By all reckoning, the new government that is being installed in Punjab is different and it sends out some clear signals to the rest of India. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that rode to victory by eclipsing established entities like the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Congress and the BJP is promising to take power closer to the people. The AAP has already done this in Delhi through repeated terms of governance led by anti-corruption activist and Magsaysay award winner Arvind Kejriwal. His down-to-earth styles and positive frame of mind in tackling the basic problems of the people have won him both power and laurels. So far, AAP has been an impressive experiment.
The novelty about selection of a Chief Minister, the one who leads the governance of a state, before the start of the assembly poll campaign in Punjab gave the AAP a head-start. The people were given a chance by the party to choose their chief minister through a text-messaging process via their mobile phones. The result of this online poll was a foregone conclusion – that the state party chief Bhagwant Singh Mann would emerge as the people’s choice in view of his large fan-following as an entertainer on television and as a social activist. He needed no introduction. And, for what went wrong in the past as in his fancy for liquor, Mann has apologised. Punjab is a state dotted with taverns, beer parlours, which co-exist with grocery shops. Life there is fast-paced, fun-filled and easy-going. Drug addiction is wide-spread too, about which Mann has promised to reverse the trend. Mann proved a point when he had his swearing-in done at the paternal hamlet of revolutionary Independence hero, Bhagat Singh. A good start will however not be a guarantee to a smooth sail. Mann has no administrative experience but similar was the case with Narendra Modi when he started as Gujarat CM.
AAP is the only regional party that has power in two states now. This gives it a major clout. More than this, the party that functions on the anti-corruption platform and proved its mettle will, increasingly, have a universal appeal in the present Indian context of freewheeling corruption. The scenario is much worse today than when the anti-corruption movement was started a decade ago by Kejriwal and Anna Hazare. What gave AAP the acceptability in Punjab now is also the same; set against the corruption of the Congress and the SAD. However, one can only hope that the chemistry between Kejriwal and Mann will keep working to the advantage of the AAP and Punjab.
