There is a loose similarity between the story of Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal with that of Bhishma and Parashuram in Mahabharata. Bhishma had been given orders by his guru Parashuram to marry princess Amba after she had complained to him about the Kuru prince abducting him from the swayamvar to get her, along with her two sisters, married to his step-brother. But Bhishma respectfully turned down the order saying it was not possible for him to break his oath of celibacy, come what may.
This resulted into a fierce battle between the teacher and his disciple with the latter outsmarting the former. But Amba had not fogiven Bhishma and eventually succeeded in seeing his humiliation after reborning in a new avatar – of that of half-man Shikhandi since Bhishma had vowed not to fight with women.
Also read: MCD election 2017: Is this the end of Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party?
In this Mahabharata, Kejriwal ignored Anna Hazare's advice against forming a political party
In this Mahabharata, Kejriwal and his political mentor Hazare though did not have any physical clash but the latter certainly did not approve of the former's way of turning the anti-corruption movement which had gained steam in the early 2010s into a political party but had to concede to Kejriwal's will. But seeing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief getting reduced to a joke today, one would recall how disobeying the guru's order brought the great Bhishma and Kejriwal somewhat on the same pedestal.
The implosion in the AAP is just not another political failure. Parties take birth and perish in India like stars in the universe but as far as the AAP is concerned, it was not just a party but a new experiment. The AAP was expected to usher in a new dawn on India's worn-out politics. Even amid the Narendra Modi storm, the AAP was seen as many as a credible alternative.
But after former Delhi minister Kapil Mishra brought serious charges of corruption against the very man who was spearheading the platform coupled with a series of electoral debacles, one would believe that the AAP has been rendered ineffective now. Geography or history was never AAP's strong points but its ideology of cleanliness. With charges surfacing against the topmost leader, that strong point is strong no more.
Like the Janata and Left, the AAP experiment has also failed
The fall of the AAP has not just dashed the hopes for alternative politics in India but also put its future possibility under shadow. The AAP is not the first-ever failure of the experiment with alternative politics.
During the Indira Gandhi regime, the Janata experiment had occurred. The Left also rose around a people-centric politics around the same time. These were political reactions against the Congress system but eventually they failed.
The Janata government was done and dusted within three years while the Left, though stayed in power for 34 years, but was not pro-people any more and gave rise to a wide criticism. The AAP is the latest addition to the list and its failure has reiterated the pundits' claim that mainstream politics is ultimately a limited show and unable to bring any social transformation.
Kejriwal's ploy of shortcut to political success was always risky
One of the AAP's biggest drawbacks was its hasty functioning. Instead of strengthening the movement at a pan-Indian level, Kejriwal was more interested in joining the electoral fray, something which Hazare was not okay with. The shortcut to success itself was a disaster.
The AAP had received initial response in places like Bengaluru but since the top brass remained obsessed with Delhi politics, the prospect of the movement's decentralisation was neutralised at the very onset. Even the AAP's journey as a political party was never convincing, thanks to the drama that unfolded in the camp of 'AK49' and the debacle that it saw in the Lok Sabha election of 2014. If today, critics say the AAP was a project to divide anti-Congress votes of the day, one might not find it absurd. That's what its credibility has been reduced to.
The AAP's blunder was turning political from Day 1. Its leaders were never experienced in political games and could best be activists. But they found politics an attractive venture, given the perks that are attached to it, and jumped on to grab those, forgetting conveniently what it was actually eyeing for – a clean India.
Congress also ignored Mahatma Gandhi's advice and is paying the price today
The great Mahatma had understood this and advised a platform like the Congress to be dissolved after Independence. But his words were not heard and we are seeing today how the Grand-Old Party has paid the price of politics. The same happened with the AAP though much faster. Anti-Modism became the primary ideology of the AAP in no time.
Kejriwal never wanted to understand the fact that the BJP is not just a party but runs on a well-accepted ideology of cultural nationalism and is backed by a well-oiled machinery on the ground. Its current leadership has worked smartly to appropriate the spaces of both conservative and liberal minds by blending Hindutva with development politics.
The AAP, given its geographical and historical limitations, could never aspire to match the impact the BJP is having on the national socio-political discourse at the moment. Yet, Kejriwal decided to challenge Modi from Varanasi in the 2014 general polls and lost by a humiliating margin. What was the thinking behind the man contesting from Varanasi, a constituency the BJP had chosen for logical reasons?
Kejriwal always looked a mayor at best, even after the AAP demolished the BJP in the 2015 Delhi elections. That was the peak from where Kejriwal only slided because he had lost contact with the movement which had seen him scale the heights. With no experience in hard politics and governance, it was only a matter of time for a novice activist platform like the AAP to lose its way.
Kejriwal is a liability for the AAP now
The party's only option now lies in returning to the movement. However, given the common Indians' distaste for mantris and babus' hobnobbing with corruption, the latest charges against Kejriwal might have destroyed that option as well. Kejriwal is a liability for the party after all the failed theatrics and only by getting rid of him can the AAP renew its movement for corruption-free India.
But are the Aaam Aadmi willing to take it?
