Indian secularism needs AAP, so this is what Arvind Kejriwal should do now
The Aam Aadmi Party came to power in Delhi with a bang. In 2014 it was the largest party in the Assembly. In 2015 it won 67 of 70 Assembly seats. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, it did not win a single seat, but performed credibly in a few seats.
In the elections in Varanasi where Narendra Modi was contesting, despite a relative paucity of funds, it came a creditable second, pushing the Congress to third place. It came forward with a host of pro-people measures, most recently with mohalla sabhas, mohalla clinics, free hospital care for those recommended by the clinics, new schools, pay increases for ad hoc teachers, among other innovations.
It did relatively well in the Punjab elections, getting 22 seats in the Assembly with two seats won by its ally the Lok Insaf Party, though it refused to ally with the Left on the grounds that its constitution did not permit alliances.
In the run-up to the election it alienated two of its four MPs, Dharamvir Gandhi and Harinder Khalsa, as well as the Punjab convener Sucha Singh Chottepur, and five local conveners. The Punjab media and national papers like The Economic Times citing local sources estimated that 30 AAP activists had left the party and joined the opposition.
For some inexplicable reason, AAP under Arvind Kejriwal's leadership did not announce a CM candidate even though they were facing the formidable Captain Amarinder Singh of the Congress.
Thus the performance in the Punjab elections was a shock to AK and the AAP cadre. This despite the writing on the wall. In Delhi it became more confrontational, reacting to intervention in its governance by intrusive L-Gs, with the power-sharing issue yet to come up in a (delayed) constitutional bench of the Supreme Court some months later.
In the meantime, 14 AAP MLAs have been charged with various cases. The CM's principal secretary Rajendra Kumar - arrested from his office and released months later with the major charges against him disproved, and after which he made searing remarks against L-G Najeeb Jung - has taken voluntary retirement. No Union Territory has ever been harassed as the Delhi government has. There is no sign of this witch-hunt ending.
 |
| A self-constrained campaign will rebut many of the allegations against AAP. |
The AAP fought back, but on at least one occasion it bit more than it could chew. The unsubstantiated corruption charges against DDCA president Arun Jaitley, a former law minister, was a self-goal.
The now finance minister Jaitley promptly filed a defamation case against AK and four others asking for Rs 10 crore in damages. Instead of coming to an immediate compromise with Jaitley, the party chose to be confrontational. They then requested their redoubtable lawyer Ram Jethmalani to get his Rs 3 crore-plus fee from the state exchequer, which was not permissible since this was a private suit over a "private wrong".
Even Jaitley is fighting this case at his own cost, demanding Rs 10 crore compensation for alleged defamation. AK appealed to the public to fund AAP to fight the case. Obviously, the response was muted since, despite charges levelled against DDCA there is nothing proven against Jaitley and the inference that since he was president of the DDCA for 12 years he was guilty of not fighting corruption, is not legally valid.
Removing Jarnail Singh from the Rajouri Garden Assembly seat to move him to the Punjab Assembly was a double failure. Jarnail Singh lost in Punjab, and AAP lost its deposit in the by-election in the Rajouri Garden seat.
In sum, it is high time the AAP moderated its rhetoric despite interventions by the L-G and a largely hostile media, especially the electronic media. Good governance necessitates a more calm, more legally tenable, and non-confrontational public posture and campaign.
A self-constrained campaign will rebut many of the allegations against AAP and the hasty electronic media campaign that AAP may be over. Delhi and Indian secularism greatly need AAP and it must do the necessary retooling to stick to its original promises with relatively quiet confidence and elan.