It is difficult to remember now that in the dark days of the decline of the UPA, with rampant corruption, inflation and slowdown in growth, the one solid ray of hope was the Aam Aadmi Party. Born in the wake of the Anna Hazare movement, it was not dynastic, not hung up on religion and seemed modern.
It was everyone’s favourite. Those who had never thought of joining a political party wanted to join the latest, if not the first, modern grassroots party in India. The message was clear. Rahul Gandhi took note and promised to learn from its success. Only the AAP stood between the BJP and the end of secular democracy in India. Or so we thought.
Its success in the first Delhi elections it contested was modest, but the logjam between the Congress and BJP brought it to office. Its behaviour in office was juvenile. Arvind Kejriwal could not stop being oppositionist. It was reluctant to use the power it had and wanted to lead a perennial revolt against unknown elements. Kejriwal became a one-man protest machine. Then he spectacularly resigned, in a feat of self-indulgence.
Despite this gesture, the AAP was hopeful of success in the general elections of 2014. It tried too fast, too much. As a grassroots party, it did not follow its own experience, that it takes time to build a party from below. It fielded candidates where it had no previous presence. It nominated candidates by size of their Twitter following. Kejriwal himself overestimated his standing in national politics and stood against Modi in Varanasi. The only effect was to split the anti-Modi vote. The result was humiliation in Varanasi and modest success in Punjab, but nowhere else.
Surprisingly, the election in Delhi brought the AAP back with a giant majority. The collapse of the Congress in Delhi benefited the AAP. Wherever you went in Delhi in those days, the poorer and struggling people told you Kejriwal was their only hope. They were promised mohalla-level democracy with health clinics, decent public transport, better schools and public sanitary arrangements.
Delhi was to be a model welfare state. At least as far as Delhi was concerned, it was the AAP versus the BJP. But once again, the confrontational style so loved by Kejriwal stood in the way of solid progress. He picked fights with the Lieutenant Governors and the Union Government. There were some solid achievements but they fell far short of the promises.
The disease is overweening ambition. The Punjab elections showed this. Kejriwal openly promised to be Chief Minister of Punjab if his party got a majority. This was a blatantly irresponsible gesture towards the people of Delhi who had voted for him. It told them he did not value them as Delhi was too small for his ambition.
The AAP has disappointed though not failed yet. But there is a bigger question here. Why is it difficult in India, even after 70 years of democracy, to build non-dynastic grassroots parties which can start modestly at a regional level before wasting their limited strength on larger national ambition? Had the AAP demonstrated that a local party can genuinely deliver good, clean governance, it would have been unique. As it is, it is just one more party with a top-heavy, over-ambitious leadership.