AAP should not remain just a political party but should become a phenomena

The recent success of AAP (Aam Aadami Party) in the Delhi elections has created a lot of buzz all over India. Many political parties poked fun when AAP was created almost one year back and even dismissed their presence. They termed it as a temporary phenomenon, a bubble that will eventually disappear without creating any significant impact. But destiny had something else in its mind. The spectacular performance by the AAP in the Delhi elections left everyone shocked and surprised. They won 28 out of 70 seats, no one expected this to happen. They not only fought the election but fought really hard. During the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement, the current political brigade challenged a few common people not to just protest on the street and create a nuisance but to enter the political system and try to clean it if they are not happy with the current system. They never imagined that some people would really take this challenge seriously and take a plunge into the muddy water of politics. They tried everything from sting operations to government investigation about their funding, but nothing worked against AAP. So far they came out of all troubles successfully and managed to maintain their clean image.

I am not excited about AAP only as a new political entity, there are so many political parties in India, local as well as national, they all were launched with a lot of good intentions and some of them became very successful. However, they all became part of the same system and played the game with the same set of rules which included the use of money power, corruption, and many other illegal ways about which most people are aware. Skepticism about AAP was quite understandable because people saw many new parties emerging and becoming part of the same system many times before. Leaders like Laloo Yadav, Mulayam Singh, and Mayavati, came from very humble backgrounds and entered politics with a lot of good intentions but today they are big players in the same system, playing by the same rules. They couldn't change the system but the system changed them completely. But so far AAP seems to be different. They have a totally different approach and transparency is the most important aspect of their approach which impressed me a lot. Whatever they do including the collection of money to run the party is in the public domain. No other political party has done this before. Everyone thought that no one could survive in Indian politics with honesty and complete transparency but so far AAP has done it. This is what scared other parties, they are scared to disclose their sources of funding, and they are worried about losing the election if they don't field popular or winnable candidates. They all used to field such candidates and never used to care even if some of these candidates have criminal backgrounds, but now they may not be able to do it anymore. At least they were forced to field honest candidates with clean images during the Delhi elections just because of the presence of AAP. This is what makes me excited about AAP. Not only they are playing the game honestly but they are also forcing their opponents to follow the same path. This is what I want to happen, reformation of all parties and the entire system. One candidate or leader with good intentions is not a big deal. They are there in every party but when every party and candidate is forced to stay clean and work honestly then only desired reform will happen. First, there has to be some external pressure (which AAP has created) and then slowly it may become a norm and then we may not even need to mention specifically AAP's name because all parties will be like them. This sounds like a crazy dream today but I am optimistic.

AAP has still a long way to go. They just started and hit a home run in their first attempt, but that doesn't mean they will remain like this or will have the same success in every election they contest, but it seems they are not worried about that and I like this attitude. They seem to be more interested in overall political reform rather than short-term gains. That's why I think it's not just another political party but a phenomenon that made common people believe that they also can enter politics and win, they also can dream of challenging this corrupt system if they want and this is what excites me and makes me optimistic. Many say that nothing can be done with our current political and bureaucratic machinery, it's damaged beyond any repair, but AAP's success and approach are a ray of hope. They showed us not everything is lost and it's we who can repair it and change it, it's our responsibility to fight for the change we want. So now the ball is in our court, we need to make sure that AAP just doesn't remain another political party but becomes a phenomenon, an experiment that can be repeated everywhere and at every level. If not, then we will be stuck with the current rotten system for many more years to come and I don't think any of us want this to happen. I am happy for AAP's success, more than that I am happy for myself, I am happy for the common people of India who desperately needed some ray of hope and now they have it.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]