AAP has done its bit by making both the political class and the electorate conscious of their predicament.
MUMBAI: The dramatic decline of the Congress party in the recently-held legislative assembly elections in Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhaya Pradesh and Rajasthan came as no surprise. The Grand Old Party won a mere 126 seats of the total 589 seats up for grabs.
Interestingly for the Congress, the present political scenario is starkly similar to what it had been for it in the past decade. Apart from losing assembly elections in at least four important states during the general elections’ calendar year, it has now lost three times in a row to Narendra Modi in the Gujarat Legislative Assembly elections. Moreover, Congress leaders have been overshadowed by Modi’s charisma for quite some time now. The party’s rank and file is too confused to repose faith again in Dr Manmohan Singh and is now with Rahul Gandhi. The ironic fact is that despite losing in state elections the last three times as well, the Congress has then gone on to win the Lok Sabha elections that followed those defeats.
Political pundits rightfully perceive that it will take some more time for the BJP to gain the confidence and trust of the Indian electorate. The recent Delhi Assembly election is an eye-opener. Contrary to the commonly-held perception, the Delhi debacle has not only jolted the Congress out of its slumber, it has also exposed the degree of public suspicion for the BJP. Even with three terms of abysmal mismanagement and uneven governance of the National Capital Territory of India by the Congress, the BJP couldn’t gain an absolute majority. To add insult to injury, the voters readily accepted the Congress once again with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in charge of the government. It takes much more than occasional stage-managed photo-ops by BJP leaders with a handful of Muslims to lure the community.
Established political entities are now busy replicating the successful recipe of the AAP by reaching out to ordinary people via public consultations and asking them what should be adopted by the party in its election manifesto. Minority communities are seeing their long-pending demands being acknowledged by lawmakers, who till now, had adopted a carrot-and-stick ploy while delaying grants to waqf boards and holding back land approvals.
Even if the AAP doesn’t come to power at the centre — and it would be unrealistic to predict that it will anytime soon — still, it has done its bit by making both the political class and the electorate conscious of their predicament.
Qureish Raghib
Published in The Express Tribune, December 30th, 2013.
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