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A multi-class urban party

The AAPs success in Delhi could possibly be emulated in similar urban

pockets elsewhere, where civic concerns and a compact urban community

could enable it to attract the different urban classes

Having graduated from a political movement to a party in government relatively quickly, in thesmall but significant State of Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is now poised to address its

next challengethat of attaining national relevance. The partys success in Delhi had muchtodo with some unique factors related to the capital city such as the extensive media coverage it

received during the phase of its agitations for a Lokpal. But it was the partys strategy to move

away from a single-issue movement (anti-corruption) with an element of anti-politics to a

populist political organisation articulating real life issues of the ordinary citizens like inflatedpower bills and the inequitable distribution of water, that catapulted it to centre stage. It transited

from being a civil society organisation committed to the realisation of the Lokpal to a political

party seeking to implement the vision of Lokniti (decentralised, communitarian democracy).

Support baseBy seeking to mobilise the urban poor on issues related to livelihood and welfare, the party wasable to build a multi-class support base, which included many sections of the urban salariat and

the lower middle classes. The partys calling card remains its stress on being anti-establishment,

but its source of support among the poor is linked to expectations of better welfare delivery andempowerment.

It is this mandate from the poor which has forced the AAP to form a government with thesupport of the very party that it has been stridently opposed to. The decision to accept support

from the Congress has certainly dismayed a number of its adherents who identified the latter

with malfeasance and as the primary enemy for the party, but for the poor, the AAPs ability tomake a difference by being in government outweighs such tactical concerns. The AAPs

garnering of support from Delhis urban poor except among Muslims who preferred to back

the Congress possibly as a bulwark against a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)waswithout recourse to narrow identitarian politics or patronage based on caste, religion or region.

The urban poordrawn from the working classes in the informal sector, small traders, hawkers,migrants, etc.were also drawn to the emphasis on anti-corruption by the AAP as meaning

better and direct welfare services and opportunities without having to rely upon unscrupulous

middlemen. The urban poor identified the AAP as being different from the BJP and the

Congress, who were seen as parties which had cultivated these middlemen and patrons. Thesupport from the urban poor is reflected in the electoral performance of the AAP in the various

slum clusters of the capital city. Conversely, in areas of Delhi which have a greater number of

rural households and in the urban villages where such politics of patronage and caste-community identity have a long history, the AAPs primary political message did not find as

many takers.

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The AAPs success in Delhi could possibly be emulated in similar urban pockets elsewhere,

where civic concerns and a compact urban community could enable it to attract the different

urban classes. But the party would certainly encounter a more difficult challenge as an upstart inmost places of the country which are predominantly rural or semi-urban.

National challenges

Since the 1990s, the federalisation of Indias polity has followed a course set by three distinctand significant phenomena. These include the dominance of Other Backward Classes and related

caste identity politics following implementation of the Mandal Commission recommendations;an effective presence of the Hindutva right wing forces following the Ramjanmabhoomi

movement, and the maturation of neo-liberal developmentalism following extensive economic

liberalisation and globalisation. These phenomena have introduced various State-level dynamics

and changed Indias political party system. The AAP has emerged as a political player byaddressing a constituency that has been discomfited with the nature of the developmental process

which has spawned corruption, crony capitalism and a new elite. But, there are other

constituenciesparticularly in rural Indiawhich still see the need for patronage and identityassertion as a way out for the enhancement of their livelihoods. It is doubtful whether the AAPs

message can make an immediate political impact here.

Social democratic spaceEvidently, the AAP expects that its performance in government in Delhi and an adoption of amore comprehensive political and organisational strategy elsewhere would pay dividends inovercoming this challenge. For now, much focus is on the contiguous States bordering Delhi

such as Haryana, and urban centres like Mumbai and Bangalore. Elsewhere, the party has sought

to engage with and draw in groups from social movements in various States such as Tamil Nadu

and Odisha to expand its political reach beyond readily available support bases in urban pockets.This strategy should keep it in good stead, but the immediate nature of the political party system

should compel it to seek more allies beyond the civil society. Engagement and issue-based

alliances with other political forces which have a similar anti-establishment message, such as theLeft parties, would help the AAP in spreading its message more effectively.

This is more so because there is a social democratic space in Indias national political spectrumthat remains virtually deserted. The Congress historically played this role of a social democratic

party, acting as a transmission belt, as political scientist Rajni Kothari called it, between the

government and the people and having a distinct ideological world view. The withering away of

Indias grand old party and its reduction into a corporatist party, dominated by special interests

and one that seeks to practise social democracy more as instrumentalism and out of politicalcompulsion rather than purpose, is not lost on many.

The mainstream Left had once succeeded in occupying that space in States like Kerala and West

Bengal where it translated its radical rhetoric into purposive welfarism. However, the ideological

transformation of the Left from a radical, social democratic force in the 1970-80s to just anothervariant of developmentalism (most pronounced in West Bengal) has led to its political decline.

Moreover, the left parties could not expand their areas of influence beyond three States due to

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their lack of political imagination in attempting to win over the many discontents with the

present status quo across the country. The regional parties, since the 1990s, have also

metamorphosed into corporatist entities themselves despite emerging initially as voices forbackward sections that were not represented in the establishment.

Need for a vision

If the AAP constructs a well developed vision on matters of political economy and eveninternational affairs, it would be able to occupy that vacant, social democratic space in

conjunction with other like-minded parties. At a limited level, its emphasis on decentralised andparticipative models of democracy, if put into practice, could bring about better social audits of

welfare services and delivery and could enhance the institutions of social democracy that are

already in place. Presently, the AAP has relied on an ad hoc approach to constructing an overall

vision on economic or strategic matters, with an emphasis primarily on political decentralisation.It has perhaps done so to limit any internal differences between a largely left-of-centre leadership

and an activist base drawn from the middle classes. But the sooner it comes up with a

thoroughgoing vision that places it as a firmly secular, social democratic party and one thatsuitably addresses the uniqueness of Indias diverse political economy, the better it would be for

the party to increase its support base and influence. In other words, the AAP has to come up with

clear views on how it seeks to tackle issues related to the concentration of wealth, crony

capitalism, jobless growth, crisis of the peasant economy, etc. It must also delineate its viewson more purposive ways of identity recognition, and eliminating hierarchies and

discriminations based on caste, gender and ethnicity.

The AAPs rise as an anti-establishment force and the opening up of a social democratic space in

Indias polity is not unrelated to global trends. In much of the developing world, a similar

process had emerged in recent decades, as an outcome of the discontent with what is broadly

defined as neoliberalism. If in Latin America this took the form of a pink tide against the elite,the anti-establishment emphasis sought to open up new spaces for democracy in the Arab world.

These developments and the national challenges the party faces make it all the more imperative

for the AAP to have a larger world view than it currently has.

(Srinivasan Ramani is senior assistant editor with the Economic and Political Weekly.)