Why Cong has anorexia, AAP has restless legs, both are NGOs

There may have been some surprise when India's oldest political party, the Indian National Congress, chose to briefly support the newest entrants in the political arena, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Yet, as the two parties now fight it out and establish their strategies and identities, it's clear there's a close parallel between them. Both were born out of protest movements and both have degenerated into a new kind of NGO – the non-governance organizations. What they need to remedy this condition is, however, diametrically opposite.

The Congress party has become an 'NGO' thanks to its rank and file as well as those in the top, all of whom are accustomed to singing hosannas of the Nehru-Gandhi family. So deep is the malaise of sycophancy that even intellectuals belonging to that party dare not question the ruling dynasty. Today's Congress is like a patient of anorexia – a disease that leaves those obsessed with appearances and distorted self-image with lack of energy and weakness. That about sums up the Congress rank and file, which hasn't been nourished with fresh ideas and work for a long time.

Arvind Kejriwal. AFP

The diarchy witnessed during the UPA II's reign at the center amply reflects the meek surrender by thinking economists in the party to the more powerful dynasty. Dole economics has triumphed over growth economics. Congress' salvation lies in the dynasty making a retreat decently, with the baton being passed on to a team of politicians rooted in sound economics. Alas, in response to the challenge posed by the increasingly assertive and belligerent Modi, the Congress' response was to foist another member of the dynasty to head its campaign. The new team should have served to energize it, just as Narasimha Rao had more than two decades ago.
The problem with the new kid on the block AAP is that its founder-in-chief Arvind Kejriwal is too full of beans and himself. His so-called team kowtows to him. He slunk out of governing Delhi after making a couple of populist decisions. He harangues everyone coming his way and petulantly throws tantrums when told he is wrong. He thunders against corruption and paints everyone but his own party members in the darkest possible hue. He has no compunction about branding his opponents – real as well as phantom – as corrupt without a shred of evidence. His party's ideologue Yogender Yadav justifies his fulminations and unsubstantiated charges of corruption with a blithe explanation – let those objecting to the charges leveled by Kejriwal bring defamation suits. In other words, someone like Mukesh Ambani will not pick up the gauntlet and file a defamation case for fear of his supposed dirty linen being washed in public.

Kejriwal's bluff must be called. The excessive display of testosterone by the AAP has resulted in demonization of august institutions and functionaries perceived as stumbling blocks to their haste in bringing about sweeping changes, be they the police or judiciary or the lieutenant governor.

AAP was born out of the conventional NGO (with its campaign against corruption) and although it takes to streets with alacrity, the party detests the hard work that formulating policy demands. It has no stomach for constitutional niceties and believes in the here and now. Kejriwal, like BJP's Narendra Modi, says the government should have no role in running businesses, which is fine. Yet Kejriwal also seeks to smother businesses with tight regulations and price fixation, which is anathema to free market principles.

With his excessive energy, Kejriwal manifests the political equivalent of the restless legs syndrome, as Dr Sambit Patra of the BJP has observed. Medically, this syndrome is characterized by the urge to make uncontrollable movements in order to stop uncomfortable or odd sensations. Kejriwal seems to be intent upon doing the same, entering some controversy or office without much by way of a plan.

Both Congress and AAP are non-governance organizations, but they require diametrically opposite remedies. While Congress needs to be energized so that it comes out of its years of somnolence, AAP needs to take a breather and reduce its energy levels. The energy saved from raving and ranting must be sublimated to think through the problems and find solutions.