The latest fad in town is all about the Aam Aadmi Party and its poster boy Arvind Kejriwal. But what is much more important than the party is this concept of a more representative form of decision making. There is a limit to the tolerance of people and the rupture after the pent up silence was bound to shake a few things. The Big Bang moment in Indian politics will not last forever and there must be a plan to sustain this momentum in the future. The common man on the other hand should also manage there expectations and realise that this is not magic solution to all of our problems.
The biggest problem in front of AAP at the moment is to manage this huge momentum it is carrying forward. They are in a situation similar to a start-up that has seen phenomenal growth but is finding it difficult to maintain the quality at that scale. Managing such explosive growth is just as difficult as managing failure. This is going to be the deciding phase in the history of AAP. They could become either a Facebook that sustained high growth and transformed itself or an Orkut that couldn't sustain the momentum.
In the practical world if you try and please each and everyone you are doomed for sure. This is precisely the trap that the AAP finds itself in. They fear being the bad boys and want to be in the good books of everyone. They are trying to create a Utopian state, clearly not possible in the given situation. They rode on the aspirations of a huge population seeking redemption in a technocratic government. But such experiments have seen fatal consequences around the world, politics demands stern actions and not just populism.
The AAP's success was based on a unique combination of urban elite and rural poor, equally disgruntled by the corruption in our system. Beyond this binding thread, the two groups are strikingly different. The fissures are now beginning to emerge with their stand on matters like FDI in retail. The corporate honchos and the elite are evidently against their party's decision. Even more differences are bound to emerge once they make their stand on other policies clear.
Aam Aadmi Party might discover a lot many problems for itself in the future and may succeed or fail but this concept of "bottom-up" inclusive governance is gaining traction across the world. Beppe Grillo, the Intalian Comedian, has fought on very similar principles of direct and corruption free democracy. His "Five Star Movement" saw an unbelievable growth to being the largest party in 2013 general elections. The mayor of Jakarta, Indonesia, Joko Widodo also has a similar form of governing methods driven by austerity. Closer home we have people like Manohar Parrikar, the CM of Goa, who are challenging the elitist mindset associated with politicians in India. So the challenges might be huge but this is surely a period of churning in Indian politics. With the internet infrastructure improving in the country, the netizens are bound to gain strength changing the political picture in our country.
"Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers."
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