AAP NOT A VIRGIN PARTY AS ONE THOUGHT IT TO BE..

By Vikas Khanna

One hoped the two-year-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) to be virgin, untouched by sharks of corruption and personal ambitions. But alas, that was not to be. It turned out to be no different from any other political party. Political machinations and chicanery, common in other parties, have subsumed the new born party. That the internecine battles would become public so soon was something least expected of a party, which piggyrode on the promises of providing an honest, transparent and corruption-free administration. It would be too early to be judgmental on the track record of its administration skills, but the way dirty politics is being played out by various actors in the party smacks of a power-hungry organization, each demanding its pound of flesh. A few gentlemen are out to deflower the party before it could be blossomed.

In the midst of allegations and counter-allegations by two groups, nobody outside the periphery of “Dirty Picture” knows absolute truth. The common man, disenchanted with the ongoing murky politics by various political parties, saw a hope when the movement under the banner of “India Against Corruption” decided to take a political plunge to cleanse the way the politics was being conducted in the country since independence.

 But once the people of Delhi decided to give the nascent party a second chance to form a government, disorder became the order of the day. Some of the tallest leaders within the party, who helped it grow in just a short span of two years, were sidelined. A concerted attempt was made to oust the duo of senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan and psephologist-cum-social activist Yogendra Yadav from the party. The party’s Political Affairs Committee (PAC) armed with supporters of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal packed them off by a humiliating vote even though the two leaders offered to resign from it.

So far, Kejriwal has not come out in the open to make public his stand. He has been firing from the shoulders of his cronies. But as things stand today and whatever little has come out in the public domain, it becomes clear that Kejriwal wants a complete stranglehold on the party, brooking no dissent. If some rebels, according to pro-Kejriwal gang, are to be believed, the chief minister seems to be engineering a coup against Bhushan and Yadav so that he can have a free rein in the party.  With both the groups making wild and largely unsubstantiated charges against each other, it is difficult to sift out truth from falsehood.

But why is Kejriwal silent so far? There are some questions which he alone can answer. Why is that so many leaders, who were once associated with the party before it was formed, decided to leave? And the charges against Kejriwal are serious. Most of the people, including Shazia AImi, Captain G. R. Gopinath, Vinod Kumar Binny, Ashok Agarwal, Surajit Dasgupta, Madhu Bhaduri, Nutan Thakur, Maulana Maqsood Ali Kazmi and not to mention Anjali Damania, quit the party citing differences with the party leadership and lack of internal democracy in the party. There has to be some truth behind their resignations. Were all of them who decided to quit the party wrong and Kejriwal and his cronies right?

It should be recalled that former police officer and social activist Kiran Bedi, who in the initial days of movement against corruption had worked closely with Kejriwal, decided to part ways with him when he decided to turn the people’s movement into a political party. Even his guru, the anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare, also disproved of his action. But it became clear that Kejriwal had political ambitions.  And he created a history by returning to Delhi with a thumping majority with very little space for the opposition. In the process, the Congress, which ruled Delhi for uninterrupted 15 years, bit the dust by getting no seat. The BJP, banking on the charisma of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, was bruised badly with three seats out of 70 in its kitty.

But all said and done, the latest developments don’t bode well for the party. The people had high hopes of the party and looked upon it as an alternative to the two main parties – the Congress and the BJP. It would be a sad commentary if personal ambitions and egos consume this party. The party was born out of a movement. Lakhs of volunteers joined it in the hope of a better future. Nothing should be done to breach their trust. Otherwise, the same people will turn their back on it.