AAP’s puzzling caste politics

Arati R Jerath

Senior journalist

The Aam Aadmi Party sprang a surprise recently with the announcement of its chief-ministerial nominee for the next Assembly election in Haryana. It seemed to be a premature step, taken in haste. There are still 15 months to go for the battle in the historic plains on the other side of Delhi's border. Before that, AAP has to cross the hurdle of remaining relevant in a tightly contested Lok Sabha poll. So, why the hurry to spread its wings in Haryana?

Equally puzzling is the caste prefix that the party spokesman attached to the name of the CM-hopeful while making the announcement. 'Pandit Navin Jaihind', he declared. The choice of a Brahmin for a state in which the community is a tiny minority and Jats, OBCs and Dalits dominate could be seen as reflective of AAP's larger narrative of eschewing caste politics. But by bringing in Jaihind's caste, the spokesman unwittingly revealed the confusion churning in a party that stands at the crossroads today.

Consider AAP's predicament after a five-year brush with the dark realities of Indian politics. Its ambition of making the leap from an anti-corruption movement to a national force lies shattered after a series of poll setbacks. The party was decimated by the Modi wave in the 2014 General Election. It made a comeback with a stunning victory in the Delhi Assembly poll of 2015, winning 67 of the 70 seats. But all attempts to make a splash outside the Capital after that have come a cropper. It failed to make a dent in Goa, Gujarat and Bengaluru. It did create waves in Punjab initially, but collapsed like a pricked balloon at the finishing line. The worst blow was its terrible performance in the Delhi municipal elections in which it wound up third, with lesser seats than even the Congress.

Along the way, it also lost its anti-corruption plank to Narendra Modi and the BJP. Modi's demonetisation gambit drove the last nail into the coffin of Kejriwal’s USP. AAP is now making noises about reviving the fight for the Lokpal Bill, but they sound rather pathetic in the absence of a clear ideological direction to its politics.

Its biggest failure has been its inability to showcase an alternative model of politics and governance in Delhi despite its thumping win. AAP swept the BJP and Congress out of their traditional fiefdom with the heady promise of a new vision for urban India. The promise evaporated long ago in the cacophony of Kejriwal's running feud with Delhi's Lt-Governor and the union government. 

The irony is that Kejriwal's government has actually implemented some path-breaking ideas in the Capital. Mohalla clinics are providing a semblance of primary healthcare facilities to the poor, despite obstacles created by the LG's office. The quality of teaching in Delhi government schools has improved by leaps and bounds, as proved by the superior performance of its students in the CBSE board exams for the past two years. And water and electricity rates are down for smaller consumers.

Kejriwal's failing is that he makes it easy with his theatrics for his baiters to point fingers at him for chaotic governance. In just the last four months, he got embroiled in a physical scrap with the Chief Secretary, sparked off a protest "strike" by IAS officers and capped it all with an unprecedented nine-day dharna in an ante room next to the LG's office. The images through these events only reinforced his ill-advised description of himself as an "anarchist". He used the term during his first stint as Delhi CM.

After five years of more downs than ups, Kejriwal should be preparing to walk into the sunset as another example of an outlier who burnt his fingers with the complexities of Indian electoral politics. After all, he is a much diminished figure today. Yet, it's clear that he's not ready to call it a day yet. His decision to contest next year's Assembly poll in Haryana reveals a dogged determination to stay in the trenches.

Kejriwal seems to be depending on two things to rebuild his flagging political career. One is the aura of victimhood he has acquired, largely because of the BJP's heavy-handed tactics in dealing with his government in Delhi. The word on the street is that the LG is not allowing him to work under pressure from the Centre. Kejriwal has masterfully milked public sympathy by playing David to the BJP's Goliath even as the Congress fades away ever so gently.

The second is the tailwind he has managed to acquire by inveigling himself into the power club of opposition chief ministers led by Mamata Banerjee. His government was fast sliding towards a constitutional crisis with the prolonged dharna at the LG's office. He wriggled out of a potentially hazardous situation only because the CMs' club intervened on his behalf and made it untenable for the LG to continue the war of nerves playing out in his ante room.

Always quick-witted and sharp, Kejriwal has understood the need to reposition himself to stay afloat. With his anti-corruption plank ceded to Modi, Kejriwal has realigned his politics to clamber on to the federal front bandwagon. By escalating his troubles with the LG in Delhi into a larger fight for the protection of the federal spirit enshrined in the Constitution, the AAP leader has emerged as a symbol of the dynamics that are likely to shape the electoral battle in 2019. 

Regional chieftains are gathering forces to unify the opposition against one-party dominance. Their primary foe is the BJP which is currently ruling at the Centre. But their other target is the Congress and they are collectively squeezing the grand old party into giving up political space as the leader of an anti-Modi front. Regional satraps like Mamata Banerjee and Chandrababu Naidu are critical of the Modi government's high-handedness in dealing with the states. Mayawati and Shiv Sena, have joined the chorus. 

Kejriwal has cleverly added his voice, using his battle in Delhi as a springboard to catapult himself into frame. Down he may be and boxed into just one state that is nothing more than a glorified municipality, but Kejriwal is not someone who can be written off just yet.