(Ashutosh joined the Aam Aadmi Party in January 2014. The former journalist took on former Union minister Kapil Sibal and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in the national election from Chandni Chowk in Delhi.)
I see many smiling faces and also many unhappy faces. The smiles all say, "I told said so." The unhappy faces want to know why this is happening.
Yes, I am talking about AAP, the Aam Aadmi Party. The smiling faces are of those who feel threatened by the very existence of AAP as it promises to overturn an establishment deeply entrenched in corruption. An edifice that has to be demolished if a clean, transparent and pro-citizen system has to be erected.
The unhappy people are sympathizers of AAP. They love to see AAP as crusader against all that is corrupt and dysfunctional in the system.
AAP has been ridiculed from its inception by skeptics and critics. There has been an attempt to paint AAP black and tell the world that this party is no different. The BJP tried the trick during the Delhi elections. They lost badly, but unfortunately are unwilling to learn.
Now, the same forces are active again. A conspiracy was hatched long back and those involved were the same people who did not want AAP to succeed. They tried their level best to see a BJP government installed in Delhi before the announcement of the dissolution of the Delhi Assembly. And once elections were announced, they tried to sabotage from within.
This process is still on and despite all their efforts and disruptive agenda, AAP will continue its march to cleanse the system and provide a model of alternate politics and governance.
But today I want to dig deep and find out the real reason for the upheaval and crisis-like situation in AAP every now and then. Just when everyone in AAP and all its well-wishers thought that after its unprecedented success in Delhi it would have a smooth run, why is AAP in the news again?
I see this as a "growing up problem". It is similar to a young kid transitioning from boyhood to adulthood. This is the most vulnerable age for a man or woman. He or she has to graduate to another level, has to leave behind childhood and the transition is still not complete - a kid and also an adult.
The present crisis in AAP can be seen from this perspective. It's a crisis of adolescence.
As we all know, AAP was born from a movement. India Against Corruption, led by Anna Hazare, gave birth to AAP. In 2011, a few individuals who were fed up with corruption decided to rebel against the system. They got massive support from the people.
This movement changed the national discourse. Corruption became a national issue. People woke up and vowed to end to corruption. One of the offshoots of the movement led by Arvind Kejriwal decided to form a political party and contest elections as it seemed obvious that unless politics is cleaned from the inside, democracy will not be transparent and pro-citizen.
These were people with dreams of a new world, a beautiful world, a world full of idealism. It was about moral values. But they forgot politics in the present context is not beautiful. It's not about idealism. It's not about morality. It's not a dream. It's the real world. It's reality. It is power. Raw power.
AAP is a unique experiment to amalgamate power with morality, to mix idealism with realism; to bring back the pendulum of Indian politics to its equilibrium, to restore sanity in the system. But this will not happen overnight. It will take time. AAP is barely two years old. It's evolving. Its growth has been very fast, but its body will take time to adjust to that growth. It is like a child suddenly thrown into the company of adults.
AAP is being pulled in two opposite directions. One led by idealism and the other by realism. AAP decided to become a political party, but the transformation of a movement into a fully grown party has not yet happened. Till that process is not complete, there will be serious friction.
A movement is temporary and is mostly about one issue. It's led by highly motivated individuals. A party is permanent; it's about every issue under the sun. It's led by seasoned individuals.
A movement may survive a few days, or a few weeks or a few months or even a few years, but a party is 24x7, 365 days. People in politics give it an entire lifetime. It's a full-time profession.
A movement is always in a hurry. It's impatient. It needs solution immediately. Politics is all about patience. It's the opposite of hurried. Politics is thick-skinned. A movement is very sensitive, sometimes, oversensitive.
AAP has to grapple with these two opposites. A minor adjustment in tactics suddenly becomes a big issue for some. They look at this as a major compromise in its core values. They don't realise that the world of outside politics is full of sharks and if AAP has to fulfill the ambitions of lakhs of idealists, then it has to learn to survive and for that some adjustment has to be made without making any compromises with its core ideology and its long-term strategy.
This is not easy. Let the flower bloom. Let the boy grow. Let him attain adulthood, let the transformation from movement to party be complete. Let's not worry too much. It happens with every individual, it happens with every institution and it will happen with AAP too. Aag ka dariya hai, doobke jaanaa hai - literally, baptism by fire. There is no escape.
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