Revolution with broom in hands: Is it the beginning of a new Indian monsoon?

Some media people described the historic victory of Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi as a revolution with broom in hands. Some compared it to the Arab Spring uprisings and hoped that this would be the beginning of a new Indian monsoon. One media lady asked Arvind Kejriwal,  “Congress and BJP accuse you of having no firm ideological ground.” His sudden reply was “But people like our ideology”. Yes, people liked the ideology of Aam Aadmi Party, the ideology of fighting the malice of corruption which has affected all parts of the body politic, the ideology for boosting the morale and self-respect of the ordinary people of India, ideology that detested the VIP treatment given to politicians, the ideology of helping in solving the day to day problems of the ordinary people ie. the aam aadmi. It has been clearly proved that ordinary people like you and me can also contest and win elections without the backing of a strong political party and sacks and sacks of money.

Party’s symbol, the broom was easily embedded in the minds of ordinary Indians. Broom is used by Indian women to clean their houses and courtyards in the mornings. There was no other symbol readily available and more effective than a broom to enthuse our women folk too. It was proved that a broom can be used not only for cleaning purpose alone but also for thrashing the  corrupt politicians  and make them run away for their life.

In the beginning conventional political parties criticized the style of functioning of the Aam Aadmi Party as NGO style (Non-governmental organizations). But people found this NGO style more acceptable than the conventional style of the other political parties. The conventional Left Parties are having their head quarters in the Capital of India for the last 60 years. But so far they were not able to penetrate into the slums, galys and colonies in Delhi and study the problems of the poor and fight to solve them. This created a political vacuum and into that political vacuum, the AAP has entered as an alternative political force making the Left Parties irrelevant.

The party started its campaign by pasting posters in the rear side of the auto-rikshas. Only three faces were in the posters, those of Congress CM Sheila Dikshit, BJP State President Vijay Goel and AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal. The caption on the poster was “Vote for the Honest”. No names were mentioned. It was proved that you can seek votes even without naming the people. When the Dikshit  government took action against auto-riksha drivers, they resisted the officials  with the help of AAP volunteers and thus they and their families became the first vote bank of the Aam Aadmi Party.

The election campaign started with posters in the back of Autos, went through Jhadu (broom) Chalavo marches and finally culminated in placing about 2000 hidden cameras in slums and colonies to watch other parties distributing liquor and money for votes. The cameras were managed by expert AAP volunteers. This prevented undesirable practices in the election. Thus the professional style of functioning and the methodical campaign tactics of AAP were very effective in Delhi

Eminent economist and Nobel laureate hailed AAPs victory in the words, “The Aam Aadmi Party’s rise is an important departure in Indian politics”. AAP believes not only in clean politics but clean business also. The mentor of Infosys N. R. Narayana Murthy, noted for his clean business practices, praised Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party for its victory in Delhi in the following words, “What Mr. Kejriwal and his party brought to the table is that if one has a few powerful messages, you can win elections with very little money. You can get a party ready fairly quickly to have a stunning debut. Arvind Kejriwal has also given great hope and confidence to a lot of people across various cities of the country to say that we too can participate in the political process.”  Former Union Minister in Vajpayee Government, Mr. Arun Shourie described the AAP victory as a stunning announcement for political parties that the people are fed up with them.

In 1987 I sided with late Sri. V.P. Singh and his Jana Morcha since I was convinced that it was a genuine movement for a value based politics. At that time I was almost sure that after the next election V.P. Singh will be India’s Prime Minister. This time I venture to predict that in 2014 AAP will have considerable presence in Parliament and will be a corrective force there and in 2019 Arvind Kejriwal will most likely be the Prime Minister of India.