Ready, set, slow: Can AAP avoid the pitfalls that come with absolute power?

It wasn’t a mere undercurrent but a wave that propelled the Aam Aadmi Party into the Delhi Assembly. All types of clichés have been used to describe AAP’s victory,  which has not only seen the decimation of BJP and the Congress, but left the law-making body without even the semblance of an Opposition. These 63 out of 70 seats is a proportion higher than the BJP’s in the Lok Sabha. No doubt this makes for euphoria. But this should not lead to hubris as a characteristic of the David-like party. The mandate has dispelled the notion that AAP’s constituency was only the underbelly and has shown that its voters come from across classes. Why voters changed their preferences so overwhelmingly after the sweep they allowed the BJP is not an exhibition of voters’ fickleness but a strong nudge to Narendra Modi that tangibles were not delivered in Delhi under President’s Rule. Voters are impatient and this is something that AAP has to note. [caption id=“attachment_2093373” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Naresh Sharma/Firstpost[/caption] No doubt Narendra Modi has gracefully called Arvind Kejriwal to congratulate him and will meet him for tea. AAP should realise that while the prime minister is a decisive leader, he is also the quintessential poker player, and likes to serve his revenge cold. Since Delhi is about half a state it will be dependent on the Centre for most things – land, revenue, law and order etc – so some tact would help. Of course, Modi will have to understand that that AAP won on a positive vote and be cautious, avoiding playing any Centre versus Delhi state game. It is possible that AAP’s scale of victory may embolden it to be reckless and that is precisely what needs to be resolutely avoided. It has to see several amber lights on the path, and this is not a tongue-in-cheek reference to the lal bathis. It is the caution light so that with a majority of the kind bestowed on it, the party avoids losing its head. With no place in the Assembly, both Congress and BJP can play opposition on the streets. Here are a few of those amber lights: Having a majority, much like the NTR’s Telugu Desham Party did when it came to power, can be a tempting invitation for AAP to run amok. NTR even became convenor of the united front. Like Yogendra Yadav said on NDTV even as the leads were rolling in, the government would do well only to initially pluck the low-hanging fruits like starting schools and hospitals which were already sanctioned. Thereafter, opt for sure-footed governance. Nor, having created a space for itself mainly by totally decimating the Congress, or successfully combating the BJP in an unequal battle, should the AAP consider itself the next opposition messiah across the country. Given the support that flowed – at least verbally – from JD(U), CPM, and Trinamool, the AAP could be tempted into trying to join the leadership of a larger opposition alliance. It is coming to power in Delhi is mainly because it contested their kind of politics, not mere anti-Congressism. The first thing to do is for the AAP Government to reintroduce the Janlokpal Bill which the Congress had scuttled and BJP voted against, and which led to the end of the AAP rule in 49 days. This will set the cat amongst the pigeon across the states and provide a new rallying point for the AAP outside Delhi. AAP, which seeks to reform politics, pitching the citizen against the professional politician, shouldn’t risk moving out of this new paradigm. People are unlikely to be satisfied with slow or negligible delivery on promises. That is why they punished Modi. Arvind Kejriwal will have to learn ways to deliver quickly but not in a rush, at least cost, because impatience among voters for securing their due is getting stronger by the day. Modi’s promises and the absence of felt outcomes may have been one reason why the BJP was slaughtered. A measure of governance is the level of satisfaction at the receiving end. The election outcome points to the remarkable rise in expectations of what governance ought to be. Of quick relief from long-pending issues like petty corruption, poor housing and abysmal civic services, and other things that making an individual’s life miserable. Even these, apart from ending the deep rooted hafta raj need to be attended to over time. Mohalla Committee sessions would have given the party a fair idea of the gigantic task ahead. Kejriwal has himself harped on the fact that good governance is all about being honest in intent and conduct. A Planning Commission or Niti Ayog paper on any issue will mean nothing to the people if it is poorly delivered. India has never been short of schemes which touch every section of the vast population, but the dissatisfaction is at how badly they are managed. Naturally, Kejriwal and AAP have to deal with a huge number of nuts and bolts before the machinery starts to make an impact among the people on a long term basis. When things have to reach the lowest segments long deprived of their rights, the work gets that much harder. Neither of these leaders can have an excuse and if they trot out one, they will surely be punished by voters the next time they get a chance. It has become a habit  to fell the mighty. In 2013, the lower strata of Delhi expressed hopes in Kejriwal and voted in his favour; areas with larger slum pockets – or swaths? – went with the AAP. They now have a presence across 67 of the 70 constituencies which imply that those in Lutyens’ Delhi have little appreciation of the concerns of the vast population. Had it been otherwise, there wouldn’t have been a need for an AAP. Voters would have then been comfortable with BJP or even the Congress. [caption id=“attachment_2093375” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Naresh Sharma/Firstpost[/caption] The just ended election has been a fight against the entrenched ways of traditional politicians, unchallenged till 2013. That is why the election resonated across the country unlike any state election normally would. It was, despite a legislative assembly of its own, has to be seen largely as a city’s municipality. The centre calls the shots on most things. The Economist had once likened its then chief minister Sheila Dikshit a mayor. The city which is a state, cannot ignore, as Dr Mukulika Banerjee noted in a recent article in The Guardian, those “who keep Delhi running, working in the vast informal economy that services the shiny coat of the beast”. She is an associate professor at the London School of Economics and the author of Why India Votes? This election has “it has forced voters to choose not just between one party and another, but also between one kind of politics and another” Here is a long quote from her article ( read here ):

“So the stakes are big in this small election because it has raised a fundamental question – what kind of politics do Indians want? Do they desire a political establishment that caters to the few who bob on the surface or do they want a party that unashamedly prioritises the needs of the majority below? A politics that cannot account for 75% of their funding or one that aspires to total transparency? A politics that can plaster the city with expensive advertisements or one in which young people campaign with flashmobs and songs? A politics of an electoral juggernaut that demolishes everything in its path or a groundswell of ordinary people that raises David up to look Goliath in the eye?”

In short, the seething underbelly cannot be told that they will get their sewer lines and drinking water and even their well-serviced toilets over time but they had better be satisfied with the stadia, the flyovers, the broad roads, and even Lutyens Delhi. In fact, the obscene display of power and grandness of Lutyens Delhi as a metaphor for power and the deprivation elsewhere in the same city should have incited a class war long ago. But fortunately, this angst has been sublimated into a possible election verdict.