Anatomy of the "Aam Aadmi"

Alex Garland's 1996 novel The Beach, also made into a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, had a fascinating plot. It revolved around idealistic people setting up a secret island paradise in Thailand. The island, hidden from modern civilisation, was designed to be a society based on equality, love and trust. Those living there shunned materialistic greed and everything wrong with modern life.

Things seem wonderful to start with. However, the island slowly degenerates. Issues such as formation of factions, differences of opinion, power politics and betrayals surface. Eventually the paradise, despite its clear blue water and powdery beaches, becomes a violent hell. The lesson is simple where there are humans, there can be no paradise.

And now, we see the same situation in AAP. The political party that seemed created from the nectar of the gods is now afflicted with the ugliest human traits mistrust, greed, ego, impatience and vengefulness.

This is not meant to criticise AAP. In fact, i find AAP today far more honest and real than the righteous nonsense peddled earlier. I also feel AAP's prospects are brighter than they were before this crisis. People who helped AAP take form the NGO types, the leftists, the activists, the almost-anybody-who-had-a-grudge may not be the best people to make AAP grow to the next level.

Removing them, even though not done in the classiest manner, will actually help AAP do better. Will that be a clean and pure AAP? Absolutely not. Will it be a more successful AAP? Possibly yes.

As baffled AAP supporters and volunteers made hashtags like 'UnitedAAP' trend, the party leadership (read one man) humiliated two co-founders of the party. Both cofounders had stature, even if not mass popularity. AAP had just won Delhi with a historic mandate. Why this then?

Clearly, fault lines existed well before the latest Delhi election. The party's rollercoaster ride through three elections created many differences of opinion within it. Personality clashes were somehow kept under wraps to present voters a united, even if fake, face. AAP won, mainly on Arvind Kejriwal's credibility, face, connect and promises.

They also won because the party kept winnability above anything else in choosing candidates. What people wanted to see was if AAP and Kejriwal could win. And that they did.

Once the election was won with such a massive mandate, Kejriwal became indispensable to AAP. Internal naysayers who took him on earlier were in trouble. Smart ones in the party realised the new reality fast and bowed a little deeper to Arvind. Silly righteous ones continued to say what they felt was right.

What these idealists didn't realise is that AAP had a new appeal. While the ultra-honest positioning was right to make it stand out as a newbie party, voters didn't really care about honesty to that extent anymore. All AAP had to do was be a little more honest than BJP and Congress and they could blow their righteous trumpet again. And if your new standard for honesty is to be only slightly above existing political parties, there is a whole lot of ethical wiggle room for AAP.

Originally posted here:
Anatomy of the "Aam Aadmi"