Brij Bhardwaj
Will Aam Aadmi Party become national party by winning Gujarat as claimed by its leader Arvind Kejriwal, or will face a repeat of what happened in Goa where after making much noise it scored little, when results of elections were announced. According to political observers, AAP is more sound than action on ground, as it has little influence in majority of constituencies in rural and tribal belt of the State.
Mr Kejriwal has been making attempts to expand and make his party a national party by venturing into different States. He tried in Goa and failed. After that an attempt was made in Himachal Pradesh, but after a road show they beat a hasty retreat as the entire unit of AAP merged with the BJP. The attempt in Gujarat was more serious after a good showing in civic polls in which they captured Surat civic body.
The AAP leader is going to Gujarat for campaigning every week. A publicity drive has also been started with advertisements released by Punjab Government in Gujarat newspapers. To start with Mr Kejriwal made appeal by promising to give free electricity to small consumers and major expansion and improvement in field of education as done in Delhi.
When he found that this was not making much impact on voters he came up with schemes like free trips to Ayodhya to visit Ram temple . The latest in the series is his suggestion that the currency notes should carry pictures of Hindu Gods and Goddesses, so that their value, which has been falling against U.S dollars and other foreign currencies could improve. His latest proposal shows his desperation to make a mark in Gujarat as no one is taking him seriously.
There is a general feeling that with little following or organisation with the exception of cities like Ahmadabad , Surat and Baroda there is no chance of AAP becoming a serious challenger. Mr Kejriwal however has started a search for a chief minister for Gujarat through a telephonic poll. While declaring publicly that AAP hopes to win a majority, insiders hope that they would be happy if they emerge as a main opposition party or at least come close to Congress, the main challenger of BJP in Gujarat.
Aam Aadmi Party, which was born out of movement against corruption, however, has left no one in doubt that they have given up their earlier commitments to secularism or a party which was for clean politics. Many leaders including its founder Anna Hazare has disassociated themselves from AAP. There is a growing feeling that AAP is fighting the BJP in Delhi but its entry in States like Goa, Gujarat and others is only cutting into votes of opposition and helping BJP.
More so no one expects that Mr Kejriwal by his tactics will be able to cut into BJP votes based on strong Hindutva appeal and support by RSS cadre and movement in favour of building a Ram temple in Ayodhya . Indian voters are smart enough to make out between original and a copy that is a poor one. But is does show that Indian politics is changing and commitment to ideology and principles is being sacrificed for sake of capturing power.
The worst part is political parties are either becoming family units or based on caste . Cadre committed to ideology or inner party democracy has disappeared. It has become an open race for power and everything is sacrificed for it. Tall promises are made which are difficult to implement or practical. One hopes that attempt by Supreme Court and Election Commission of India will lead to a check and change the way elections are fought and promises made.
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