Sunday, December 08, 2013

Now you know what voting can do

I break my blogging silence to feel a bit smug about an argument I had made in the last post many moons ago during the Jan Lokpal movement. I had written and argued against majority opinion the following.

"India is a democratic republic with a constitution. And the only way to measure representation in a democracy is through elections. We can debate about what type it needs to be (a parliamentary or presidential), but free and fair elections are the only way someone can claim representation. Irrespective of virtue and deeds, nobody can claim representation unless he or she has won an election. So for Anna Hazare, who has not bothered to contest even a local election, to claim that he represents the people is both flawed and dangerous. History is littered with graveyard of revolutions that trusted a few good men. Now apparently many of his middle class/elitist followers and he himself has claimed that there is no use contesting an election because poor and illiterate people are bought during elections. This view displays ignorance at best and an utter contempt for the poor at worst. It ignores the aspirational value for a better job, better education , better health that the poor have repeatedly attached to their vote and kicked out governments (You need not look beyond Bihar). And corruption which has so enraged the urban middle class affect the poor more than anybody else. So irrespective of the cause or the solution (even if it is good) no one has a right in a democracy to impose a view or a bill through blackmail"

The stunning and unexpected debut of AAP has proved me right. It is refreshing to see a uniform vote cutting across caste and class lines to a new political alternative. It shows the strength and resilience of democracy. Despite enormous entry barriers a new and refreshing idea can take hold purely on volunteering effort shows what Democracy can achieve. A big congratulations to Aravind Kejriwal and his team for pulling of an almost miracle. Whether this could be replicated across the country is an open question but the effort is well worth it.

Despite all of the above I am not a fan of AAP. For me politics is all about ideas. Ideas are profoundly important. Apart from radical decentralization (which is a bit impractical to the level AAP proposes but nonetheless good) what AAP is selling is essentially a socialist paradise. It doesn't surprise me, as all of the executive committee of  AAP are essentially communists. I know these are early times and governing may temper some of the tendencies. It will be also interesting to see how the urban middle class followers of AAP will reconcile to this ideology once reality of governance forces the leadership to take difficult decisions. For example Yogendra Yadav is staunch believer in Mandal Politics and was one of the strongest supporters of OBC reservation ( which many of the people I know who are supporting AAP strongly disagree with). How does it reconcile with soft Naxalism and frankly Islamism of  Prashanth Bhushan?. These are all issues that the party will face once the idealism gives way to reality of governance.

That is the reason I think AAP is a better placed  to get the governance experience at the local body and Panchayat level where it can create real change before plunging into National politics. In any case India can ill afford to waste another 5 years. Despite all his flaws Narendra Modi is the only guy who is at least talking of center right agenda (though not out rightly) of minimum government and is the only credible national alternative in 2014.

 AAP phenomenon is great and welcome, but hopefully people don't get carried away and create a mess in 2014 in one of most important elections of India’s history. Fun times ahead.

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