Is There A Future For AAP?

AAP was not just another party. It came not as a regional force or a lobby—it deigned to be a universal alternative to everything. If the promise is fading, it must examine the mirror, not just the EVM.

 

- Purushottam Agrawal

MUNICIPAL elections are usually dull city-page affairs, scarcely known to generate the kind of excitement we witnessed this week over the one in Delhi. The results are on intriguing, yet expected lines. Why intriguing? Because, really, no objective assessment can ignore the good work done by the AAP government in education and health. On the other hand, not even the most diehard BJP supporter can defend its dismal performance over the last ten years in the civic bodies. Moreover, the BJP itself implicitly accepted the validity of non-performance and corruption charges by not repeating its sitting members. So, what lies behind this perplexing situation of non-performance being richly rewarded?

In the characteristically simplistic, in fact motivated discourse so dominant in the media, it’s just Modi magic all the way. The fact, however, is that this magic is not based on any performance miracles, but is a joint venture of the BJP and large sections of the media. Many TV channels are openly working as BJP channels, some of them going to the extent of ‘analysing’ the new UP CM’s papaya and drinking water, while completely blacking out initiatives and decisions taken by, say, the Amarinder Singh government in Punjab. The Congress returning with three-fourths majority in Punjab and AAP coming second (even if with only 20 seats) might as well have never happened. Nor was there any probing of the ways through which the BJP retained power in Goa. In all fairness, the BJP must never forget to thank these sections of the media, which have left L.K. Advani’s old quip about bending and crawling far behind and have been enthusiastically contributing to the making of cult Modi, and now lately also cult Yogi.