DELHI NEEDS UNIFIED GOVERNANCE NOW
By Amulya Ganguli
The Delhi election outcome has been a learning exercise for the political parties. Immediate fallout of the results was the toning down of Arvind Kejriwal’s characteristically caustic observations in his Ramlila ground speech after being sworn-in as the Chief Minister.
Instead of the haughty self-righteousness, which used to mark the attitudes of virtually all Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) members, he was at pains to drive home the need to eschew arrogance and even appealed to the Almighty to keep him humble. How long he and the AAP members will be able to abide by this promise cannot be said for certain at a time when the ever-vigilant media will be constantly on the lookout for the slightest slip.
But, what the voters have at least ensured is that their overwhelming verdict will remind the fledgling party of the need to govern more than 49 days and also that a stint longer than their earlier foray into the Delhi secretariat will not be possible if the party does not behave responsibly. Implicit in the AAP’s promise during the campaign about ruling for five years was the admission of the folly of its earlier cavalier attitude towards governance.
However, considering that the AAP will encounter roadblocks in the implementation of many of its assurances in the manifesto, including full statehood for Delhi and free power for its citizens which has already been criticized by the prime minister, it is obvious that its patience will be sorely tested and that it will have to battle hard to suppress its anarchic instincts. But, the 67-3 score line cannot but keep it on the straight and narrow path of political correctness, at least for some time.
Even then, the fact that there may be more than one voice in the party can be gauged from the comment of Yogendra Yadav, the purported wise man of the organization, in a television interview that the party will be wary of hobnobbing with other parties since its formation was based on the popular revulsion against the entire political establishment. Yet, Kejriwal told the Ramlila ground audience that the AAP will consult the BJP and the Congress in matters of governance.
While the AAP will have to choose between pragmatism and romanticism, Kejriwal’s word at the rally, the BJP will have to come to terms with the ephemeral basis of its post-May, 2014, euphoria. Its in-house analysts may remind whoever cares to listen in the party that its Lok Sabha triumph was like scoring a goal in an empty field since the Congress was very much down and out at the time, as it is now. Moreover, the BJP won only 31 per cent of the popular vote which meant that 69 per cent were against it at the national level.
How effective the cold splash of the electoral rebuff had been was evident from the prime minister’s promptness in ordering the Delhi police commissioner to act against the vandals who ransacked a Christian school whereas earlier he had left it to Rajnath Singh (who recalls another home minister, the “spectacularly inept” Shivraj Patil, to quote Wikileaks) to make the routine ineffective noises about better protection.
The police commissioner, too, had been echoing the saffron charge that the series of attacks on Christian institutions were for the purpose of theft. However, there is now apparently a realization in the Modi government that the prime minister’s “dangerous silence” on the harassment of the minorities, as the New York Times has said, is electorally harmful. So, the various outfits of the Hindu extremists have had to abandon their campaigns against young men and women in Delhi on Valentine’s day because of “pressure” from above, as they regretfully said.
It is not only in domestic politics that Modi is showing signs of moderation. His reaching out to Pakistan on the pretext of the new foreign secretary visiting all SAARC countries is another indication. It is an initiative which cannot please the saffron hardliners who continue to spew venom against Pakistan and the Indian Muslims in cyber space.
If the AAP and the BJP are readjusting their tactics, the Congress, too, will have to “press the re-set button”, as its senior leader, Digvijay Singh has said. But, in a party, which is palpably at sixes and sevens, it is difficult to say what kind of a re-setting it will be. For instance, it is not easy to understand what Singh means when he says that although Rahul Gandhi wanted to “open the party up”, a la Kejriwal, he was not allowed to do so by “the establishment”.
In view of the belief that the mother-and-son “high command” runs the Congress to the sycophantic applause of party men, who comprises the “establishment”? Is there a rift between Sonia Gandhi and Rahul, considering that Singh also says that Rahul “does not want to impose his will on her because it will bring him into confrontation with her”. If Singh is to be believed, then the voters’ verdict may have a bigger impact on the Congress than on the two other parties. (IPA Service)