AAP can help steer political discourse in a sane direction

Note:Aam Aadmi Party’s 16-17 questions to Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi underline the fact that Aam Aadmi Party has joined the ranks of some of the real opposition parties in India which were increasingly being sidelined. At present from the pitch of the electoral campaign underway, it appears that Narendra Modi is already ruling the political regime of the country and Arvind Kejriwal is the leader of the opposition.  

Besides battling conventional political forces, AAP is battling media owners and editors who wish to reach Rajya Sabha at any ethical cost by humoring the would be ruler. Disowning of the ideology by AAP seems an attempt to re-invent a path which is not tried, tested, predictable and checkmated by deeply entrenched regressive political forces. It may fail but it is making an attempt for sure despite the onslaught of presstitutes, embedded news channels, news papers and new media. The content analysis of media coverage before and arrival of anti-corruption crusaders and AAP reveals that political discourse between staus quoist political parties like BJP, Congress, DMK etc had gone down the drain. The gutter language and barren vision of the old and senile political parties stands exposed. They are is now attempting to look fresh and re-invent themselves by projecting sons, daughters and relatives of existing leadership of the ruling parties.In such a scenario, AAP is emerging as the principal opposition party. If progressive political forces and AAP can join hands to attack crony capitalism they can complement and survive the 2014 battle and steer the discourse in a sane direction.      

     
Gopal Krishna




To steer political discourse in the right direction

Praful Bidwai

All those who discounted the Aam Aadmi Party’s potential for stirring things up in national politics must revise their assessment after Arvind Kejriwal’s recent “inspection tour” of Gujarat. The issues he raised in the series of questions he posed to Narendra Modi ranged from corruption and sweetheart deals with Big Business, to power shortages, closure of industries and 800 farmers’ suicides. This had the twin effect of demolishing Modi’s extravagant claims about “development” and highlighting the gross forms of crony capitalism that have driven most investment in Gujarat. The demolition job isn’t quite new: many Congress Chief Ministers, and even the BJP’s own Shivraj Singh Chouhan, have questioned Modi’s claims to unparalleled growth.

What is new is Kejriwal’s frontal attack, based on hard facts, on Modi’s collusion with business groups like the Ambanis, Tatas, Ruias and Gautam Adani. For instance, Modi transferred to them land acquired from vulnerable farmers at throwaway prices. He allowed Adani — whose wealth has multiplied 12-fold under Modi’s tenure — to evade environmental and coastal-zone clearances while building a private port which destroyed mangroves. Kejriwal also reiterated charges concerning the overpricing of Krishna-Godavari gas to favour the Ambanis.

Modi’s opponents have so far attacked him for his role in the 2002 pogrom, and for his development claims. But Kejriwal hit him where it hurts the most — abuse of power to coddle capital. This brings Modi down to earth and reduces him to just another venal, cynical politician who is complicit in the corporate capture of India’s political system, a growing menace to our democracy. That attack packs real punch.

This is evident from both ground reactions and media reports from Gujarat — and even more eloquently, from a hysterical statement issued by “concerned” citizens sympathetic to the Sangh Parivar, many of them connected with the far-Right Vivekananda International Foundation.

The statement launches a vitriolic attack on AAP without naming it. It says “the misinformation campaign unleashed by certain new political parties” aims to “ensure division” of the anti-UPA vote and thus to “electorally help the Congress…”. It accuses AAP of trying “to hoodwink the voters by tarnishing all political parties with the same, undifferentiated brush, making seemingly bland but dangerous statements that all parties are similar.” It claims the BJP has a “clear-headed and credible leadership”. It links AAP to “fissiparous tendencies” in Kashmir and condemns it for “rank opportunism and self-confessed anarchism.”

Although VIF calls itself “independent and non-partisan”, it was launched in 2009 by the Vivekananda Kendra, itself linked since the 1970s to RSS members. In 2011, VIF backed the “anti-corruption” crusade of Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare, whose team then included Kejriwal! Besides former intelligence and diplomatic officials, VIF’s faculty includes pro-Hindutva social scientists who blithely support bans on books like Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History.

The fact that Kejriwal has rattled VIF shows that Modi is vulnerable. AAP’s real value doesn’t lie in the number of seats it wins the coming election—which may be limited — and not even in the votes it takes from the BJP, but in its ability to puncture Modi’s “56-inch chest” image and manufactured charisma. But this means AAP must keep up its anti-cronyism campaign, acknowledging that its principal adversary isn’t the Congress.

This column has often underscored AAP’s limitations and flaws. It disowns ideology, and doesn’t recognise the centrality of secularism/communalism, poverty, inequality, class/caste divisions or gender justice.

But it can nevertheless make a major contribution to society and politics if it stays on the anti-cronyism track.

The author is a writer, columnist, and a professor at the Council for Social Development, Delhi

Thursday, 20 March 2014
DNA