haryana.

Asked about the school of thought that AAP owes its allegiance to, Yadav denied that the party is a peril to the business community particularly the private sector.

“Those judgements have come because of a few decisions we took in Delhi. We are not against the private sector. Give me evidence where private schools give best education to the poorest. Do you think private firms can distribute water effectively right up to the remotest corner in a city? There is huge wastage committed by the government as well in the name of subsidies,” he said.

“No conclusion should be drawn from the Delhi decisions. For us, regulated market is the best solution for the economy. We are not a socialist party as some believe. The binaries of the 20th century, either Left or Right, do not make sense. How could one decide that the public companies will work only for the welfare of the poorest and the private firms will work only for the well-being of the richest? We need to have an agnostic and open-ended mind,” the AAP leader said.

Yadav, however, did not deny that the party went overboard at times.

“More than once I felt that our language was sharp. But the best antidote to that is politics itself. Since we are now in power we will go closer to the people and people have the opportunity to question us,” he said.

AAP hopes to give people “clean politics” and make a mark in the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections for which the countdown has already started.

“Time is a very serious limitation for us to prepare for the Lok Sabha polls. In Delhi too, we are a small organisation but people helped us go forward. I wish the Lok Sabha polls were being held in 2015,” the AAP leader said.

Yadav felt that if the Lok Sabha polls end up being a Narendra Modi-Rahul Gandhi face off, it would be a tragedy for the world’s largest democratic exercise. For now, AAP is banking on plain people’s power.

Yadav also mentioned that there is a section of feminists who are unhappy with the name Aam AADMI Party.

“I was also not happy with the name first and my feminists friends pointed that out to me. But I told them it is at least not an Aam MARD Party,” Yadav said signing off.