Win and Lose

The Aam Aadmi Party’s duplicitous rise in Punjab

- SHIV INDER SINGH

ONE EVENING IN 2014, shortly before the Lok Sabha election, the Aam Aadmi Party took out a campaign procession for its candidate Harinder Singh Khalsa, in Punjab’s Ludhiana district. People from all walks of life participated in the procession. “Kadi haan karke, kadi hun karke, vote jhaadu nu pa de lambi baanh karke”—Say yes sometimes, no sometimes, but come on, extend your hand to vote in favour of the broom— went the slogan, referring to the AAP’s election symbol. It continued: “The nation must change, so must Punjab, and also this deceitful raj.”

Dozens of young people were a part of the procession, joyfully raising slogans and singing songs. Jaswinder Singh, a young man who was part of the crowd, told me that he had begun campaigning for the AAP with friends in his village. “Initially, village leaders belonging to traditional parties tried to stop us, but when we did not stop, other people of the village also started joining us,” he said. “Brother, I don’t even know Harinder Singh Khalsaji very well, but we saw AAP and Kejriwal in Delhi for 49 days.”