Why BJP, Congress' AAP problem is good news for Indian politics

It’s not often that the aftertaste of a hung assembly verdict returned by an electorate actually leaves a delicious tinge on the palate. In Delhi, the government formation deadlock is almost a feast, with so many possibilities to look forward to, that you almost want to let out a clap for whichever invisible hand wrote this script. We must pay obeisance to the stroke of providence which stopped the BJP four short of a simple majority and prevented the giant slayer Aam Aadmi Party from forming a government in Delhi. Because it will ensure four things no other alternate verdict would have. The first and perhaps the most significant takeaway is how this government hiatus in Delhi will end up providing longevity to the concept and power of an unorthodox countervailing force in democracy. A force which evidently has set fear amongst the practitioners of the orthodox style of batting in politics. The existence of this fear will force seasoned politicians to better their technique and play with caution – at least till the central government is elected in 2014. The change in the style of politicking has come within 24 hours of the verdict. When was the last time we saw a clamour between parties to sit in the Opposition? The AAP does not want to form a government saying it doesn’t have the mandate. But the BJP, which is closest to breasting the tape, claims opposition space too, principally because no party wants to be even seen horse-trading. For that’s exactly the kind of two-sides-of-the-same-coin argument Arvind Kejriwal propounded for Congress and BJP throughout his campaign… and found a loud echo through the results. Incidentally, when was the last time when a party was just four MLAs away from ruling a state for 5 years and yet there is no sign of buses carting away target MLAs to safe-houses to protect them from poachers? And when a party like the Congress, which consistently self-thumps its back over a 125 year legacy, publically concedes having learnt a lesson or two from a year old unseeded upstart, you know why we need to wish this fear a long life. [caption id=“attachment_1278371” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  The leading parties in Delhi want to sit in the Opposition. Agencies.[/caption] BJP’s concern may not be visible publicly, but the thought of having drawn a game they could have won must be hurting them. That the party’s senior leaders  have now openly conceded that the delay in changing the party leadership may have cost them the last mile, is strong enough proof of the AAP’s impact on the political discourse. For Vijay Goel being replaced by Harsh Vardhan was the clear fallout of the fear of Arvind Kejriwal’s style of politics. Simply put, the Delhi verdict prevents the BJP from getting carried away by its own victory and prevents the onset of complacency. Its 15 year long hibernation as the opposition party in Delhi assembly tells you the cost of being complacent. But the most critical positive from this verdict is it keeps the cynics safely mothballed for a bit longer, at least till the general elections in 2014. Plenty has been said about the Arvind Kejriwal brand of politics. AAP has been called a protest movement and not a political party. Many have argued that street revolutions implode after reaching their peak and that forming the government in Delhi would be one such situation for AAP. It is also being argued that a real test of AAP’s politics would take place when and if they form the government. There is little merit in the argument that Arvind Kejriwal’s party has reached the peak it could have with the Delhi polls since the general elections are still round the corner. However, apprehensions that in a business of compromises that politics is, AAP can’t maintain its high moral standards, are not completely unfounded. Honesty is no longer a collective virtue. It’s an individual virtue. So while Arvind himself can ensure success in personally measuring up to the exacting standards he is setting for others, there is no guarantee he can ensure the same for the 27 other MLAs of his party. Till the time India votes its national government next year, Kejriwal runs the risk of facing the heat of the distressed political class. Political opponents will be trying to examine every step taken by the AAP and try finding flaws in it. Any trace, and it would aide and abet the opponents’ counter-charge of AAP too being the same. By not being in power, AAP may still run this risk, but to a much a lesser degree than when in government. Being in power also means being measured against success of delivery on promises. Six months – the time that remains for the General Elections – isn’t enough to decisively alter any landscape in governance. The charges of failure would come thick and fast. Some would have stuck too. Because like passion, disillusionment is a contagious disease in India and we have fickle immunity against the test of perspective and realism. Out of power, the idealism may last till next year, when the very likely scenario of Delhi assembly going for fresh polls along with the general elections may play out. And if there is one state which can live for a few months without an elected chief minister, it is Delhi. It already elects India’s most powerless CM. The lt-governor runs half the city in any case, with law & order, land and urban development coming under his ambit. Its civic services are run by three municipal corporations over which the CM has no control and it’s power supply is privatised. Surely the LG can do with some extra work for a few months. There is a widespread perception about Delhi. That it’s a rough, aggressive and selfish state. That its residents don’t belong to this place and hence are united only in a common goal of maximising their personal gains in life. That this is everyone’s karmabhoomi and not their janmabhoomi – something that makes it devoid of a largish emotional connect with their state. The fact such a massive shift in electoral grammar would happen in a city like Delhi, where heavy doses of idealism would resonate and reap rich electoral dividends was not the end many had imagined when we first began reading the Aam Aadmi Party script. It was, after all, a city devoid of such connect and desire for idealistic change. I guess we are still allowed to keep our expectations low and take an extremely cynical view to conclude Delhi’s desire to change may just be a chimera. But let’s applaud, maybe not so demurely, that through this hung verdict we have just allowed ourselves the luxury of this chimera lasting for at least six months more.