It is tempting to assume that former Infosys leader V Balakrishnan (Bala) has joined the Aam Aadmi Party to contest against his former colleague Nandan Nilekani from one of the Bangalore constituencies in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Nilekani's view has been MPs do perform their tasks in the various committees and it was wrong to think they were all out on a mere lark.
A Nilekani Vs Bala contest could be the stuff which makes headlines especially as the former is tipped to get a Congress nomination. Bala, on the other hand, has said, he only wanted to be "part of the revolution it (AAP) is bringing about". That AAP was a start-up by another IITian is only a bit of garnish. That is why Meera Sanyalof Royal bank of Scotland's Indian honcho and Adarsh Shastri, a senior Apple executive have preferred AAP – all for a new politics.
Aam Aadmi supporters. AFP image
Would the Sanyals and Shastris–she already battle-scarred in a Lok Sabha contest, he with a pedigree of the late Lal Bahadur Shastri–have quit their lucrative senior corporate positions had the AamAadmi Party been a congress of various political interests which are either anti-Congress and anti-Bharatiya Janata Party? My guess is they may not have. There are other parties which meet that criterion.
The AAP has acquired an undreamt of momentum after it won 28 seats in the Delhi Assembly and from all accounts, it is also gathering a mass as well, with over three lakh volunteers joining up and donations to the war chest of the revolution that Balakrishnan has spoken of, pouring in. In Maharashtra alone, 76,000 aspirants are said to have applied for a ticket to contest from as many as 48 seats.
How appropriate is it for the AAP to admit politicians to its ranks when it was a campaign based on the premise that all politicians are thieves is a question it needs to ask itself. Its lustre attracts people but it also would attract politicians who sense a victory on its plank than on their own parties. No doubt a proportion of them are honest, at least relatively speaking, and opening the doors to them would detract from the AAP's merit or appeal.
Samajwadi Party's leader Kamal Farooqui, sacked from the party's key post for a controversial remark in 2011, was the first to make a beeline to ArvindKejriwal's residence soon after it became clear that AAP was going to form the Delhi State's government, never mind its minority status. Farooqui is a chartered accountant and knows how to read a balance sheet, obviously.
Soon thereafter, AAP's leader Prashan Bhushan set off to Kerala and sought the blessings of VS Achyuthananan, a former CPM chief minister and now a the leader of the Opposition. No doubt he is known for being honest and who battled the CPM politburo till he was removed from it, but the fact that he is a politician matters. He did not seek out the AAP, but AAP seeking him out is surprising.
Much as another politician, a BJP rebel, Kanu Kalsaria, a former MLA joining the AAP on Wednesday has. No doubt he revolted against Narendra Modi, launched an agitation against a cement factory coming up in his former constituency, Mahua in Gujarat. He has a mass appeal, he has farmers' respect, but then, he is also a politician. And it is of note that before this, he was planning to join the Congress.
In the event these worthies join the AAP there is a chance that the Balas and Sanyals and Shastris and several common men who have moved or are moving towards the AAP because it offered an alternative to the existing system may steer clear of it. The purpose of the AAP may get diluted. Forming a phalanx of the common man, so admirably encapsulated in its name and its symbol, the broom, may lose its purpose and therefore, its charm.
The common man did not rise in revolt in Delhi and catch the country's imagination only to find that as the days progress, they would be rubbing shoulders against the very community it saw as betrayers. An Indian Express report shows the newly elected AAP's discomfort when they foregathered yesterday for being sworn-in as MLAs. Apart from being new to it all, there is that political culture gap.
That gap is significant. They came from amongst the common people except for a lone civic corporator and lived lives so far removed from those who have made politics their business. Unlike the BJP and Congress MLAs who had their SUVs and sedans ferrying them to the oath-taking ceremony, the AAP members came on their own – Arvind Kejriwal in his greyish blue hatchback, another in an autorickshaw, and yet another was dropped by a friend.
Shunning the rivals who come from the traditional stock of politicians with their own DNA while they would need to work together to legislate could be dangerous to the functioning of the democratic institution. But the unease eloquently points to the difference between the two classes – one claiming unbridled franchise to do as they please once elected, and the other which has remained in contact with the electorate.
Importing politicians because they belong to non-Congress or non-BJP parties or because someone is seen as clean also risks simultaneous import of a culture with them. They do not come alone but bring with them their hangers on who have survived on nothing but patronage and crumbs from the high table. That is an infection the AAP has to avoid. This risk is worse than the government being pulled down by the Congress today.
If the doors are opened to the politicians because the Lok Sabha elections is at hand, it would amount to politics of power-seeking and not politics of change. The AAP needs to understand that revolutions can be slow in unfolding and it needn't rush by ushering in the enemy. If it did, it does so risking the very identity of a party which wants to replace the system's content.
