New Delhi, Dec 15-31, 2013

EMERGING WORLD

Aam Aadmi Party Hopes to Sweep Away the Filth From Politics
New Delhi: When fledgling Aam Aadmi party was alloted broom as its poll symbol just 100 days back, there may have been ominous signs for Congress which ruled Delhi for 15 straight years if one went by some historic broom lore. And Arvind Kejriwals AAP, which had its roots in the civil societys historic anticorruption movement spearheaded by Gandhian Anna Hazare that brought government on its knees in mid-2011, made an old tale come true for the one-year-old party. According to an old American folklore, if you place a broom on the floor, it will indicate to your guests that they have stayed long enough. Besides the symbolic message it conveys, the broom may perhaps be the engineer-turned-IRS officers way of telling three-time Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit that she has been staying in office for long and that it was time to leave. AAP, the underdog, had pledged during the launch of the party a year back that it was here to stay as a political party and change the way politics is done in the next 20 years. Mainstream parties often poked fun at broom-wielding AAP leaders and workers but they extracted a sweet revenge. A contemptuous message was also posted about the anti-corruption activism in the country by Sonia Gandhis son-in-law Robert Vadra who wrote on his Facebook page: Mango people in banana republic. The AAP, which was built on idealism and brought together disparate groups on a platform to fight corruption, had submitted broom, candle and tap as its three most preferred symbols in the order of priority. Price rise was also high on AAPs agenda. The symbol of broom also went along with the partys slogans of cleaning the polity of corruption amid a spate of scams that dogged the UPA government. With this, the party has crossed the second milestone (after its registration) on its way to cleaning up the polity of the country, the AAP said in a statement after it was alloted the reserved broom symbol on August one. With the broom which symbolises dignity of labour, the party hopes to clean the filth which has permeated our government and our legislature. The country needs a clean sweep of its corrupted main stream political parties, it said. And Kejriwal may also take inspiration from another old folklore in which it was said that in World War II, if the submarine crew fired all their torpedoes successfully, they would tie a broom to the conning tower when arriving in port, to signify a clean sweep. It may not be a clean sweep but AAP has made a stunning debut to become the main opposition party besides helping end the 15-year uninterrupted rule of Congress. AAP, which emerged as the second largest party after BJP in Delhi, was formally launched on November 26 2012. It came into existence following differences between Kejriwal and Hazare regarding whether or not to politicise the popular India Against Corruption (IAC) movement that had been demanding a Jan Lokpal Bill since 2011. Hazare preferred that the movement should remain politically unaligned while Kejriwal felt the failure of the agitation route necessitated a direct political involvement. The AAP has led several protests since its formation. Among these was a campaign against an alleged nexus between government and private corporations relating to price rises for electricity and water in Delhi. Another saw the party demanding justice for victims of sexual harassment and rape, including the introduction of a stronger anti-rape law. Hazare and Kejriwal agreed on September 19, 2012 that their differences regarding a role in politics were irreconcilable. Kejriwal had support from some wellknown people involved in the anti-corruption movement, such as Prashant Bhushan and Shanti Bhushan, but was opposed by others such as Kiran Bedi and Santosh Hegde. On October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Kejriwal announced that he was forming a political party which was formally launched on November 26 coinciding with the anniversary of Indias adoption of its constitution in 1949. The party name reflects the phrase Aam Aadmi, or common man, whose interests Kejriwal proposed to represent. A party constitution was adopted on November 24, 2012. The party claims that the common people remain unheard and unseen except when it suits the politicians to consider them. It wants to reverse the way that the accountability of government operates

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and has taken an interpretation of the Gandhian concept of swaraj as a tenet. Kejriwal says AAP refuses to be guided by ideologies and that they are entering politics to change the system: We are aam aadmis. If we find our solution in the left we are happy to borrow it from there. If we find our solution in the right, we are happy to borrow it from there, he was quoted as having said. The party produced a

separate manifesto for each constituency. The candidates were being screened for potential criminal backgrounds and the party claimed to have selected honest candidates. The AAPs central manifesto promising to implement the Jan Lokpal Bill within 15 days of coming to power. - Manoj Kr Pathak, Agencies