Polls in Delhi / Noida are tomorrow. My views on AAP are mostly negative and well documented on Social Media. But, in the effort to maintain a fact/data/logic based approach to the issue, it is high time I wrote a positive post about AAP! 1. I admire that AAP has relatively cleaner funding. There are enough allegations that the funds are being channelised into India from Jehadi/Pakistani Sources and these also need to be properly scrutinised, but yes, leaving aside these issues, AAP has shown that it is possible to fight elections with relatively cleaner funding. If funding is cleaner, the quid-pro-quo that happens with the Politician-Industrialist-Babu Nexus has a less chance of happening. 2. I admire that AAPs candidates are relatively cleaner. Sure, there are Maoists, Pak sympathizers and other such rouge elements in the party. But if you look at most others in the party, there are lots of good people who joined. Where they have gone wrong (especially in the run up to the LS polls) is that they have given tickets to all types of people and received criticism (most of it justified). I have said it earlier that if one looks at their Delhi MLAs backgrounds, most are simple / honest / hardworking son-of-the-soil type people, so it does represent a new type of political experiment. 3. I admire that many of their policies are trying to give power to people. The Swaraj bill, which has countless flaws and which I will counter separately, has the basic point correct - more power to the people. True democracy arrives when the voter has the power to take decision that affects him. They are the only major party that has openly supported the Right to recall which is a crucial component of a good democracy. However, this one is very difficult to implement in India at this stage of democratic development. Still, a good beginning. Similarly they are supporting Right to Reject where if the NOTA option gets the most votes, the election will be held again (aamaadmiparty.org/right-to-reject). I disagree with one provision there about that party being rejected from the re-elections. I think they should stick to rejecting those candidates only. If NOTA is in majority, the same candidates should be automatically debarred from the re-elections. 4. I admire that AAP has mostly remained away from violence. Sure, they attacked the BJP HQ on non-existent grounds for political mileage (I wrote about it vehemently at that time and stand by all my comments at that time), but this is nothing compared to the kind of goondaism that is on display by many other political parties like the SP and the BSP in UP, RJD in Bihar, MNS or SS in Maharastra, CPM and TMC in West Bengal etc. As a learned person (Mr. Sanjay Agarwal) once pointed out to me, in this messy democracy called India, the AAP is still cleaner than most other political parties. 5. Where AAP goes wrong is that first of all it assumes that only it is the party that can do any good for anyone. That is a basically flawed premise since other parties too have good people who are doing a great job of running the country and states. Their attitude of if-you-are-not-with-me-you-are-against-me-and-against-India is jarring and idiosyncratic. They are big hypocrites on many issues. Their economic policies are wrong mostly. They ability to create new jobs or bring in growth in the economy is painfully invisible. They are also turning into a pseudo-secular outfit like the congress or the SP. They need to clean up their house before I can trust them with my vote for the LS. I can initially support them for for the panchayats and the municipal authorities and then later with assembly and much later with LS. 6. I will finish off this piece with a movie quote from one of my favourite movies - Ratatouille. Anton Ego, a critic, writes this review in the newspaper after eating a great meal made by a mouse. In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the *new*. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new: an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteaus famous motto, Anyone can cook. But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist *can* come from *anywhere*. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteaus, who is, in this critics opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteaus soon, hungry for more. While my sentiments are not the exact same, they do mirror some ideas that I feel about AAP. © Ankur Jain, 2014
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 02:08:11 +0000
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