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.”
Day before yesterday when a special
conference of the Congress was about to start to announce the opening of
party’s door, a middle aged women was also seen amidst Journalists sitting on chair.
Party office bearers were requesting cameramen of TV channels not to focus on
lady. The lady had traveled all along from 
When simple grievance of a poor
women could not be heard and solved at the party headquarter of grand old party
of nation then how one could think that party and its leaders will make sincere
efforts to reach common man on the streets? More interestingly party has been
losing the connection with masses when party need it more than any other time
and when party has been struggling to retain its tally of seats in states election after election.
