The last time when Aam Admi Party showed serious cracks within its ranks and the possibility of an implosion was when it rose to power in Delhi. The party, which otherwise looked like an orderly assortment of people committed to a healthy transformation of Indian democracy, appeared highly vulnerable to a meltdown.
Arvind Kejriwal's resignation from the chief ministership and the AAP's withdrawal from power solved the problem at once. The internal dissension disappeared and AAP's inability to govern became inconsequential. The party was back on the streets - getting more people to join and more people to donate cash.
But come Lok Sabha elections, the internal wrangle in the party rises its head again. This time not in its ranks, but in its top leadership. Shazia Ilmi and Kumar Viswas, two high profile founders of the AAP have openly defied the leadership. Shazia's peeve is about the AAP's desire to field her against Sonia Gandhi in Rai Bareli, which apparently she doesn't want. Instead of talking it out within the party, she has made her displeasure public. In a tweet, she said: "I am not contesting from Rae Bareli. I never agreed to nor do I now... I've been denying this for the last two months."
Arvind Kejriwal. PTI.
In his tweet in Hindi, Kumar Biswas directly expressed his displeasure at the leadership. His expressions were of betrayal by his leadership as well as the new entrants to the party.
Mallika Sarabahi, another high profile entrant to the party, said that she wouldn't contest the elections even before the AAP asked her to. Reportedly, she was miffed by its leaders not inviting her to join Arvind Kejriwal's theatrics in the state. A number of others who joined the party, with an eye on the parliament elections, are likely to show displeasure in the coming days.
As we noted eariler, American sociologists Herbert Blumer, a pioneer in the study of social movements, had identified four stages in the lifecycle of such movements: social ferment, popular excitement, formalisation, and institutionalisation.
We have witnessed the social ferment, popular excitement and the formalisation in the journey of AAP so far. What they are failing is in the institutionalisation. Scholars who worked on Blumer's postulates redefined his classification further. According to them, the four stages of mass movements are these: emergence, coalescence, bureaucratisation, and DECLINE!
The last time when the party appeared to be heading for a decline was when its Delhi leaders such as Kumar Binny and Nina Sharma spoke ill of its leadership and its failure in governance. By wriggling out of Delhi, the AAP redeemed itself. But now, the cracks are visible again and as the party expands, the they will also expand. What's the way out?
One fundamental problem with the AAP is perhaps its lack of a clear ideology. Being an aam aadmi and longing to throw out the corrupt is at best a wish, not an ideology. Almost all of the AAP leadership and ranks speak only this language. Ask them of their ideology, they haven't yet delineated one.
In such a situation, egos, power-struggles and aspiration for office are unavoidable. What Shazia Ilmi, Kumar Viswas and Mallika Sarabhai betray are driven by some of these personal characteristics. AAP's lack of ideology was clearly exposed by veteran CPM leader VS Achuthanandan, when he was invited to the party by Kejriwal. Achuthanandan said that he fights corruption and other ills of society, but he is driven by an ideology.
It's unfortunate that the cracks in the AAP appeared too soon. It should think long term and pull back a little and unite its leaders and ranks based on an ideology. If an aam aadmi revolution is its ideology, let it bet; but spell it out and make the party members embody it. As Karl Marx (not to allude to AAP's ideology in any way) said in his famous 1850 speech to the central committee of the communist league: "While the democratic petty bourgeois want to bring the revolution to an end as quickly as possible, achieving at most the aims already mentioned, it is our interest and our task to make the revolution permanent until all the more or less propertied classes have been driven from their ruling positions, until the proletariat has conquered state power and until the association of the proletarians has progressed sufficiently far."
Replace the proletariat with "aam aadmi" Kejriwal will have his answer.The AAP seems to be in a hurry to scale up so as to bring its aam aadmi revolution to an end without thinking, if in the process, it has lived up to its promises to people and itself, and if it has driven out the corrupt and criminal elements from power.
The people who join the party with an eye on an assembly or parliament seat is part of the problem too. They don't seem to be ready for a long-haul struggle and want the aam aadmi revolution to end soon and be part of the ruling class.
The biggest threat to AAP is becoming a petty bourgeoisie democrat - a threat from within. The party should not end up as, what Marx called its own "grave diggers". The communists have already done it.
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