I have concluded that the difference between AAP and other parties, is now non-existent. I was a well wisher of the party till now, but no more. Here are some reasons
Surgical Strikes: Arvind Kejriwal heard about the surgical
strike and immediately sent congratulatory tweet to the Indian Army, but churlishly,
not to Indian Govt. Even though everyone knows that in our democracy, our armed
forces would not do anything without the nod of the govt. Thus credit is
equally to the decision makers, but because the main decision maker is Narendra
Modi, he was not congratulated.
Then as soon as some of the AAP leaders heard about questions
that the Pak propaganda had managed to raise, they thought of a master stroke. Modi
is going to use the surgical strike to win in Punjab, let us sow doubts in the
minds of the people, so that all anti-Modi votes come to us, and Punjab can be
won. Therefore, in an over-clever video, Kejriwal glorified Modi and Army, but
asked them to provide proof of strike to put a slap on the face of Pak. If the
govt does not give evidence, it would lose credibility, and AAP can win Punjab.
If it does show evidence, then the govt would have played its winning hand now
(seven months before Punjab elections) and AAP could neutralise the goodwill of
BJP within that period. Smart political move!
But most intelligent, objective people saw through this charade.
And this strategy backfired and how!
(1) The video was seen as a challenge to the DGMO press
conference and questioning the army.
(2) It was taken up by Pakistan as the “substantiation of Pak
propaganda by the CM of the capital of India”.
(3) CNN 18 got an expose from the Pak side establishing that
there was a surgical strike. Thus, surgical strike was proved without the Army
having to give classified and strategic information.
(4) For me, most importantly, AAP lost all respect. My
colleagues with whom I have waved the Indian flag and shouted “Bharat Mata ki
Jai” till my voice became hoarse, had traded national interest with votes. For
me, National interest in non-negotiable.
My past: The
emergency was a dark period in the history of India. I had jumped into the
national fight against it and we won. The nation rejoiced. But it was short
lived - the Janata Party experiment was given support by people overwhelmingly,
but the country was betrayed by limitations of the leaders. The nation was
witness to politicians focussing on electoral victories, abandoning all the
principles it had stood for. JP was a mute spectator to this degeneration, like
Anna. Good people started going away from politics. And our emergency heroes
like Laloo and Mulayam started playing usual politics and won many elections. I
was young, inexperienced and did not have any access to leaders nor followers
to try and correct them, or even to inform them of the pain that the nation was
undergoing. I had no interest in power nor fame, so I stepped back into
education and my normal life.
The nation was betrayed.
Today: After many
decades, the country was ready for another National movement. The IAC, AAP and
the Delhi victory was based on certain principles. Pundits and commentators who
said that elections could not be won without compromise and without using
money, muscle or divisive agenda had to eat crow. A new revolution of clean
money, principles and decency seemed at hand. The nation rejoiced once again. In
2012, many like me had quit their job, hundreds of volunteers, some of them
earning on a daily basis, whose parents were unwell, some who had family
problems, some who sold their lands, some who took sabbatical from their jobs
or studies, all came to serve the nation, not hand-picked, self-serving,
arrogant leaders.
Having won so handsomely in Delhi, the leadership took all
the credit and arrogantly thought that they had all the answers to winning
electorally. Personal ambitions, end-justifies-means, electoral victory at all
costs became the by-line. Political machinations and palace intrigue set in. A
new set of principles replaced the earlier one. To our horror, the new
principles started becoming REAL. The compromises began:
Simplicity, humility,
decency and the desire for a new political culture was replaced by use of
uncouth language against opponents – NaMo, YY, PB, media. Arrogance in
statements, TV debates, travelling in VIP convoy, banners at every street
corner with multiple faces, blaming and accusing everyone at the dirtiest level,
playing the victim card. Getting bouncers in internal meetings, playing low
games in meetings and especially using multiple accounts and trolling in social
media to discredit old associates. All pretense to simplicity and decency has
been abandoned. Everything that we used to despise, is now us.
Media management was about using strong words, doing drama,
acting, blaming. Good news or bad news does not matter, one should manipulate
the media to get worth crores worth of air and print time. Media is naïve, needs
action and controversy. Manipulate them. Well, AAP media management seems to
have succeeded in achieving prime time, but the seriousness has reduced. Many
of our erstwhile supporters or people who were looking at AAP with interest
have stopped taking us seriously. When entire nation was concerned about the
Augusta helicopter scam, AAP was talking about Modi’s degree. Party interest
and personal ambition over national interest?
And as AAP wants to become the main party to challenge BJP
in next general election by making a gat-bandhan, the strategy is to directly
attack Modi for everything, so that AK appears to be Modi’s main opponent. So,
calling Modi a coward and psychopath gets you tremendous media attention as
well as pits you against the PM. This one-pointed attack may have tremendous
strategic advantage but also some major disadvantages too. You tend to ignore
many events and developments that impact the nation, because Modi cannot be
blamed.
Swaraj was one of
the first casualty after Delhi elections. It was even removed from the party
constitution. No state leaders were allowed to grow. MLAs elected to run Delhi
are now traveling across states, lording over the local units. Maharashtra (the
best committee and team) was disbanded in Oct 1st and is now being managed by
someone from Delhi. Same is the case with Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab, Goa and
other states. I went through Arvind’s book to find this new definition of
Swaraj, but in vain.
No personality cult
was replaced with the new principle – there should be just “One Voice in the
party”. Any independent voice should not just be removed, but ejected in such a
manner that no one would have the guts to speak up. Was told many times – “We
do not want any intelligent thinker in the party, just get “Bharat mata ki Jai”
kind of people who would follow the instructions”. Merit has been replaced by
loyalty. Party is now left with only loyalists. A volunteer based party has a
new principle “Ek jayega to dus ayenge”. Volunteers, like the original principles,
are just use-and-throw items. Old genuine volunteers are being replaced by new
party workers who have come for taste of power. We started by saying that there
should be more than one voice within the party, as the texture of debate and
discussion can be self-corrective and improve democracy. But we are now a
one-man party.
Transparency and
Participation. When we had the NE meeting in which YY and PB were thrown
out, I had asked that minutes of the meeting be circulated, which was denied by
saying that there is a gag order. The leaders thought that the 20 people
sitting in that room were AAP party, while I felt that all the lakhs of
volunteers, donors and supporters were the party. Therefore, in spite of the
gag order, I followed my conscience and wrote the blog to inform all. I knew
that they will come after me and my political career would be over. I chose to
still write the blog. But, little did I realise that they will use go down to
the level of using some ugly false personal allegations against me as well as
dismiss the entire Maharashtra party to spite me. The minutes of that meeting
is still not released. What used to be the party of the volunteers is now the
party of the leaders. Now, no one is left in the party, who has the courage of
conviction to ask for transparency or even participation. The party structure
is in shambles. No elections have taken place or likely in the near future.
Loyalty is the factor on which organization has been built. RTI within party as
well as RTR (Right to recall) is refused.
Clean money is
another casualty. When I was in the party, my main pitch to donors was that we
displayed even a rupee donated and that we were very prompt on making Balance
Sheet and Income and expenditure statement. It is alleged that there is a
mismatch of around 14 crores between financial statement given to Election
Commission and the donation list. Therefore the donation list has been removed
from website for the last thirteen weeks. The Balance sheet and Expense
statement has not been displayed since 31st Mar 2014. Which means it
has been 30 months since accounts has been shown. Something seems to be wrong
somewhere.
Good people who
had never ventured into politics were attracted to the party. Most have
withdrawn, while some are still vigorously defending. 23 MLAs in Delhi are from
other parties and it is common knowledge in Delhi that most of the 67 MLAs are
indulging in corruption and bad practices. When someone is caught like Tomar,
Sandeep, Asim Ahmed and others, they are removed. Others are continuing because
they are not caught. Selection of candidates were not based on due diligence of
corrupt and criminal but calculations of winnability. Its pay-back time now. In
the desperate speed to win elections, the party has become a breeding ground
for opportunists and all kind of shady characters.
Governance in Delhi is
in very poor shape. Instead of making flyovers, roads, hospitals and major
works – petty works like making one model classroom, installing AC in one
school, a few mohalla clinics, using fogging machines etc are highlighted. I have met hundreds of
people in Delhi - reporters, senior journalists, RAW and CBI officers, auto drivers, small vendors, taxi drivers etc most of whom were the backbone of the 67-3 victory who are
furious and betrayed. MLAs are moving in other states for party work, top
leadership is focused on winning elections in Punjab, Goa and Gujarat - Delhi governance is abandoned.
From a 54%
vote share in the assembly victory, the MCD by-elections vote share was 29%.
Delhi is supposed to be the party’s forte and youth the backbone. In spite of
using our standard operating procedure of picking some favourable opinion poll
and publicizing it that we were sweeping the polls – AAP was decimated in last
year’s DUSU polls where CYSS, the student arm got just 13% of the votes and
this year – it did not even fight the election. If the 21 MLAs are
disqualified, very few will get re-elected.
So, while there is excellent focus and priority on education
and health, overall Delhi voters are very angry and AAP is losing some serious
ground. AAP Punjab was expected to win 100 seats in Feb, has seen major
setbacks in organization. The pressurizing of Army will also affect it
adversely. And, if the re-election of 21 Delhi MLAs takes place at the same
time and AAP loses, then the sheen of Punjab result, if positive, may reduce.
The party may be reasonably successful electorally but will lose steam in the
medium run, due to poor governance and undemocratic party structure.
My role was to be
a catalyst in the creation of a new India. It has been my deep regret and pain
that post emergency, I could not do anything to stop the downfall of Janata
Party.
But, this time, I will try to raise important issues in the
hope that the party will make a note and correct. If this experiment for a new
India fails and turns into just electoral victories, the nation will become
cynical and it will take decades before our countrymen will trust a new
movement or party. I do not see BJP or Congress being able to transform the country.
Our hopes have been on AAP, but it’s just sliding down fast. The hopes for new
politics, built by the nation’s support during IAC and AAP, cannot be allowed
to be frittered at the altar of power-at-any-cost.
Unlike many who quit or were removed – I joined no other
party, I created no group, I have no personal or political goals (I have quit
electoral politics), I have no issues with any individuals and absolutely no
personal grudge (have you seen any personal attack by me?), nor do I have any
truck with anyone who goes after the party. My aim is purely unselfish – keep a
check on the party as the country cannot afford another failure. AAP blind
supporters, individually and collectively, will continue to attack me in worst
possible ways – but that is alright, as long as I can stimulate some of them to
turn off their blind support and substitute by objectivity. But, AAP volunteers
have also become bhakts. While my hopes on AAP leadership is diminishing, the
same can also be said for its volunteers and supporters. Hatred for others and
justification of all wrongs by one’s party is so Dhritrashta. :)
On a personal level, I meditate, reflect, read and write for
spiritual evolution. For nation building activity, I am happy doing my bit for
the country by developing 15 villages in drought-ridden Beed in Marathawada, as
a model to be replicated. On an intellectual level, I intend to play the role
of a conscience keeper.
It is always nation first, party next and individuals last.
