Elections 2014, Built up - 5: AAP Delhi and after...

when a small group of persons challenge the status quo, all those who have benefited from the status quo will raise up and try to defeat them.

AAP has challenged the status quo in times when the only visible and most vocal persons who dominate the public discourse are those who have benefited from the status quo.

the supporters of AAP are those who watch the tamasha of the status quo-ists while retaining their own personal good will, aspirations and hopes pinned to AAP. they will even watch the lynching of AAP in the popular visual media, the shouting down of the AAPs meek and often mediocre presentations and defenders below the first layer of their leadership. however, the supporters are the people who sell chai today, they are the taxi drivers, richshaw pullers, bus drivers, railway workers, street vendors, school teachers, young IT professionals, farmers, housewives...the invisible constituency of Indian voters who will not join the cacophony of the status-quoists and silently send their message on the day of elections.

the biggest mistake for either the Congress or BJP is to estimate that the issues represented by AAP are now well and truly forgotten because they are no longer in power. The 'power-centric' view normally held by conventional politicians will make them believe that the aam aadmi has as limited a memory as they wish she has. the aam aadmi now has a party and the party is anything but insomniac.

the biggest mistake that AAP can make now is to sustain the mistake it has made so far, only one and a big one - allow the media and opposition to set the pace of operation of AAP. the party needn't allow the opposition or the expectation and anticipation of the media to set up the timelines for its own achievement of Swaraj. and, to limit Swaraj to merely the JanLokpal bill will be stupid.

gandhiji said in 1947 that, 'it will atleast take 75 years for us to get rid of the mental slavery of 150 years from our body politic', we are close enough, but, it will take at least 5 years to rid of the corruption piled up over the 60+ years of the current system and understanding of governance in this country.

each and every single debate that AAP had created in the short stint in Delhi is a deep question on the way Democracy is understood and implemented in this country and has challenged those who have continued to perpetuate the same, either as a solution or as a shield for corruption -
(a) what is the de-limits of the federal government, particularly in the issue of law and order in the state?
(b) does an ordinary Minister have the same right that every Panchayat leader and any sensible person in a neighbourhood has towards his neighbourhood - to reach a scene of suspected crime, call the authorities and seek immediate action? why is it that such rights commonly displayed by ordinary citizen is seen as 'vigilante' action coming from a Minister?
(c) why can't a Chief Minister head towards meeting the federal home minister without an appointment? why is it more important to have the 'ceremonial' jingoistic show-off of a parade more important than the practice of republic?
(d) are 'mature' and 'systematic' approaches synonymous with the governance methods displayed by the UPA and NDA before? if so, why is it that the Nation has seen some of the most corrupt practices in the world in the last 15 years?
(e) why does the Federal government need to approve on a simple legislation to ensure a transparent and corruption free local government? and why does the principle opposition support this position? does it mean that both UPA and NDA agree that the control to be corrupt needs to be centralized?

it is clear, status quo nahi chalega. the imagination of how a "people-centric and corruption-free government" can be has just been raised several notches higher than what anyone in this country in living memory has seen or dared. it leaves very little fig leaves for the current incumbents and the future aspirants to cover themselves with. the more they decry and try and defame the AAP and Kejriwal in the coming days during the built up to the Lok Sabha elections, the faster they will be shedding the remaining of their covers.

Indians love to sympathize and vote for the under-dog in any competition and just now the under-dog also happens to be dharmically correct one.