THE SPOILED BRAT OF DELHI

The performance of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Delhi elections is impressive but not unprecedented. There have been more remarkable precedents in the past. The huge victory of the Janata Party in the elections to the Lok Sabha after the lifting of the Emergency, the decimation of the Congress by the DMK in what was then known as Madras state, and the coming to power in Assam by the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), a party formed by the activists of the All Assam Students Union, are few instances that come easily to mind. All these parties came to power by concentrating on a single point plan: the Janata Party to end  Indira Gandhi's rule, the DMK to protect Tamil from the Hindi onslaught, and the AGP to keep Assam for the Assamese. The AAP too had pinned its electoral strategy on a single slogan: eradicate corruption! In the 16-point AAP manifesto the first was its, " Commitment to passing (the) Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill within 15 days of coming to power."

Obviously, the slogan was appealing. Otherwise the AAP would not have managed to get 30 percent of the votes polled as against the BJP's 33 percent and the Congress's 25 percent. For a rookie party this victory is certainly impressive. But is it a strong indicator that the anti-corruption wave sentiment has gripped the masses? The voting percentage advises caution. The votes polled by the BJP and the Congress indicate three facts: one, the vast majority  their followers (more than 50 percent of the voters) have not brought into AAP's tirade against their parties; two, they do not place a premium on AAP's promise to usher in a corruption-free Delhi; and three, the youth vote does not seem to be disproportionately in favour of the AAP.

Unfortunately, Kejriwal & Co. do not see the results this way. They have confused an impressive victory for a great one. This is not merely an outburst fuelled by a post-poll exuberance. The moral agenda that drives the AAP's leadership, to the exclusion of everything else, has made them zealots. They actually believe that taking a strong anti-corruption stance is the alpha and omega of politics and that everything else falls in between or out.

The other issues included in their manifesto - power, water, sewage, public transport, etc. - and the suggested solutions to these problem areas are based on the premise that the root cause of every problem is corruption. For example, "Delhi’s consumers have been getting inflated bills due to malpractices by (distribution companies) Discoms. AAP promises a reduction of consumers’ electricity expenditure by 50%. This will be done by ordering an audit of Discoms, rectifying inflated bills and getting electricity bills checked by independent agencies." That an ex-Indian Revenue Service officer would see an audit as a panacea for high power bills is as natural as any former General stressing the lack of discipline as the source of all problems in a company, city, or country!

Zealotry in electoral politics can take a party only so far and no further. The art of politics especially in a democracy is the practice of giving and taking, or as Churchill put it, ' the art of the possible'. At the time of writing, the Congress has indicated that it is willing to unconditionally accept an AAP government in Delhi. The AAP's zealotry will not allow it to unconditionally accept this offer. Hence the 18 conditions listed by the AAP to accept the unconditional support of the Congress. The list is  based by and large on AAP's election manifesto. 

In a democracy every party fights an election on its own manifestos and if and when one party forms a government with the support of another, then the norm is to draw up an agreed common programme. The AAP does not respect this practice. Like a spoiled brat it will only play under its own rules.

A zealot is a zealot is a zealot...until time and age  hopefully catches up with him before it's too late.

ONE SWALLOW DOES NOT MAKE A SUMMER

Most of the media, both electronic and print, have labelled the just concluded elections to five state assemblies as "the semi-finals" to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. This is an inept turn of phrase for many reasons. First, India has a long history of elections where the results of state elections do not necessarily match the one for the Lok Sabha. Secondly, the four states in the Hindi belt have slightly more than 73 seats in the Lok Sabha. Even if the BJP makes a clean sweep in all these states in the coming parliament elections this would net it less than 14 per cent of the total seats. If we factor in the Aam Aadmi Party whose performance in Delhi has been unprecedented and the BJP's no show in Mizoram the percentage for it would be less.

The truth is that while the Congress is a party with a country-wide organisation the BJP is limited to the Hindi-belt, an exception being Karnataka where it has an on/off presence with its former chief minister, Yeddyurappa, and some of his cabinet colleagues leading their own party in opposition to the mother party. But election fever is much like the mating season among animals when indiscriminate coupling rules; BJP could still tie the knot with Yeddyurappa.

Political expediency almost always trumps morality before and after elections. Since elections to five states have already thrown up a hung house in one - Delhi - there is every likelihood that would be the case in the coming polls for the Lok Sabha. In this situation the BJP would have to strike deals with a motley bunch of regional parties, most of whom are not its natural allies in any ideological sense. Managing this crowd of prima donnas is not easy. Vajpayee could do it because he had the manners of an aristocrat and the intuition of a poet. Narendra Modi who speaks the language of the 
marketplace and prides himself on his so-called macho approach will meet more than his match with a Jayalalithaa or a Mamta. These ladies like to fight.

The Congress is better placed. Its broad secular outlook and left-of-centre policies give it a wide array of suitors before and after the Lok Sabha elections. The problem is that most of these possible allies have their agendas which is either caste or class-based and those may not always be in keeping with the overall aim of the government. The Congress has been around long enough to learn the tactics of surviving this type of political bargaining or in the worst case, blackmail. Witness the Nuclear Bill, Mamta's posturing, and the DMK's threat. Modi does not have this track record. Advani does. The summer when it comes will be a season of discontent.