AAP – a party led by Arvind Kejriwal rose through the political corridors rapidly as a symbol of change in Indian Politics. Rubbing on people’s wishful thinking of the clean, anti-corruption vigilante brigade. A party known to be built by volunteers who left their plush jobs to join the party, people who left their lives behind to bring a difference in the country. To clean politics from its miredness, hypocrisy and corruption.
It was this emotionally heightened movement for millions of people across the country to see someone rising as their symbol of hope for clean politics. They came out, like never before to support the new ray of hope, poster boy of the moment Arvind Kejriwal and his team. They left their houses, their jobs, their businesses and joined hands to clean up the system that was eroding the Indian political system. Making this man – Arvind Kejriwal and his team – powerful, transforming him into a leader.
With great power comes great responsibilities, while heroes keep their spine and values in forefront to honor this commitment. Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP team are succumbing under this responsibility, thus crumbling dreams and aspirations of thousands of supporters and volunteers. People who left their homes behind to help this ideology to power, are now finding themselves at a crossroads, where they are fighting with their heroes to safeguard their dreams and failing miserably.
The ideology on which the very foundation of AAP has been built is rotting to the core gradually; both internal and external operating process of AAP is becoming highly questionable, mired with controversies and with Delhi MCD seat announcement has further laid a fatal blow to the very survival of the ideology or whatever is left within the Aam Aadmi Party. Ticket distribution has shaken the thousands of volunteers, who now feel cheated, with years of man-months they invested are now facing the challenge of fighting the demon they nurtured.
MCD election ticket announcement by the AAP party reflects some of the insights that are really strangest things to see even by the standards of other political parties so far. It is alleged by the volunteers that the party sold tickets to families, the dynasty politics they stood against to fight. A family of MLA, his daughter-in-law and daughter are fighting for councilors within Delhi. Seat allocation is becoming a family business where bidders with the highest bid get the allocation. They have not fielded even one of their 70 Vidhan Sabha coordinators in Delhi and making the very position meaningless, today there are no takers of this position in AAP. It’s a common feeling amongst volunteers that AAP is using them for dharnas and holding placards only and selling tickets to highest bidders to candidates who are not even aware of how to fight this election. Thus raising a very serious question about AAP – Is AAP fighting the MCD election to lose?
It is clearly evident from the profiles of the fielded candidates that party has no interest in winning these seats, which sounds like real murkiness brewing in these insights, a repelling possibility is not far weather AAP is negotiating a deal of the aspirations of people of Delhi to get its top leadership off the hook of so many investigations and charges to maintain its clean image.
Senior leadership is witnessing an exodus. Volunteers and people who have been working for years are finding themselves choked in the new environment. Several of these leaders are now able to bear what AAP has become or how badly the party has led the expectations of people down.
One of the senior leaders who has been instrumental in many election wins including one of Raghav Chaddha and Durgesh Pathak themselves. She has just put down her papers from senior position of state team, she reflected in her resignation:
“AAP is becoming like the political system India is already mired with – where is the change AAP promised people?
In a quick conversation with her, Monika Miglani, who has been Vice President and Prabhari of two Delhi zones informs our team:
“I have decided to put down my resignation as I choke in the polluted political environment of AAP, as citizens of Delhi are choking outside.”
Coming from a leadership team, these are the most powerful statements from people who have invested almost a decade of their lives to nurture a dream only to see their heroes falling down badly, miserably. She is not the only one from stateleadership team who has resigned, AAP is seeing a slew of resignations from various sections of the party, where they feel discontent, and bitter that party is using them without retrospectively recognising their efforts.
AAP is an ideology that is deteriorating badly to the core, and it’s only a matter of time they will fall like Congress if they do not fix these pillars – volunteers and people’s expectations of honest leadership. Question is, whether AAP is willing to make those corrections or they just nurtured this dream of people long enough, only to use them as they are using the team of thousands of volunteers for holding placards and as crowd raw materials.
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The opinion expressed in the article is of the writer. Writer is a freelance journalist/journalist based in Delhi
