THE Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won the confidence vote in the Delhi Assembly and is now secure in the saddle. But it faces daunting challenges. It leans on the support of the Congress which was once its enemy and now at best ambivalent. The BJP is in the opposition but is the single largest party. The floor test showed the inherent contradictions in the present political arrangement in Delhi. Actually it is an Assembly split into three. The AAP will be hard put to prove its identity in the face of the threats from the opposition and the so-called ally. Curiously enough, although it is so precariously perched in Delhi, the AAP wishes to spread its wings to other states. Is strength derives from the fact that the two major parties are riddled with corruption. But what the AAP proved in campaigning, it may not do in governing. Policy making is based on deals which are not governed by considerations of good and evil. It is not possible to spring instant results on voters. The AAP looks like making tall promises but their fulfillment is very much in doubt.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal knows that time is of the essence. His government has made two significant promises- free water up to 667 litres a month and halving of electricity bills for all. How will he combat the problem of inequitable distribution of water and rampant leakage? The poor without metered connection will be left high and dry. The AAP’s cut in power tariff is based on the assumption that the previous government and private distribution companies together inflated bills. But the AAP has not yet done the promised audit. The fiscal situation is sound. But if the new government goes for a spate of subsidies, the advantage will be lost preventing it from substantiating is pledge to be transparent and accountable.
