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Crisis Upon Crisis: Why AAP Needs To Take A Hard Look At Its 'Alternative' Politics

Arvind Kejriwal has called Manish Sisodia's arrest 'dirty politics' and claimed that the AAP will only emerge stronger from this

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. (Photo: Reuters)
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. (Photo: Reuters)

The arrest of Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is not a small crisis for the Aam Aadmi Party, as it faces a galore of challenges now, barely months after it became the country's ninth national party. With two of its top ministers, Satyender Jain and Manish Sisodia, behind bars for alleged money laundering and policy irregularities, the party that came into being riding on an anti-corruption wave needs to take a hard look at its model of 'alternative politics' for its own survival.

Among the thickest confidants of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal since his days as an RTI activist, Sisodia, who was arrested by the CBI on Sunday for his alleged role in the liquor policy case, is in charge of 18 key departments in the Delhi government, including finance, home, and health. He is central not just to AAP's expansion plans but has also become the face of the Delhi model of governance, focusing mainly on the transformation of government schools and bringing radical changes in the way children are taught in schools. Sisodia's arrest comes at a time when AAP was gearing up to expand in Congress-ruled Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, as well as in Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka, where the BJP is in power at present, and also in J&K.

Kejriwal has called Sisodia's arrest "dirty politics" and claimed that the AAP will only emerge stronger from this, while the BJP said the buck doesn't stop at Sisodia and that Kejriwal would be the next to go in. The AAP will also hold a nationwide protest on Monday to oppose the arrest.

However, the question now is: Can the AAP, which made history of sorts in 2015 by winning 67 of 70 seats in Delhi just months after the BJP's landslide victory in the Lok Sabha polls of 2014, turn the tables on the BJP? Particularly when it is no longer the disrupter that it used to be but very much the establishment in the capital.

Both Jain and Sisodia have been instrumental in what the AAP calls the successful Delhi model focused on education and health, and it is the absence of these trusted bigwigs that will pose challenges for Kejriwal. While his immediate task is to find Sisodia's replacement, distribute his portfolios, and present the Delhi budget, the party would also need to strike a balance between delivering effective governance in the capital and fine-tuning its political messaging.

An urgent challenge is also the party's handling of Punjab, where it won a landslide victory last year. A series of incidents since have put the party on the back foot, as questions are already being raised about the state government being remote-controlled by Delhi. The Bhagwant Mann government in Punjab was also criticised for being ineffective against Khalistani elements in the state after supporters of a radical leader overran a police station near Ajnala last week.

Need For A Broader Ideological Base

Till now, AAP’s poll plank was centered around the development and populist measures in Gujarat, Goa, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh, and the party's convenient disdain for a clear articulation on ideology appeared more like a strength than a vulnerability. But that may not work now. The party had always shied away from difficult questions on ideology, making it clear that it was respectful of faith but largely invested in pragmatic politics centered around making the lives of the poor better.

Kejriwal had said in Gujarat that, as an engineer, his job was to find solutions and that his party had only "kattar-imaandaar" (extremely honest) and desh bhakt (patriots). The party played its politics smartly, though. During the Delhi anti-CAA protests, Kejriwal remained distant from Shaheen Bagh, but party leader Amanatullah Khan won from Okhla with a huge majority, showing the Muslim community backed the party despite its ambivalence on issues related to them. In 2020, the AAP won Delhi, losing just seven seats, making it clear that the BJP in Delhi has to work a lot harder to counter the AAP.

Those interested in Delhi politics often remark how the BJP in Delhi has been reduced to an "MCD party," while the AAP is establishing its influence in every nook and cranny of the capital. One only sees the gulf widening between the parties, with the latter investing heavily in its second line of vocal leaders such as Saurabh Bharadwaj, Sanjeev Jha, Sanjay Singh, and others. The AAP today is the ruling party in both Delhi and Punjab, and it won two seats and a 6.3% vote share in Goa and five seats in Gujarat last year, cornering up to 12.9% of the votes in the state.

Jain’s arrest came as a major setback to the party before the polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Photographs of Jain getting a massage in the jail and eating fruits became an integral part of the BJP's attack on AAP in Gujarat. Despite all this, the party is making a place for itself on the political centre stage, particularly by changing the way welfare politics and the delivery of public services are being discussed. A section of society backs it, but nationally it lacks the critical mass needed to win elections.

Unlike the BJP, which was driven by the Ram temple movement, the Dravidian parties, which have the strength of a social welfare-focused Dravidian ideology, or the RJD, JD(U), or SP, whose leaders came from anti-emergency, socialist backgrounds, the AAP grew out of the anti-corruption movement, and PM Narendra Modi is the only one who still stands by that plank.

While there is no doubt that it needs a clearer, broader ideological base to survive, the party would do well to remember that it entered politics claiming the moral high ground on corruption and development, making it naturally part of oppositional politics. Both the Congress and BJP are equally wary of Kejriwal, as he poses a threat to both of them, and they would rather have AAP crumble because of its own failures in governance or being accused of corruption.

Although the AAP has accused the BJP of misusing the central investigation agencies to implicate its leaders in false cases to defame the party, the BJP leaders believe that the CBI-ED's actions aren’t negatively impacting them and that the party's voter base is neutral or in favour of it. Hence, the AAP today needs political allies, if not friends, who can endorse the party's politics of populist promises and stand by it during times like this.

With the exception of TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, Kejriwal has been seen building personal relationships with many opposition leaders, including Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, and Makkal Neethi Maiam Kamal Haasan. But to remain true to the "badlaav (change)" narrative on which it rode to power, the party needs to redefine its approach to oppositional politics and build a stronger ideological base for itself while responding convincingly to charges of corruption.

Vasudha Venugopal is Editor, Politics at BQ Prime