Delhi Shows the Way

Poor Reinvent Identity through AAP Resurgence in Delhi

Somen Chakraborty

The results of Delhi Assembly election have reached a happy ending for the moment with AAP winning 67 out of 70 seats. Such an outcome was appearing almost impossible a couple of months before. AAP victory has not been driven essentially by, what is understood by its ordinary meaning, well-guarded ideology. Primarily, it is an expression of dissent against the members of the dominant groups who systematically deprived the weak and the vulnerable groups of Delhi. The election outcomes bear the evidence that an electoral battle can be won against mighty opposition with determination, will power, voluntarism, honesty and unambiguous commitments. Aam Aadmi Party combined well the micro issues with macro concerns and aroused people with hope and belief that good days would usher in if Kejriwal is in power.

Cutting across the caste and class barriers 54% of the voters in Delhi, lower (30 seats), middle class (28 seats) and rich (9 seats) have voted for AAP.  The underlying factor behind this convergence was people’s quest for recognition, security, development and legitimacy of existence. These people were predominantly migrants, minorities, dalits, purvanchalis, deprived, jhuggi-jhopri dwellers, women, youth, LGBT, sex workers and so on.  The residents of the unauthorised and resettlement colonies mobilised huge followers for the party. A section of rich (only 1% decline in BJP’s vote share than the last assembly election but 14% fall than the last Lok Sabha) also supported AAP’s clarion call against corruption and VIP culture. Henceforth, Delhi will never be known by its middle class and rich concentrated localities only, but also by its periphery, its underprivileged communities and the underdeveloped areas.   

Landslide Victory

This political upsurge is not identical to ordinary dissident movements of social groups though it expresses many of their characteristics. In this electoral struggle, classes and communities became conscious of their common deprivations and woes through the campaigns and struggles of AAP. Majority of the Delhi voters rejected the paradox of services and facilities inspite of enticing electoral promises and flamboyant speeches favouring ‘Achha din’ by the BJP leaders. AAP in contrast, pushed a new kind of politics that declined to recognise the old premises of caste and class propaganda.

However, it was never a smooth journey for AAP. Their actions were often termed as anarchism and seamless emotional outburst. They were labelled as untenable and hugely destructive to the planned and scientific nation building process. In that construction AAP was viewed as outsider and an anomaly to the prevalent norms of suave political debates and contestation.  AAP and more specifically its leaders like Arvind Kejriwal was virtually ostracised by BJP and Congress. He was abused routinely by common slangs like ‘haramkhor’, ‘bhagore’, ‘nirashabadi’, ‘dharnabaaj’ so on and so forth.    

Resurgence

Humiliating defeat of the AAP candidates across the states in 2014 Lok Sabha elections reduced the party almost to irrelevance. Middle class withdrew support. Funds got exhausted. Several among the frontline comrades left vilifying the party to its worst. Volunteers were drooped and demoralised. AAP had to start almost from the scratches and ashes. Recreating the party was more than a critical challenge. The people who supported AAP earlier did not readily welcome them in this round. On top of it negative canvassing through an orchestrated campaign tools, abusive comments and personal attacks tried to block its comeback effort and create a space for itself.

The major task before the AAP was to re-establish its credentials and seriousness to governance. They had to reawaken the people and old associates to share responsibility with the party to make Delhi a better place to live in. The AAP teams, called Delhi Dialogue, worked on a wide range of thematic concerns that had been bothering Delhi denizens and produced detailed blue prints on each issue. AAP thus made an uprise and protest against the degree of exclusion that the people of Delhi have experienced through decades.

AAP goes global

AAP’s uprise is not an isolated Delhi-centric phenomenon. Attempt to mobilise poor, marginalised and deprived sections into a cultural homogeneousness through subsistence-based services were challenged by increasing sense of rights and entitlements across the world. AAP is the part of the changing pattern of activism that has swept many parts of the globe challenging the existing power and authority for a humane, compassionate and inclusive governance. People are reclaiming the recognition for the community contributions to societal formation and nation building. Creation of this common category of people is based on common origin and sameness in their experience. New information technology has again facilitated this upsurge by instantaneously spreading knowledge and ideas across a larger community. People today learn from globalised understanding of nationalism and create pressure for resource extraction that was so far a service of bureaucracy under the protective shield of law and system.  AAP has transformed individual perceptions into group based political triumph. AAP has championed an ethos that is evidently visible in global society today.

Kejriwal - The Messiah

Arvind Kejriwal as leader projected himself as a person exactly what people were looking for. He was as simple and non-glamorous as majority of his target voters yet highly educated and capable. He was somebody who could understand their political values and financial hardships. Ordinary people recognised him as the messiah who was capable of transforming their claims into justice.

Commitments

AAP has committed and offered a political prescription of the best possible services within the existing legal, structural, systemic, financial and jurisdictional limitations. The party is symbolised by simplicity of its leaders hailing from the same modest and humble background. It has committed to contemplate the experiences of the oppressed.  The party prescribes for a shared and self-determined alternative. This premise rests on leveraging on the politically laden experiences of individuals with diverse background.  It has recognised the wisdom of the people and has promised to demonstrate how government can be run by people along with their elected representatives.

Though Aam Aadmi Party has never committed for ‘Everything Free’, but the campaign modes have somehow established such a notion very deeply in the mind of the poor. People are likely to become impatient to see that this happen as quickly as possible. Majority of the people may expect miracle to occur.

Challenges ahead

What will be a challenge before the AAP government of Delhi is to craft meticulously a viable revenue generation and service delivery system. It will be an arduous task because everything has to be done within the existing normative structure, systemic boundaries and the jurisdictions of authority when, in reality, Delhi is only partial state with limited power and authority. 

AAP government’s capability will be tested not by pre-election rhetoric but by its administrative acumen, efficiency in governance and skill to negotiate effectively the critical and emergency situations. People would watch closely how the government is balancing cultural rights of diverse communities. Corruption in daily life, display of power and influence do have potentials to challenge the new government from within the very people who had supported it all through the process. And AAP will have to prove that they can strike a balance by effectively closing the genesis of corruption.

At times excessive identity of the people may go against the politics of equality and justice. Negotiation with capitalism is a complex task as it holds capacity to impose necessary embargo to dislodge a government from power that works against its interests. It is to see in which way and how long one corruption free island functions and survives in the midst of sea of corruption around.

This is also fact that not all in Kejriwal team is equally dedicated nor does everyone show high level of commitment. Many of them are coming from the citadel of traditional, cultural wrong-beliefs and conservative background. AAP is still a male dominated political force and gender justice may become a strong challenge within the government and the party. 

Optimism

But the Magna Carta (1215), the American Independence (1776) and the French Revolution (1789) were never merely individual success stories. They showed the world civilisation way to progress towards emancipation and new identity formation. Instead of borrowing from the existing ideological premises they rather constructed new ideology and pathway for recovering the lost rights, self-esteem and identity of the common people. AAP is not the end or final word of people’s liberation movement in India. It is an experiment. It creates hope and optimism for liberation of the oppressed from the century old deprivation and violation of their self-esteem. In such a great upheaval and people’s verdict all democracy-loving people owe a responsibility too to ensure that this change sustains and the government of Kejriwal triumphs in establishing good governance in NCT of Delhi.