From a Sanghi to AAP

First of all, Congratulations and best wishes to AAP on this huge victory!!
In the heat of the Delhi Elections, Arvind Kejriwal was accused of being an Anarchist by many. Today, the People of Delhi have given him all the powers to be one, ofcourse within the framework of the Indian Constitution. The results have a similar pattern to that of the Lok Sabha election, anyone under the banner of AAP has won similar to the trend that was in favor of BJP in the Lok Sabha elections. AAP’s phenomenal victory is a proof of the secular and tolerant nature of an ordinary Indian. The Indian who voted Narendra Modi to power for his development agenda and has again trusted in Kejriwal on his clean politics and clean governance agenda.
AAP has a huge responsibility on its shoulders now. People have believed in AAP and voted for it in such huge numbers. Most of the people who voted for AAP are from the sections of the society which haven’t benefitted from the present system and were losing faith in the system, people who have not benefited because of independence, and people who feel that white rulers have replaced brown rulers. AAP has come as a ray of hope for those sections of the society. This election has showed the power of democracy and the power of a common man in a democracy. I hope AAP keeps up to the expectations of the people because failure will lead to loss of faith in the system which is very difficult regain and takes a lot of time and struggle. I do not want this painful thing to happen to my generation. But, history is not in favor of AAP.
A few days back one of my seniors told me that India hasn’t seen great changes and revolutions post independence, I did not have a convincing answer then. But today, we are all witness to a great change. In a democracy, all changes are in the form of Politics and political revolutions as we vote for our choice and bring about change. But, this is not the first time that such a change has come. In 1957, EMS Namboodripad, became the first Non-Congress chief minister of India and if you read a little about EMS Namboodripad you will get to know about the impeccable integrity and character of this leftist man. In 1967, CN Annadurai, became the first non-congress CM of Tamil Nadu. He was also a man of character and ethics. Later his party divided into two and now rule Tamil Nadu alternately. In 1983, Telugu Desam Party, under the leadership of NT Rama Rao (NTR) swept the Andhra Pradesh assembly elections to bring the first non-congress government in Andhra Pradesh. NTR was known to be a tough administrator and a reformist. In 1985, Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, represented the aspirations of the Assamese people when he did not bow down to Indira Gandhi’s pressure and came to power. Similar has been the case with UP and Bihar which have hardly seen any Congress government in the past 25 years.
But, has this brought about drastic change in the system? I guess the present state of affairs in UP & Bihar is known to all of us. Leaders of both the parties of Tamil Nadu which were formed after the division of DMK have serious corruption charges against them. Prafulla Kumar Mahanta is history now, TDP which has done a great deal of work was out of power for more than a decade. So, one cannot convincingly say that this change in government will bring about something revolutionary in the coming five years.
The only thing different in this case of AAP is that it has taken Congress Party’s place. In all the earlier mentioned cases, these parties came up as opposition of Congress and competed with it to win elections. In the present case, Congress has been wiped off and AAP has routed BJP which was also an opposition party till last year. So, the best thing about this case is that the “bad boy of politics”, Congress, has no place and all the politics will be between AAP and BJP. BJP, of course, because it is in power at the centre. So, let’s hope that this is a welcome change.
One other thing that I would like to talk about is the perception of AAP. How if AAP perceived of by people? People who hate AAP consider it to be a group of hardcore leftists combined with Islamists. People who support AAP consider it to be like the pre-independence Congress Party with great leaders who are fighting the war of total Independence. On this day when AAP has created history with the kind of win I would like to believe that AAP is the kind of a nationalist party similar to the one Congress was before Independence. Having said that, I expect AAP to take a note of the mistakes that Congress committed to ruin itself and the nation in its rule after independence. It might have taken 50 years for the opposition to remove Congress from the centre. But, in the current scenario, if two years of struggle can bring AAP to power with such huge majority, five years of non performance, bad governance and populism without vision can lead to the party’s decimation in the future.
May AAP keep up to the expectations of the people, All the Best from my side!