Op-ed: 'AAP effect' wears off, politics of expediency is back

(Captain GR Gopinath founded Air Deccan and is considered a pioneer in the low-cost airline sector. He recently joined Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party)

After the Delhi elections, there was a ray of hope as the Aam Aadmi Party dominated the nation's consciousness. It was like the onset of spring. The AAP won many seats without appealing to caste or community and without dependence on black money and the muscle power of criminal elements.

The lessons of the victory were not lost on the mainstream national parties. They perceived that in a new re-awakened India, integrity in public life would win elections and they decided to have a quick image make-over.

Clever ad campaigns were devised to appeal to the new yearning for change. The focus in debates and speeches turned to governance and development.

The reluctance of the BJP to form a government in Delhi, even though they were short of a handful of MLAs, was the first heartening sign of the "AAP effect."

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Rahul Gandhi was not to be left behind. He sprang to action after two years of dormancy, in an attempt to come across as the real crusader against corruption by taking credit for the Lokpal Bill. Though people could easily see through all this as nothing but a charade to woo voters, it was nevertheless a good omen of the winds of change.

The BJP pitched the "Modi charisma", his personal integrity and development track record, discreetly played down the Hindutva card and hit the Congress hard on scams.

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This boded well for the country even if it was driven by self-interest and not altruism.

But after the election dates were announced, unable to resist the scent of power, scores of sitting MPs - including a few stalwarts - many among them tainted with corruption and criminal cases, abandoned their parties and joined their arch rivals. Quite a few discredited rump parties, with time running out, rushed to make alliances with their sworn enemies. And the parties had no qualms in granting them asylum and tickets.

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So once again the debate and calculations are centring around caste and community - that Varanasi will have a Hindu consolidation but the Muslim votes may be split.

That upper caste votes will swing to the BJP, but Dalit votes will be split in Rajasthan.

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That Jaswant Singh being a Thakur does not have as good a chance as Col Sonaram Choudhury, who defected from the Congress and is a Jat. Barmer has more Jats and the caste arithmetic works in favour of the new defector, never mind that he switched only last night.

All across India, many people who changed parties overnight as easily as a change of clothes, have also switched their ideologies and donned new party robes to contest.

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What went wrong so suddenly for Indian politics in just a month? Are we back to square one then? Is it disappointment with Kejriwal and AAP that they have not acquitted themselves creditably after coming to power in Delhi? Is the disillusionment with AAP because they are also beset with dissent and resignation by many of its members? Did the AAP, in its hurry to scale up without adequate organisational depth, compromise on its ideals resulting in disenchantment?

So sensing all this, did the BJP abandon all its professed values as a party under a decisive and honest leader and think it expedient to go for the kill at all costs? The maximum number of defectors with unsavoury reputations, as well as smaller parties, with a shameful record of corruption when in power, have joined the BJP.

And the Congress is not lagging behind.

When a friend, a foreign national, called from overseas and I lamented and expressed how quickly the hope for the dawn of a new India has evaporated, he consoled and cheered me up. He said I must watch two famous TV series, both called the House Of Cards. One is old and is about the venality of British Politics and the other, which is a current series with Kevin Spacey in the lead about American politics. He said, "If you see it, you will cheer up, because Indian politicians seem angels compared to the ones in the UK and US!"

I saw both. My friend was right.

There may yet be hope for India!

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