Results of Delhi’s assembly
elections surprised many. Barely a year old, Aam Admi Party (Party of the
common man) better known by its acronym AAP pulled a miracle. No other political
movement in the history of India ever managed something like this. The party
won 28 of the 70 seats, falling short of majority by just eight seats. The
right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) managed 32 and the ruling Congress was
decimated to just eight. With no party in a position to form the government
Delhi will go for fresh polls, most likely together with Lok Sabha elections in
April/May 2014.
AAP started with the agenda of
getting India rid of the chronic corruption in the establishment. Arvind
Kejriwal, an ex Indian Revenue Services (IRS) officer quit his job and became
an activist. He later joined the massive anti corruption movement lead by Anna
Hazare, a social activist in 2011. The youth of India rallied behind the
movement, which forced the union government lead by Congress to introduce a
hastily put together Lokpal bill (ombudsman bill) in the parliament. The bill
was never passed and meanwhile Anna Hazare and Kejriwal parted ways to pursue
their own path to fight corruption. AAP was born out of the anti corruption
movement. Kejriwal had a bunch of likeminded people and they saw the anger in
the youth. Kejriwal found his vote bank in the youth, cutting across religion
and class. He created his campaign around the youth and mobilized them through
the media they understand the best. Facebook, Twitter, blogs, online
newspapers, etc were extensively used to spread the message. Newspaper reports
suggest that a voluntary propaganda center in Bangalore made phone calls to
people in Delhi to spread the AAP message.
The high level team of AAP has
many brilliant minds. Kejriwal himself is well versed with the government
finances due to his experience in the IRS. Prashant Bhushan a veteran Supreme
Court lawyer, Yogendra Yadav a fantastic psephologist, Kumar Vishwas a professor
of Hindi and Manish Sisodia a social activist. This group represents the
emerging India, educated, aware and ready to fight for their rights. In
November 2013 AAP released its manifesto in Hindi (read it in English), which talked about
decentralizing governance. The main agenda was to bring down inflation and
eradicate corruption. Apart from this they also took up issues like water,
electricity, women’s security, garbage disposal, etc. Indian Affairs gave the
manifesto a good read. Sadly it is no different from that of the traditional
parties. It reads more like a communist manifesto, handing out doles to the
public to keep them happy.
The first paragraph of the
manifesto says that “Ruling parties make untruthful and exaggerated claims and
election manifestos are a collection of false promises”. It’s ironic that these
lines appear in their own manifesto. The first promise is that of a Jan lokpal
bill for Delhi. The lokpal or the ombudsman will be omnipotent and corrupt
officials will be swiftly prosecuted, convicted and their property confiscated.
It however fails to inform how such huge machinery will be manned and financed.
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| I will rule, you take the accountability |
The next promise is that of
introducing the “swaraj bill” (self rule), which will eventually delegate power
to grassroots level of “mohalla sabhas” or block committees in the city. It
means that the government will wash their hands of all accountability and hold
the block committees responsible for all that will go wrong. The model will
hardly solve any problems and on the contrary will lead to higher level of
corruption and log jams in decision making.
AAP promises a mind boggling 50%
reduction in electricity bills. The two methods suggested include audit of the
distribution companies to find out the actual cost of distribution and the
second is to install solar panels on individual roof tops. People will also
have the option to sell excess production to the grid. The real cost will be
known only after the audit is done, we cannot assume that the companies are
cheating until such audit is complete.
Alternate source of energy is a
welcome move. It will reduce the carbon emission and reduce the dependence on
traditional sources of energy. But the problem with solar energy is that it
needs a large area (around 100 – 110 square meters) for installation. Most
homes in Delhi do not have individual roof tops and those who have are small in
sizes. The cost of installation even after the existing subsidies is high. It
costs anything between INR 120,000 – 180,000 for a 1 KW system. A typical home
needs 4 – 5 KW system to run the basic appliances like fans, lights, television
sets, etc, costing more than five lakhs.
The manifesto then goes on promising better
sewage systems, clean drinking water and 700 liters of free water per day, etc.
Anyone who has lived in Delhi would know that sewage and potable water is
grossly mismanaged. The entire network is old and needs urgent repairs. This
will cost a fortune and would be financed by the MCD (or the state government).
Education system will be changed
to provide quality education. To this end AAP wants to improve the
infrastructure and increase the number of schools (more spending for public
good). While the infrastructure need is addressed there is no mention of how
the quality will be improved. The accountability of schools is once again passed
on to “abhibhavak sabha” or the parents’ council.
AAP also promised to create a “citizens’
security force” to protect women. They do not explain how this will be formed,
will it have legal sanctions or will it be a private militia? How will it
interact with the state police and who will spell out their scope of work? And
finally who will finance the force?
Rest of the manifesto is nothing
but populist socialist propaganda. Protecting labour laws, protecting
minorities, no privatization, no FDI, etc. Like all traditional parties AAP
also includes religion and language as issues towards the end of its manifesto.
All the promises made by AAP may
have good intentions but it will be extremely expensive to fulfill them. The
very vote bank that supports it today will have to pay for all these in form of
increased taxes. These taxes will have to come from increased VAT, sales tax
and tax on fuel. Exactly the things people were protesting against.
The most dangerous thing however
is the extreme decentralization of governance. The city block councils have
been given so much power and responsibilities that it will be impossible for
them to get anything done. On the other hand it will pave the way for
corruption because huge amounts of money to be paid to contractors will depend
on a certificate from these councils. While the government will take credit of
whatever goes right, the blame will be shifted to the city councils for
everything that goes wrong.
Kejriwal might have borrowed his
movement from Beppe Grillo of Italy who’s “movement five star” is the blue
print for AAP, but the way he wants to govern is impractical and deceiving.
