AAP infighting: Kejriwal supporters' 'with us or against us' approach will destroy the party

It is no more easy to be indulgently dismissive about the turbulence within the Aam Aadmi Party. If the overwhelming impression among the sympathisers of the political outfit was that its leaders were a bunch of novices learning the ropes and thus should be tolerated for their immature excesses, the recent developments dispel that with a rude jolt. Here are people who are masters at the game of skullduggery and manipulation. They are adept at undercutting rivals, both potential and real, through efficiently orchestrated maneuvers that would even put the Congressis, the old masters of the trick, to shame. [caption id=“attachment_2147693” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “] A file photo of Arvind Kejriwal, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan.[/caption] As layers and layers of intrigue peel off everyday with every carefully calculated leak to the media from sources within, none of the big players look clean. That the group of party’s intellectual faces led by Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were trying to undermine the party’s prospect in the Delhi assembly elections was being spoken in whispers in party circles for sometime now. It has become official with the party coming out with a chargesheet against them. It has also been known that the Arvind Kejriwal-led group had made compromises on the basic principles the party stood for by selecting tainted candidates and soliciting funds from tainted sources. There were agendas within agendas; personal ambition overshadowing the need collective action; and mutual bitterness too intense to hide for long. Now that all of this is out in the open, lakhs of volunteers of the party across the country have reason to feel cheated and get disillusioned. For them the AAP was never supposed to be like any other political outfit on the block. Capturing power, though important, was incidental, not central, to their idea of the party. Power was only a means to further a noble, bigger agenda: clean, accountable, people-centric politics. Of course, it was a rather naïve expectation, as was the belief that leadership can be truly democratic, but people leading the party offered hope that it was possible. Who would have doubted that a Kejriwal, a Bhushan or a Yogendra Yadav after hearing them speak with such conviction? With the Kejriwal group getting ready to create a ‘you are with us or against us’ situation for the volunteers and other leaders before the National Council meet on March 28 – one indication is all legislators are being made to sign on a letter condemning the Yogendra-Prashant-Shanti trio for their sabotage bid, the hope is fading fast. After the meet, the party is likely to be reborn as a new entity altogether – a coterie-driven, one man-centric entity. This certainly is not the scenario the volunteers had envisaged when they landed from everywhere to campaign for the party, donning caps with main hoon aam aadmi written on it. Can the party find a way out? After stretching things this far and eliminating any scope for a middle ground, an amicable solution looks impossible. There is not any – barring that of Kumar Vishwas – voice of conciliation left. Perhaps Kejriwal himself could lend the healing touch. He does not seem inclined. He has carefully distanced himself from the developments within the party. After everything is over he is expected to utter words like ‘unfortunate’, ‘saddened’ and ‘pained’ more often, but he would sound hollow. His moral authority and appeal in the party and among volunteers would stand hugely dented. The National Council would truly herald the arrival of Kejriwal the politician. But it would also mark the death of the idea of AAP cherished by its volunteers. The party would have sharply divided units in every state even before taking off. The Maharashtra unit is already showing signs of breaking up; divisions are taking shape in Haryana and Punjab too. That virtually stops its growth prospects beyond Delhi. It will take superhuman effort from the AAP’s leadership to win trust of people once more.