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Sunday, November 25, 2012

The Birth and Infancy of the Aam Aadmi Party of India: Are We Going To Have A Better Alternative ?

Soon all common people of India are going to be benefited by yet another political party which is promising them to exclusively work for the eradication of corruption from the Indian soil.

Just like millions of silent citizens of this country, I too have been silently watching the transformation of 'India Against Corruption (IAC)' Movement to the Aam Admi Party of India  (भारतीय आम आदमी दल ) which means the common man's party of India.

I was hopefully thinking that the think tank of this movement would select some better nomenclature for this new party as all parties in India routinely claim that they are parties for the 'aam admi' (common man). Incidentally the oldest political party of democratic India has made that point clear by stating that the word 'aam admi' is something reserved for them.

But as things proceed this way, I am a bit confused to realize what this 'aam admi' actually represent.

Is it the middle class people ? They are the people who feel the pain of corruption and also accept corruption as a way of life in India. Because, they have pretty no choice. After all they are practical people ! If voting percentages are any indication, nearly 50 % of Indian people do not exercise their franchise for various reasons. A majority of them are from the middle class. The middle class also represents the working class and a major strength of the working population in the organized sector are government employees. They are beneficiaries of corruption in some way and are victims of corruption in some other way. Then with this major vote bank typically abstain from voting, no political party, in the normal sense are going to benefit from them. So, I presume that the Aam Admi Party too has excluded them.

Is it the rich people ? I don't think. Of course, some of the rich might or could provide financial support for the new party, that would not make up the votes for any one to make any real impact.

Is it those people just above and below the BPL (below poverty line) ? But then, this class is already divided between all the aam admi parties of India. What way the new party would attract them ? Of course it can make further divisions of their votes and cause unpredictable results, just what has been happening for quite some time in India. That makes the necessity for alliances and adjustments for all parties, forgetting all their manifestos and ideologies. The sole big reason for corruption in India !

So what is going to happen. A party formed for freeing India from corruption is unwittingly going to be an agency to perpetuate corruption !

A situation faced by all parties in India !

Unless all citizens of the country, rich, middle class or poor, upper caste or lower caste, that religion or this religion, working or non working, capitalists or consumers, men or women, find some confidence in the democratic system of government and feel comfortable to exercise their franchises, no party in India hence forth can think of getting a clear democratic mandate to steer the country.

They may be able to draw crowds here and there but those would not translate into any clear mandate to rule.

If any party make some honest attempt to get the confidence of the majority of people from all classes of people, that party is going to lead.

So the party should first represent the citizens of the country, not just one class labelled as the aam admi.

Who can make all walks of the citizens feel proud of the country ?

At least the party should declare that they are going to work for the citizens of the nation, regard less of their class, caste or religion.

No one should assume that the poor citizens are always looking for some alms that the parties hand out during the elections or the gimmicks of pleasing some one by making always changeable policies.

The poor people also have thinking minds. Keep playing with that they will permanently lose their confidence in the system. The system called democracy. It is absolutely erroneous to think that poor people of India now have no self pride !

Similar is the case with all other classes of citizens.

Any country remains as a country so long as all the people of the country feel the pride of being a citizen of that country. When that binding force is weakened, the country starts disintegrating !

Why can't we think of having a Citizens' Party of India ( भारतीय नागरिक दल ) ?

But that would abbreviate as CPI or the Communist Party of India, which miserably failed to keep the working class of India united even after in power here and there for decades. What it achieved during these years is creating some recognizable faces and breakaway parties!

So, perhaps Aravind Kejariwal and his co-activist leaders have found out the right name for the new party: the Aam Aadmi Party or AAP.

I have been watching the birth and infancy of this Party. As a common citizen of the country, I had seen the birth , infancy  and powerful youth days of a few other parties of India earlier. If past experience is any thing, I cannot be that optimistic and that is perhaps the case with many others like me.

But, AAP is a bit different in its origin. It has not taken birth by virtue of any oratory skills of any one individual! On the other hand, it has its origin on the spontaneous reactions of the frustrations of the common people of India. AAP would not have taken birth, had those clinging to power drawn from the people been a bit more responsive to the voices of the people!

When I read the Constitution of Aam Aadmi Party from the Aam Aadmi Party website, I have a feeling that this could be the party that is going to lead the country in the near future. 

The call by this common man's party for alms to sustain it to fight out the big money power of vested interests have been getting unprecedented response from the Indian citizens. Crores of rupees have already been donated by the people already to this party which is just making its maiden effort make its existence known in the Indian capital as a first step. If it goes this way, AAP does not have to resort to funding from corrupt means and probably show to the other parties what democracy actually is!

That is going to become a major change. Candidates who are aspiring to become elected leaders need not spend huge money any more. That could be funded by the Party from the people's voluntary donations. There is no big urge for the individual representatives of the people to take back their expenditure by corrupt means any more! This situation alone is going to bring down corruption in any democratically elected government to a substantial degree.

Of course, AAP is going to be a challenge to all those vested interests who might fight back with full force adopting all means when they perceive imminent danger to their positions from this infant party.

But history of this world shows that any one who dared to use unfair means against the people had perished miserably. 

In any case, India is now potentially sitting at a key juncture with regard to survival of its democratic system of governance.

Let us hope that finally true democracy would begin to appear in this country for good!

3 comments:

  1. How many educated people are in India? Whatever the number be. I urge all indians who are fed up of being taken for granted or are too lazy to give a fitting reply to the uneducated so called leaders in the parliament, please stand up now and at least give his party a chance. Its better than electing the scoundrels again. Do your bit this time, we have social media, please encourage others to give kejriwals party a chance so that India may finally see a good governance. Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Let us hope the educated people of India wake up finally !

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  2. I am happy that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) of India is getting the much desired prominence in Delhi where it was born. Let us hope earnestly that this party and its prominent leaders would work for India even when they finally get power in their hands, unlike those others who failed to do so in the past!

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