Aam Aadmi Party leader Yogendra Yadav combines the academician's eclecticism with the psephologist's certitude every time he participates in prime-time TV debates or articulates his party's ideas in newspaper interviews. But more than these alluring attributes, what has propelled him to emerge as arguably India's best political spokesperson is the democratic demeanour he sports in the public domain.
AAP leader Yogendra Yadav. PTI
His demeanour hinges on appearing refreshingly transparent, as someone who isn't inclined towards dissimulation and concealment. Just think - could any other leader have sounded convincing on releasing the internal surveys of his or her party as Yadav did on occasions he made public AAP's? Indeed, most others would have been dismissed outright for pedaling fudged figures.
His credentials as a democrat are enhanced because of his propensity to engage AAP's harshest critics and implacable rivals in discussions. He seems not to duck stinging questions through ambiguous replies, nor shy away from being barracked, yet always desisting from the self-righteous shrillness that defines our public debates. Rarely has Yadav violated the norms of civility, or tried to silence his critics - no, not even Subramanian Swamy - through brusque interjections in a high-pitched voice.
It is possible to argue that Yadav has succeeded in adhering to democratic ethos because he doesn't have to defend the indefensible, that AAP hasn't been in power long enough for a chasm to exist between its rhetoric and conduct, as is mostly true of parties which have governed for long.
Again, it can be claimed that Yadav's task to bat for his party was rendered easier because it made its debut in Delhi, which boasts of a less complex, relatively civilized politics than those parts of India languishing outside the arc of media spotlight. For instance, AAP could eschew the politics of identity - and win a round of applause - because it is class, not caste or religion, which drives Delhi's politics.
This is precisely why Yadav's democratic credentials, as also the belief that AAP represents new politics, both in style and substance, will be tested in Haryana. The State Assembly election is due in October, and the 10 Lok Sabha constituencies during the general elections will provide an inkling into the possibility of AAP doing a Delhi in Haryana. Though not formally announced, it is widely assumed Yadav will spearhead the AAP's campaign there, not the least because he hails from the State.
In the popular consciousness, Haryana has come to symbolise, rightly or wrongly, the very antithesis of what Yadav's persona represents - namely, democratic ethos and a conscionable, albeit modern, approach to politics. The State has become the bedrock of reactionary social conservatism, earning notoriety for its khap panchayats issuing firmans against the same-gotra and inter-caste marriages, often ordering the social boycott of the defiant, at times even condemning them to death. Its female child ratio is the worst in the country. The Dalits in Haryana are oppressed and mauled with impunity.
Its politics mirrors the grim social reality. Haryana's contribution to the country's political lexicon was the term Aaya Ram Gaya Ram, which aptly describes the culture of legislators willing to shift their loyalties to the highest bidder. Today, it has become a byword for corrupt governance, a turf for realtors and politicians to combine in enriching themselves at the expense of the people, and a thriving site for a few political families to rule over generations.
Unlike Delhi, Haryana is susceptible to caste politics, which has as its driver the Jats, who comprise nearly 26 percent of the state's population. Primarily agriculturists, they are entangled in social and agrarian tensions involving the lower castes, particularly the Dalits, who, significantly, constitute 19 percent of the population but are economically too weak to challenge the hegemony of the Jats.
The social lay of Haryana consequently makes it tempting for a new entrant to take recourse to the politics of identity, in the hope of consolidating other castes against the Jats. But this route AAP can take only at its peril. For one, it would invariably compromise AAP's USP of not appealing to voters in caste and religious terms, significantly eroding its countrywide appeal and nixing its national ambition. Second, AAP in Haryana can't unduly harp on caste conflict for mobilisation as Yadav's own caste is perceived to be landed and exploitative.
In the three weeks following AAP's spectacular performance in Delhi, the party, under the aegis of Yadav, has been brainstorming to evolve a language to address social and political contradictions without slipping into the quagmire of identity politics. In the pursuit of this goal it will attempt to replicate its Delhi model in Haryana - of dovetailing specific concerns of Dalits and lower OBCs with the problems the poor and the marginalised at large encounter.
Unlike other political parties, it won't shy away from the khap question, having already arrived upon, its leaders say, at the bottom-line response - that there is nothing called honour killing, that murder is murder. Rhetorical questions will be posed publicly - for instance, whom does the khap represent? Does it speak universally for the old and the young?
Underlying such questions is perhaps the belief that the khap has increasingly become assertive, and murderous, because of the anxiety among the older generations at the young throwing off the yoke of conservative traditions. In much the same vein, the oppression of Dalits will be portrayed as a breakdown of law and order and collapse of civil society, a situation fraught for the two-thirds of the population - that is, those who do not belong to the three social groups of Jats, Ahirs and Meos.
It is too early to tell whether AAP's politics and tactics will yield a rich harvest of votes in Haryana. Nevertheless, it has chosen to focus on the State because the anti-corruption movement from the Anna days elicited a robust response here. For instance, the maximum number of missed calls and SMSs to register support for the AAP came from Haryana and west Uttar Pradesh. Haryana also supplied more than 2000 volunteers for AAP's Delhi election campaign, of which around 200 made the Capital city their home for weeks to end. It also happens to be the home state of AAP's mascot, Arvind Kejriwal, as also Yadav, a fact likely to sway voters. Lastly, innumerable land scams, particularly involving Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law, Robert Vadra, would provide the AAP with just the kind of opening it had against Sheila Dikshit in Delhi.
It also makes immense psephological sense for the AAP to focus on Haryana. With five political parties in the fray - the Congress, the BJP, the Indian National Lok Dal, the Haryana Janhit Congress and now the AAP - the threshold of vote-share required to govern gets lowered to around 25 percent. It's a situation advantageous for a debutant.
The AAP also believes the Jat factor in Haryana's politics has been overstated. All political parties tend to court the Jats because they are numerically preponderant, thus fracturing their votes and neutralizing, to an extent, their decisive role in politics. No doubt, the Congress under Bhupinder Singh Hooda has been aggressively playing Jat politics, particularly in the absence of Om Prakash Chautala, who has been undergoing imprisonment. Hooda's endeavour is likely to get bolstered if the Centre manages to smuggle in the Jats into the OBC category for reservation in jobs.
As in Delhi, in Haryana the AAP will try to turn the elections, both parliamentary and assembly, into extraordinary ones, appealing to the voters to listen to their conscience, to venture beyond caste and class calculations to vote for change, for the betterment of India and the State. In other words, the AAP would seek to turn the battle of ballot into what is called a realigning election, a term describing the overturning of existing socio-political configurations.
Yadav's demeanour will come to tellingly symbolise the AAP's strategy. His rooting for a new type of politics - interest vs identity - will have credence because he won't be viewed as a typical politician mouthing trite slogans. After all, he has risen to national prominence outside the bounds of politics, making it easy for AAP to project him entering the electoral arena for cleansing it of corruption, for making the system more democratic and equitable. Should Yadav succeed, he would seem such a contrast to the Chautalas and Hoodas, to the Devi Lals and the Bhajan Lals, in a state infamous for its socio-political conservatism and venality.
The author is a Delhi-based journalist, and can be reached at ashrafajaz3@gmail.com
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