The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is trying to expand its footprint beyond its cradle of Delhi. It is also seeking to capitalise on its success in Punjab, where it formed a government earlier this year, and which boosted that ambition. The party is now eyeing Gujarat, where the contest between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress went down to the wire in 2017, and elections are due later this year. AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal is spending a lot of time in the State in the hope of displacing the Congress to emerge as the prime challenger to the BJP, which has been in power since the 1990s. The BJP faces significant anti-incumbency though the Hindutva sauce that it dishes out generously made it more palatable than the Congress all this while. Mr. Kejriwal has an expanding catalogue of promises for Gujaratis. He has now promised a fully paid pilgrimage for Gujaratis, mainly senior citizens, to Ayodhya, after being labelled by the BJP as ‘anti-Hindu’. Mr. Kejriwal has never lost an opportunity to wear his Hindu credentials on his sleeve, but suddenly found himself on the back foot after Rajendra Pal Gautam, a Minister in AAP’s Delhi government — he has since resigned — took part in a gathering of Ambedkarites recently, where they had pledged to disown Hindu religion and its deities. Mr. Kejriwal gave the Dalit leader his marching orders.
The expulsion of the Dalit leader from the AAP Council of Ministers in Delhi is in contrast with the complete backing that Mr. Kejriwal continues to offer another Minister who remains in office while being in jail on corruption charges. Therein lies the fundamental challenge to AAP’s national plan. The party had fashioned itself as an anti-corruption platform that offered good governance, transparency and accountability. Devoid of any organisational structure or political programme, AAP had adopted an all-embracing welfarism to entice voters. As time passes, this politics, projected as ideology-free, is unravelling, though its potency still remains a major threat to both the Congress and the BJP. These two parties are targeting AAP on its governance record, corruption, and capacity. Central agencies and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi are methodically cornering the Aam Aadmi Party. Mr. Kejriwal has been brazening it out until now, but the barb of being ‘anti-Hindu’ appears to have shaken him. He has been wearing an Ambedkar badge alongside a Hindutva label, but the attempt to be all things to all people was never going to be sustainable. AAP’s capacity to be a radical platform for change or a challenge to divisive forces is faltering with its shaky governance record, subservience to Hindutva and brazen resistance to scrutiny.
