AAP fiasco: Is Kejriwal losing his ‘Vishwas’?

Both, Arvind Kejriwal and AAP, owe their political birth to a hugely popular movement.

With the latest controversy over the corruption allegations made against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, by Kapil Mishra, who was till recently a minister in the Delhi government, coming to light, the appearance of the Aam Aadmi Party losing the plot seems to be fast becoming reality.

But, barely two years after coming to power with an unprecedented majority in the state of Delhi, this was not the way it was supposed to be. This was the time when the party should have been gaining momentum to take a tilt at the elections for the central government in 2019.

Instead, Arvind Kejriwal seems to be in a fight to keep his house in order, and it is seemingly turning out to be losing the battle as the party has slowly lost most of its visible leadership due to one reason or the other.

And these problems will exist till the reasons which were the cause of the success of its anti-corruption movement against the UPA government, which gave birth to the political party but now seem to have become a bane to its government and the party itself, continue to do so.

An unequal share of the pie

The campaign that brought with it the massive support of the people and which eventually led to the AAP coming to power with an unprecedented majority in the state was led by the social activist Anna Hazare.

It was under his leadership that other leaders like Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Shazia Ilmi, Kiran Bedi, Kumar Vishwas, along with Kejriwal, and Manish Sisodia, who is now the deputy chief minister of Delhi, worked and made the campaign a rousing success.

Though most of these leaders had more than impressive credentials of their own, the fact that it was Kejriwal who was the point man of the campaign is no secret. But this was accepted on the basis that Hazare will be its visible face and its leader, which also turned out to be the reason that such an arrangement succeeded.

But as soon as Hazare decided not to be a part of the party, the arrangement was supposed to change or at least was expected to by the other top leaders. All top leaders were to get a say and responsibility in how the party and its government was supposed to run, with a special attention to the promises made during the campaign and before coming to power,

It did change, but not how it was thought it would by others. Kejriwal soon replaced Hazare and became the face of the party and it turned into a game of one leader against the rest. And the party, which was to be different from all others in the way of its functioning and also not to be based on a single personality similar to how the anti-corruption movement was run, became just what it had promised it would not.

That is the reason that most of the leaders who have left the party have called the autocratic style of Kejriwal's leadership and the behaviour of his coterie, the main reason behind their decision.

With many of the other leaders, except the chief minister and his deputy, becoming spectators and having no option but to leave as no visible efforts were made to keep them in the party.

'One foot out of the door' thinking

Being born out of movement which the party calls revolutionary, had another drawback. The rise of the party was instant and did not follow the slow evolutionary process which leads to a stable foundation and a group of more mature political leaders.

A source in the party once said it would be okay if the people do not want us, we do not gain anything from politics so we can always go back to what we were doing.

While it was meant as a quality that they have not gained illicit benefits in office, or from the party's hold in Delhi, and are just in politics to serve the people, such an approach and attitude also carries with it an inherent risk. A risk, which seems to be failing the party ever since it came to power.

Though such an attitude can reduce the chances of corruption, it can also lead to 'one foot out of the door' attitude that leads to an absence of any serious long-term thinking towards governance and seriousness towards the party.

Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav, Shazia Ilmi, Kiran Bedi among others have left Kejriwal. Even two out of the four MP's that the party has in the Lok Sabha want nothing to do with the party and its leader.

Whether they like it or not, its leaders have to understand that they are part of a political party and not wanting to behave like other parties, should only mean not taking their corrupt habits and copying their mistakes, but not to forget how political parties and governments function.

With the leaders of the party always ready to leave and many if not all, not being career politicians, they have a very short term view and this can lead to them easily being enticed by greener fields on the other side, whether in or out of politics depends on each individual case.

BJP is no Congress and will punish AAP's immature politics

When the anti-corruption movement succeeded, the main opposition to it was a Congress party which was laden with corruption charges. And even when AAP rode to power with a thumping majority in 2015, it had successfully challenged and defeated the Modi wave that the BJP was riding on after the 2014 general elections.

But, unlike Congress, which turned out to be an easy opposition and did not learn from what it did wrong, the BJP is quick to learn from its mistakes. Further, the BJP, which is now again riding a huge wave in support of the prime minister which was proven in the drubbing it gave to the AAP, in its own backyard in the recently concluded municipal elections, will not just idly sit back and wait to get stronger while its opposition withers away or has a chance to regroup.

It will not just be satisfied by getting stronger but will be more than happy to do so at its opponents cost. It will not only welcome leaders from the opposition, especially the AAP, it will also try to entice leaders to its own side.

This is aided by its opposition parties, which keep displaying signs of immature politics such as letting its top leaders leave easily.

The AAP being especially guilty of such mistakes. In a political party, especially one as young and small in size, as it's, not every leader that disagrees with the happenings of the party can be thrown out.

It is well known that not all leaders of the party are happy with the power that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah enjoy it. A fact that must be well known to the two leaders but it does not mean such leaders are shown the door. Political party's, especially successful ones do not work like that.

Kejriwal needs to understand politics and to showcase such a quality of leadership.

Though the latest allegations of corruption on him following Mishra's dismissal will be hard to truly believe even for his critics, whether right or wrong, but in the real world being incorruptible is not good enough to get votes and be considered a good leader. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is a case in point.

But this seems to be a lesson that Kejriwal seems adamant not to learn. A leader that one-day wants to lead a whole country first needs to be able to keep its flock together and eventually increase its strength.

The troubles are far from over

The poet, Kumar Vishwas, is the latest top leader of the party, who has been one of the prominent faces since its inception, to air out his grievances and seemed destined to quit the party. But Kejriwal was able to stop it from happening, at least for the moment.

This should be considered a very good sign for the supporters of the party. For the first time, its top leader showed a sign a political maturity that has been absent till now.

But the problem with such an open display of grievances is that the relation between them are never going to go back to normal, And the chances of an airing of more dirty laundry in public remain high.

In the case of Vishwas, it seemed Kejriwal had secured some sort of a political maturity. By making such a public effort to keep him in the party, he had made sure that if Vishwas decides to eventually leave, the chances of accusation of the chief minister being an autocrat that will follow such an event, will hold less ground with the people.

But the change in Kejriwal's attitude seems have either been short-lived or not real, as the handling of the ejection of Mishra from the Delhi government seems to have agitated Vishwas again and it is doubtful that the last in this matter has been heard.

The political plot is thickening and will keep becoming so as the opposition smells blood. It is time for a political fight which the AAP needs to fight with tools that are drastically different from the ones used by its leaders in the campaign that gave them their beginning in politics.

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