Is aap’s promise of an alternative politics over

Is aap’s promise of an alternative politics over

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is being written off as a political party by ‘apolitical’ pundits and parties across the spectrum after the recent losses in the Assembly elections held in Punjab and Goa followed by the municipal elections in Delhi. There are credible media reports about the party facing internal dissension (मतभेद) both in Delhi and in Punjab. Are the obituaries (ending of something (figurative)) being written in haste? Is their grim (ख़राब/गिरता हुआ) prognosis (पूर्वानुमान) referring merely to the electoral fate of the party? Or, are they predicting an end to the seductive (आकर्षक/प्रलोभी) promise of an ‘alternative politics’ when AAP entered the political arena after the Anna Hazare-led ‘India against corruption movement’ and decimated (नुकसान पहुँचाना/प्रभावशीलता कम कर देना) two of the most powerful/resourceful parties in their own backyard within two years of its inception? Sifting (separate something, especially something to be discarded, from something else.) through these prognostic obituaries in electronic and social media, one finds both strands of thought.
As for the first, electoral defeat, even in succession, is never the sufficient cause for the destruction of a party. Besides, in Punjab and Goa, the fledgling (अनुभवहीन) party managed to secure 24% and 6% vote share, respectively, and held its own against two well-entrenched parties. In fact the pessimism about the long-term electoral fate of AAP has always been there to the extent that its few electoral successes have been considered aberrations (a departure from what is normal, usual, or expected) and for good reasons.
In an electoral democracy like India with its diversity, a party in order to be electorally successful needs to have a strong organisational structure, a clearly identifiable ideology on key social and economic issues and also a core socioeconomic constituency.
Then, a party having national ambition needs also to have a set of credible State/regional-level community-based leadership. AAP has faltered on all these counts, and so is prone to electoral failures. That AAP represents some form of an alternative mode of politics lies in its very ‘exceptional’ origin and existence. First, AAP owes its inception to a movement that was led by and supported overwhelmingly by the rising urban middle classes, a rarity (दुर्लभता/अनूठापन) in contemporary India. Second, AAP is also an ‘original’ party in the sense that unlike other ‘new’ parties neither was it the result of a split from an existing party nor was it set up by an ambitious leader leaving his larger party, more often than not from a powerful community. Third, it is also difficult to bracket AAP into neat categories of national; secular /religious; conservative/radical. Fourth, AAP stands apart for its conscious attempt to reach out to larger electorates cutting across long-established patterns of partisan social alignment or cleavages (division) in India.
Anti-establishment stance
The party has done it by projecting itself as anti-establishment, taking on some of the most powerful segments of society on the issue of corruption in high places. It has relentlessly run a campaign against the corporate sector, big business groups and media and business tycoons, something no other party has dared or would dare to do, given the political economy of electoral finance. As a trade-off (समझौताकारी तालमेल) , the party has faced the wrath of the media, especially the electronic media that is increasingly controlled by powerful interest groups.
The significance of AAP, despite its limited electoral presence and chequered successes, lies in its insistence on probity (सत्यनिष्ठा) in public life. The AAP has clearly been a trendsetter of a ‘new ‘mode of politics, forcing rival establishment parties to take note and follow.