Delhi rethinking achche din, coming back to AAP: Anand Kumar

The Aam Admi Party’s decision to give the upcoming assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jammu & Kashmir and Jharkhand a miss and to concentrate its electoral energies on Delhi has raised new questions on the party’s future political course. While senior party leader Yogendra Yadav has questioned the political wisdom of such a decision, the party has decided to take the risk and put all its eggs in the Delhi basket, at least for now. Determined to re-take the Capital, the party is all set to escalate its campaign to hold elections in Delhi. Party chief Arvind Kejriwal has announced a rally at Jantar Mantar on 3 August to mobilise voters to build pressure on the Modi government to dissolve the assembly. The Delhi assembly has been under suspended animation ever since the minority government led by AAP resigned in February. Firstpost spoke to AAP senior leader and national executive member Anand Kumar about reasoning behind the party’s decision to abandon electoral ventures outside of Delhi and how it plans to counter an election-shy BJP. Excerpts from the interview: Why has the party decided against contesting the upcoming assembly elections in four states? Some would say this is political suicide for the party in these states. For AAP, the challenge is to create alternative politics. And that challenge is connected with three requirements for remaining as a political party. One, a set of specific programmes of public interest and continuous engagement with those programmes. Be it water, electricity, security of women, unemployment or corruption in governance. [caption id=“attachment_1640979” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] AFP[/caption] The second requirement is to remain organisationally viable, meaning a well-disciplined evolving force of political volunteers who are working together without too much factionalism and with a lot of idealism so that it is a party with a difference. And third, it should have a visible capacity to effectively participate in an electoral competition with other political rivals. Given these three requirements, AAP, which is only two years old and has performed in a mixed manner in the electoral arena, needs to reinvent itself because it seems that in common perception AAP has become one of the several parties that is gradually evolving into an election machine. This impression has come because of our ineffective performance and the very large-scale and rather unplanned entry into the Lok Sabha elections. Unless, you have an effective presence in the day-to-day life of ordinary people and a transmission system to convert that into electoral gains through a vibrant organisation, which is available at the booth and ward level, your participation in elections becomes a symbolic activity. Therefore, AAP was quite confused about what to do next. Do we go for every new election? But then, as it is, there is an election round the corner every time you want to look at your immediate responsibilities as a political party. And that has forced most of the political parties to create viable vote-banks and get into identity politics. It has also forced all major political parties to have a very strong base of financial support. This is something we have to avoid. Therefore, the present decision which has been presented before the party and to the country is in quest of creating an alternative political process, where you should be more connected with people, with or without electoral prospects of the party. We had to decide whether to go for all four provincial elections or not. It is true that except in Delhi, in all other places we did enter into the electoral process and we had a very bad and disappointing performance. Haryana was much more disappointing than Kashmir and Maharashtra. Do we need more of the same? We have not done anything radically different to create better prospects. Neither has the inner logic of Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir and Maharashtra state politics changed. Delhi is a radically different case. First of all, we were the second party in the previous Vidhan Sabha election. It was at the cost of the decline of Congress. We proved to be the speed-breaker for the BJP. Secondly, in the Lok Sabha election, in all seven seats, we were the second-best party. Now there is going to be an anti-incumbency against BJP candidates and there is going to be further accentuated factionalism in the BJP. A further demoralised Congress will see a drift of the Congress voter in search of an alternative. Few may go to Mr Modi but most will go to a non-BJP party and we will be the best candidate for an alternative. You see, the BJP is going through an internal churning. They have moved away from the traditional pool of leadership and have found a corporator to head the party after an eminent leader like Dr Harsh Vardhan who was catapulted to the Union Cabinet. So there is some effort at reinventing itself on the part of the BJP. We have to match the BJP in terms of creativity and freshness. This decision (to not contest the upcoming assembly polls in four states) is not perfect. It will create a bit of demoralisation of our voters and our volunteers in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jammu & Kashmir. But it is a manageable challenge. We are giving them another task. To go down to the booth-level and connect with people to be able to create movements. We are not blocking that process. We are only asking them to hold back and not contest assembly elections. And if we have competent volunteers from Maharashtra and Haryana, they must come and pool their energy for Delhi’s success. The BJP remains disinclined to fresh polls in Delhi. What happens if the BJP, as a recent news report suggested, puts off elections to next year? We are ready for election tomorrow. After being squarely defeated in the Lok Sabha, we did our homework. In the Vidhan Sabha election, we had won 28 out of 70 seats. We realised that the ground reality had changed. BJP took the lead in 61 seats out of 70 (in the Lok Sabha elections). So the house was on fire. We have connected with people now. Our MLAs are already moving around in their constituencies asking ward-level volunteers to tell them what to do with area development fund. In the other constituencies, we have appointed observers and are activating our booth-level committees. More delay in elections will create more advantage for us in terms of anti-incumbency. After the Delhi budget was presented by Arun Jaitley much of the myth of giving a break to Delhi has been demystified. There is no allotment of substantial amounts to improve the drainage system, the water or the electricity system, transport, health, education and security. All the promises of achche din for Delhi are falling flat. Two, the mistakes of the administration under Lieutenant Governor will be added to the account of the BJP because it has the power to dissolve the assembly and create a new government with a new mandate. Third, the middle-class who had drifted away from AAP because of a variety of reasons, including the charm of Modi and his promise of achche din, are doing a rethink. If the BJP wants to hold elections seven months from now, good luck to them. What is AAP’s reading of BJP’s reluctance to go to polls? It is because of BJP’s own inherent contradictions. It claims to be a party with a difference but it is a cousin of the Congress party. It is under the control of crony capitalists. It is a party of real-estate dealers, wholesale dealers, the super-rich and is under the mesmerising influence of communal forces, particularly the RSS. The BJP was okay for the ordinary voter as a contrast to the Congress. But when it is compared with the rank and file and leadership of AAP, its pales into insignificance. So the BJP is nervous about what to do next. What makes you so confident that the BJP is already facing anti-incumbency in Delhi? People are disappointed. At the moment there are three indicators of disappointment. One is price rise. The BJP had said the Congress was in alliance with hoarders and therefore the price rise. And if that is the explanation, the BJP has been in power for more than sixty days and prices of essential commodities are galloping. Indicators are that people will start saying that the BJP is also in alliance with corrupt business people. Second, disappointment with BJP’s promise of improving the situation of ordinary men and women. The electricity crisis has hurt them. Third, career-driven youth have been forced to go on a hunger strike and have been beaten up by the police over an innocuous issue like the UPSC exam for which a Commission was appointed by the UPA government in March. Nobody did their homework. There is also a strike by auto drivers who are complaining of police harassment and corruption, there is insecurity among members of the North East community, among women and the minorities. Every day it is being reported in the media. But there is no effective engagement by the BJP MPs. There is a leadership vacuum in the BJP. And it is contrasted with a hyper-active AAP. Every ten days there is a new poster. Every day there are public meetings by AAP leaders. AAP is acting in the spirit of self-defence and the BJP has become complacent. Arvind Kejriwal is holding a rally on August 3 at Jantar Mantar. What is on the agenda? We are asking the BJP to fulfil the promises that it had made in their manifesto for Delhi. Now they have a clear majority in Parliament, they have all the seven parliamentary seats in Delhi. They are in control of all the three municipal corporations. What more do they want? What are they waiting for? We want delivery. The water situation is pathetic. The water mafia is back. The electricity rates are going up. The enquiry into the books maintained defectively by the electricity companies is going nowhere. Governance is going down the drain. The people of Delhi are being treated like a football between Lieutenant Governor’s office and the Home Ministry. What we are trying to do is to put those questions that are in the minds of the people of Delhi about the requirements of a better life into an agenda. We will present the charter of demands to the Lieutenant Governor and, of course, to the Prime Minister of India. Is there also a symbolic message in the party’s decision to return to Jantar Mantar? There is an element of truth about our incapacity to function both as a party of mobilisation and a party of election. Since we got into election mode, our mobilisation capacity has been on the decline. So going back to Jantar Mantar will be like going back to our roots. The Jantar Mantar rally will inaugurate a new chapter because after that we’ll go Vidhan Sabha headquarters and then to the ward headquarters and finally to the booths. We want a new political culture based on participatory democracy, which requires active citizenship, not a patron-client network. Ordinary citizens should be the centre of activism and that requires cultivating a new political culture for ordinary men and women who are nervous about their capacity to do things differently. That nervousness had reduced during the Anna movement. Is the party now going to focus on Delhi-centric issues? Or will you also take up national issues? Our national manifesto is our guiding star. But as a decent political competitor we want to give some time for the new government to settle down. We are not like the Congress, which remains paralysed for five years or becomes hyperactive from day one. In all fairness, Modi should be given some time. How much time depends on the nature of the problem. For problems of electricity, water supply, six months is more than enough. For transport, metro lines, hospitals, universities, you need to give them a year or two. At least two budgets should be permitted to them. We are waiting for the right time to come and be available to serve as reflectors of people’s perceptions. We are a political party and political parties must work as transmission agencies of people’s perception. AAP is all set to play its role as a constructive and effective opposition party but the time for it is not yet ripe. When will AAP be ready to contest elections outside of Delhi again? I think after one year. In Punjab, we already have a committee called Mission 2017. We will have similar missions in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, where the elections are due. A three-day meeting of the National Executive has just concluded. What were some of the key issues that were brought up during the meeting? I won’t be able to say much about it because I was away from it due to a previous engagement. But I can tell you about a two-day workshop of Lok Sabha candidates. Out of 434 candidates, 300-plus attended the meeting. That means the family is intact. That is more than 65 per cent attendance. And it included people like Medha Patkar, Meera Sanyal, all the four MPs elected from Punjab, Kumar Vishwas, Yogendra Yadav and Arvind Kejriwal – the who’s who of the Lok Sabha candidates list. They did some homework. The spirit was ‘we will stand united and move forward’. The hiccup which was noticed by media in an exaggerated manner soon after the Lok Sabha elections - that stage is over. And the teething troubles are gone. We have two committees. Mission Vistaar, of which I’m in charge in some states, and the Policy committee, headed by Prashant Bhushan to bridge the gap between our manifesto and our overall perspective. And both committees have done a remarkable job. They had to report to the National Executive. And from what I hear, it was a very positive meeting.