AAP’s ambivalent policies continue to haunt it

 My comments on AAP fielding candidates facing criminal charges.

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/epapermain.aspx?pgNo=6&edcode=820040&eddate=2014-4-04

The ADR report, which states that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), professed to be a party with ‘revolutionary zeal’, has fielded 15 candidates (out of its list of 78) with criminal cases, merely highlights its propensity to adopt all possible strategies to remain buoyant in the national political discourse. Ironically, it is the same AAP which had launched a crusade against corruption and had been invoking the need to have a clean political environment, which were seen as clinching factors for its impressive performance in the Delhi state assembly polls. This opened the floodgates of possibilities with its focus on issues that confront the day-to-day lives of the common people like the inclusion of a citizen-centric public discourse in the allocation of public resources like water and electricity, access to education and healthcare and confronting the corporate India over pricing of electricity and gas. However, its ambivalent policies which included vigilantism by its ministers, attempt to engage political rivals in street battles, studied silence on ideological issues and on representation of women continue to haunt it. The inclusion of candidates with criminal background must be seen in a broader perspective, since AAP in its quest to capitalize its short-term ‘sacrifice’ seeks to eye a national-level constituency. The party has become a safe haven for many aspirants including businessmen, artistes, journalists, NGO members and legal professionals who either had failed elsewhere or want to explore the new political platform. This has resulted in the present disconnect with its immediate constituency i.e. the aam aadmi.