AAP movement: a new phenomenon

  

Has AAP movement become a new phenomenon for political scientists?

Come December 8, political scientists, psephologist and pollsters may find a new political phenomenon in the movement of AAP to study for coming days. Certainly this will happens only if AAP succeeded to get few entries against its name in the result board of Election Commission of India. AAP, under the hegemony of bureaucrat turned politician Arvind Kejriwal, prominent lawyer Prashant Bhusan, Social worker Manish Sisodia, poet Kumar Viswas and psephologist Yogendra Yadav along with scores of young and middle aged followers from across India and abroad will indeed become political miracle for Indian politics. In a very short span of time after it’s depart from famous Gandhian social worker Anna Hazare, AAP has become a force in assembly fray of Delhi.

No body can deny this fact that a movement started to get JAN LOKPAL bill passed by the parliament turned a nightmare to the political parties, leaders of which initially supported and then changed their stance after seeing the antipathy wave among the erstwhile supporters of Anna. In fact many political analysts were astonished by observing successful campaign trail steered by inexperienced political team of AAP.

A political debutant, which barely a month ago considered as nonentity in political fray turned into a political force not only for two main contenders of Delhi’s battle but also for parties which are seen as a major players in the coming general election of 2014. AAP has not only leaved SP, BSP, NCP and Akali way behind in the race of poll but also become a horror for Congress and BJP. In many of recently held surveys, AAP was seen as a game changer for election in Delhi. It has become so potent force that almost all leaders of established political parties have given a major chunk of their time of speechs to criticise Arvind and its team while wooing voters in rallies. This shows the anxiety of parties towards the movement started by AAP to dethrone the politicians who are largely painted as heard of corrupt sheep by Kejriwal team and his mentor Anna Hazare.

By and large supporters of AAP and common man also see politicians of present era in same fashion. This picture will get more clarity when we analyses affidavits filled by candidate to election commission while completing the formalities of their candidature. Common man also owes the same perception for politicians of present day’s India. Ngo ADG which is working towards the cleaning of politics keeps a close watch on all the affidavits loaded to EC’s website. In every election it releases the press note about the background of candidates and details of their assets. As a professional, I always find interesting to note exponential rise in income of candidates after every election and criminal records tally in their records.

Only results will reveal what voters have perceived for AAP? But one thing is sure that this movement has forced all political parties to fall in the line of AAP. To understand the nuances of this movement and the kind of support it is better to fathom the aisle of your mind. Remember the start of Ana Movement for Jan Lokpal bill, the kind of support it had mustered in masses across India along with social media, print and broadcast media literally compelled parliament to pass a ‘sense of the house’ accepting the demand of bill. The magic which attracted masses to the movement across the globe had come from inside of people who as true Indian fed up with the corruptions prevalent in almost all the areas which directly deal with common man. The way people surge with their feelings on Ramlila ground in Delhi or in Mumbai, Banguluru, Kolkatta , Lucknow, Kanpur and in rest of India were unthinkable  for any government. That is why initially every party tried to ride on the wave of sentiments of young man and women who were out on streets with Anna’s Cap with chanting slogans in support of whole team of Anna which also included Arvind and team along with Kiran Bedi and Justice Santosh Hegde. Social media has also seen the impact of Anna’s movement.

Arvind team is an offshoot of Anna’s original team which parted its way after the disagreement emerged out on way of participation in political process. Although rest is the history yet it is significant to note the rise in AAP’s popularity graph with the time. Youths who have openly come out in support of team Anna switched to team Arvind’s side.

To me win of Arvind team is immaterial. I mean if it wins then it is good, it will try to pursue its goal and promises from this time itself but if it loses, even then it has started a much needed reform in the Indian political process. To support my thought I am taking the lines of Anju Sinha, an associate professor in Campus law Centre, University of Delhi, who writes in her article 

published in ET, today “The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has already made an impact on the nation’s polity however it fares in the Delhi assembly elections. Both the Congress and BJP are committed, at least nominally, to enacting the Lokpal Bill, to create an independent ombudsman to guard against and penalize corruption without interference by the government. And this is just one of the AAP’s likely lasting impacts.”