VVIP boards not a crime, but has AAP irrevocably lost its identity?

It’s not easy being Arvind Kejriwal. He may have fulfilled a key poll promise by inaugurating an anti-corruption helpline in Delhi at the Talkatora stadium, but that has been completely overshadowed by the fact that the venue had several conspicuous VIP and VVIP parking boards - something that AAP’s opponents have been quick to pounce on.

Congress leader Ajay Maken tweeted out images of the boards, with the stinging question, “How in just 50 days AAP became a party of VIP & VVIP?”

Just passed through the Talkatora Stadium- Look at the pictures-
How in just 50 days AAP became a party of VIP&VVIP? pic.twitter.com/oOGPQewsD5

— Ajay Maken (@ajaymaken) April 5, 2015

That was all the fodder needed for both mainstream and social media to run with. NDTV questioned whether AAP had compromised one of its key values. All media organisations ensured that Ajay Maken’s tweet got more coverage than the AAP helpline, and on Twitter, the trending hashtag #AAPHelpline was peppered with barbs against both the party and its leader.

Given how outspoken Kejriwal has been about his distaste for VIP and VVIP culture, he makes for an easy target in this case. He has repeatedly pointed to AAP’s rejection of red beacons, government bungalows and security cover as solid proof that he intends to make Delhi a no-VVIP zone in the near future, and some of his most well received speeches have been all digs against the VIP culture in the national capital.

This is also hardly the first time something like this has happened to Kejriwal. Who can forget the outcry after it transpired that the AAP leader was about to take possession of two government owned five-bedroomed Lutyens Delhi bungalows on Bhagwan Das Road, soon after his first victory in 2013? He refused the bungalows, settling instead for a more modest four bedroomed house. But a further report by Times Now made even more headlines, when it reported that it had accessed a letter which proved that the bungalows in question were actually requested for by the Chief Minister himself.

Of course, some perspective is important. A VIP board at a venue, or accepting a government bungalow for that matter, is nowhere near as outrageous as say, an Azam Khan sending the UP police out to hunt for his missing buffaloes, or various former MPs refusing to vacate their government-allotted bungalows.

But that is the burden of the mandate that Delhi has given Kejriwal. He swept the assembly polls by promising to clean the grimy face of politics as we know it,  so it follows that the new CM is held to a higher standard than everyone else. This also makes him twice as vulnerable, because his every move is analysed and held up for criticism in a way that no other politician’s is.

Of course, the timing of the VVIP boards also could not have come at a less auspicious time for AAP. The manner in which founding members Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan were pushed out of the PAC and National Executive has been widely called ‘ruthless’, and allegations that supporters of the duo were beaten up by bouncers have also led many political observers to call it a sign that AAP is now just like any other political party. Bhushan, for his part, has repeatedly called Kejriwal a dictator and has said that he does not like people disagreeing with him.

All of these things have served to slowly chip away at the image AAP has held so far - a spontaneous idealistic group of people who have come together to provide India with a workable alternative to the netagiri culture that we are all so heartily sick of.

AAP leader and Kejriwal confidante, Ashutosh, has said that the party would launch an investigation to find out on whose orders the VVIP boards were put up. But in many ways, the VVIP boards are symptomatic of another malaise altogether - that of the AAP slowly losing its USP.

As noted by Firstpost columnist MK Venu, “So far AAP was being judged by a different yardstick as compared with the other mainstream parties. There was a certain innocence attached to AAP’s politics and the randomness of the movement which began three years ago . All that may change now.”

Can Kejriwal make the people believe that AAP is still able to give the people an alternative to mainstream politics? If so, he needs a plan of action. And fast.