VIEWPOINT
AMITABH SHUKLA
Arvind Kejriwal has finally named
his political outfit Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), inviting the wrath of the Congress
which claims that an attempt was being made to take away the plank of the grand
old party of Indian politics.
What surprises me the most is the
fear of the Congress vis a vis the AAP and the strong reaction emanating from
its camp. If a 127-year old party reacts the way it is doing against a party
which has been just formed and never contested an election, then clearly there
is some problem somewhere.
Congress has been ridiculing Anna
Hazare, Kejriwal and Baba Ramdev from the very beginning, realising well that
the rising and aspiring middle class could support them and this obviously
would hurt it in electoral terms. Congress is not bothered about the entrenched
elite who would never even think of extending support to Kejriwal and company
as their interests are safe with the Congress and also with the BJP. The voters
in the rural areas too would not have anything to with a new political party in
the beginning simply because they will wait and watch for a while and not cast
vote in a hurry. It is only the middle class in the cities which is impatient,
wants to end corruption and could experiment with new political parties.
When Congress leader and Union
Minister Manish Tewari claimed that the party has been with the Aam Aadmi ever
since its formation in 1885, it was time for me to brush up my understanding of
history. Founded by the elite of the country then, Congress remained entirely
elitist till Mahatma Gandhi came in the picture. It was Gandhi who took the
party to the Aam Aadmi when he came back from South
Africa in 1915. He had to wait for a few
years till the party truly became a mass movement of the Aam Aadmi who wanted
to end British imperialism.
The moment the entrenched elite -
lawyers, industrialists, big landholders and professionals realized that Gandhi
was driving the imagination of the sub-continent, they came out in open
support. The strength of Gandhi lay in his immense appeal to the main section
of the aam aadmi then- farmers, both landless and with little landholding.
There was only a small section of middle class then in the cities and it was
not the Aam Aadmi we know now. In any case, the tiny middle class joined the
national movement only when they became sure that British would leave the
country.
In brief, this is my
understanding of history and the association of the aam aadmi with the
Congress. The party became a mass movement not through electoral politics but
by taking up the issues of Aam Aadmi and that was to get rid of British
imperialism. That perhaps was the reason why Gandhi wanted Congress to be
disbanded after 1947-a suggestion scoffed at by the elite who were sniffing
power. As there were hardly any political parties then and the memory of the
people associating Congress with the freedom struggle was strong, it continued
in power without interruption till 1977 at the Centre.
The problem arises now when an
upstart, as Congress would like to believe, tries to take the plank assiduously
built over decades. More so, when the Congress believes that the AAP could hit it in places like Delhi
which goes to polls next year and the electorate comprises of an overwhelming
majority of the middle class.
Officially, Congress maintains
that there are 1453 political parties registered with the Election Commission
of India and another addition would hardly make a difference. “More the
merrier…” says a Congress spokesperson. But it knows that AAP could be one of
the 1453 political parties but is one untested opposition whose electoral
strength it does not know. Anna, Baba Ramdev and Kejriwal have contributed
immensely in making the Congress unpopular in the last two years and the party
leaders know it well.
Reactions coming from the
Congress on AAP clearly suggest that the party does not think that it is one of
the 1453 odd parties in the country. The ruling party never reacts to what
happens in the other smaller parties registered with the EC. The simple fact
that Congress reacts on anything what Kejriwal says or does, indicates that the
party thinks that AAP could indeed be a worthy opponent.
To be realistic, the AAP cannot
be a political threat to any party to begin with. It takes years and decades to actually become
a threat and build trust with the people. Besides you need an issue which
changes national discourse and strengthens a particular party. For instance,
the Ram Janambhoomi movement brought the BJP as a force to reckon with while
the Mandal politics gave rise to several political parties in the Hindi
heartland.
Even though, AAP would find it extremely difficult to win
a Lok Sabha seat on the issues of corruption or Jan Lok Pal, it could damage
Congress and help its opponents. As the Congress plank of Aaam Aadmi was built
without a foundation, it knows that this can slip away in no time. This perhaps
is the real fear of the 127-year old party.
After the formation of AAP, I
really find it intriguing to see Congress leaders, big and small, claiming
copyright over the word Aam Aadmi. Amongst the top leaders of the party, the
last member of the Nehru-Gandhi family who practically worked for a living was
Motilal Nehru, over 85 years ago. His son, Jawaharlal Nehru never worked for a
living nor his daughter Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi. Rajiv Gandhi
worked as a pilot for a while and Rahul Gandhi in some company in London
for a couple of years, the details of which are difficult to find. Party
President Sonia Gandhi remained a housewife all the years till the Congress
discovered that she was the only leader to fill the slot left vacant by Rajiv
Gandhi. To call them common man or the
Aam Aadmi would indeed be trivilalising the word.
Not only the Gandhi family, if
one analyses the background of Congress MPs and ministers, one would find that
most of them come from political families and there is hardly an Aam Aadmi, who
has made it as an MP or a minister through sheer hard work without having a
father, mother, uncle or grandfather in an influential position in the party in
the past.
It is here that Congress should
bolster its image of a party of the Aam Aadmi rather than fighting on the name
of a new political party. People would be the arbiter and decide who has the
copyright on Aam Aadmi, not the Congress or t he AAP. (November 26, 2012)
http://dailypioneer.com/state-editions/chandigarh/111326-aam-aadmi-becomes-a-political-football.html
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