AAP Forming Government at Delhi
After gaining enough popularity through IAC movement led by Anna Hazare, Arvind Kejriwal broke away from the India
Against Corruption (IAC) movement and started his own political party, ‘Aam
Aadhmi Party’ (AAP). Within a few months of forming the party, AAP
surprised the whole nation by securing 28 seats (29.5% vote share) out of 70
seats in the Delhi Assembly Elections. Since BJP with 31 members refused
to form the Government, AAP formed the Government with the outside support of
Congress (8 members) and won the vote of confidence in the Assembly too.
IAC movement
has set the entire nation to fight against corruption. The AAP youngsters led by Arvind Kejriwal
brought confidence on the people that they would bring some change.
Media Obsession
AAP and Arvind
Kejriwal got a wonderful opportunity to prove to the nation their capabilities
through good governance. But they seemed to grow obsessed with media
coverage, as they started looking at every action keeping the media in mind,
without looking at the governance aspect. They did not understand the
risk of the media and that the same media which glorified them could also shame
them.
CBI Court order against Somnath
Bharati
|
CBI courts criticism on Somnath Bharati, the Law Minister
for tampering the records, his illegal orders to Police in the mid night to arrest African
ladies have all come up for serious criticism and brought embarrassment to the
party.
Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal’s dharna in the prohibited area defending the actions of
Somnath Bharati and calling himself as ‘anarchist’ has further created
confusion among the people, who had reposed highest confidence on them. Chief Minister’s call to police force to join
the dharna, his declaration that he would derail Republic Day celebrations,
Prashant Bhushan’s comments on Kashmir, open invitation extended by Bhushan and
Anjali Damina to Maoists and Davood Ibrahim have further raised the doubts
among the people about their real agenda. A case is also pending against Arvind
Kejriwal in Delhi Court on charge of plagiarism for the book ‘Swaraj’. His
recent statement in support of illegal ‘Khap Panchayats’ has added further controversy.
Allegations
about funding
Facebook page reported to be that of Pak separatists
|
Under the Indian law, only Indians can donate to the Indian political parties.
It is alleged that during the election time, Pakistan-based separatists
encouraged their people through the Facebook (shared 955 times) to fund AAP with
false Indian Passport number (by writing one letter of the alphabet followed by
7 digits), to falsely identify themselves as Indian nationals. Since the
AAP site did not have any mechanism to validate the passport number, many
Pakistan-based terrorists are suspected to have funded AAP during the
elections. This allegation is now being investigated by the Government of
India.
The leaders of AAP should have learnt their lessons from the history of our
nation. In the past, India faced two types of people’s movements.
One was based on ‘regional aspirations’. Political parties like DMK, TDP,
AGP and BSP were formed by the regional aspirations of strong leaders.
Though these parties might have undergone splits, they still continue to
be powerful political forces in India.
The other type
of movement was focused only on a single agenda. In early 1970s, Lok Nayak
Jayaprakash Narayan called for a ‘total revolution’ to fight against Indira
Gandhi’s regime. Many senior political leaders with a huge following came
together to form the ‘Janata Party’ in 1977 and secured a massive victory in
the Lok Sabha elections after the emergency, defeating Indira Gandhi.
Within a few months after their victory, they got disintegrated due to
lack of focus and future plans for the country.
In 1985, VP
Singh, another mass leader formed the ‘Jan Morcha’ to fight against corruption
in Rajiv Gandhi’s regime. They also won to form the Government at the
centre. After a few months, they got disintegrated and lost power for a similar
reason. Both these parties / movements are not in existence today.
AAP - Party without policies and membership drive
Political history loudly indicates that any political movement with a single
agenda cannot survive for a long time. The political movement should have
effective leadership with clear policies on various issues. It is
surprising that AAP, without clear leadership and policies on various issues,
is now calling itself the third force at the national level, after the
Congress and the BJP. It is also surprising to see the media project AAP
as an alternative to the Congress or BJP, when AAP has not yet set up even its
party units in the other states.
Membership
card in the name of
President Obama – applied and got
for the purpose of this
article
within a few seconds
|
AAP’s claim of having more than one
crore members has become a mockery. The social media is now flooded with
AAP membership cards in the names of President Obama, Jayalalitha, Sonia
Gandhi, Mayavati, Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi. We also found it very easy to
obtain a membership card in the name of President Obama. Such a
membership drive reduces the credibility of the party. Even the traditional national parties do not
claim to have such huge membership.
Allegations against the Trusts owned by Kejriwal
When AAP talks
about transparency, many of the critics also accuse them of lack of
transparency in the functioning of the trusts owned by Arvind Kejriwal and
Manish Sisodia.
Arvind Kejriwal
created 3 NGOs viz. Parivartan (1999), Kabir (2005) and Public Cause Research
Foundation (2006). He was also given
Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2006.
Ford Foundation Annual reports of 2002 and 2005 |
These trusts
have received several crores of rupees from the Ford Foundation, the Dutch
Embassy and other international funding agencies. Ford Foundation is accused of
being an extended arm of the ‘Central Intelligence Agency’ (CIA) of USA. In the biography and citation released by the ‘Ramon Magsaysay Award
Foundation’ while presenting the Award to Arvind Kejriwal in 2006, they cited ‘Central
Intelligence Agency’ (CIA) as the first reference. (See screenshot below)
Biography of Arvind Kejriwal released by Magsaysay
Award Foundation -
First reference is Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
|
When somebody
questioned about the purpose of the funds in the Court, the Delhi Court ordered
the Government to investigate it. The websites of Parivartan and Kabir
are now closed. The Government of India seems to be investigating on
violations.
While they talk
about transparency, the IAC volunteers raise doubts about the hasty closure of
the websites of these two trusts and their refusal to divulge the details.
The dubious
connectivity between CIA, Ford Foundation, Magsaysay
Award and some AAP founders still remains without proper clarification and shrouded in mystery.
Anarchism is Not a Substitute for Governance
We also observe
from the social media that some of the young people and even intellectuals hail
and justify such ‘anarchism’ and immature acts of AAP leaders under the pretext
that the country needs a change and a new type of politics.
Justifying the wrong actions of any political party is quite dangerous and
risky. Creating an impression among the new-generation voters that
anarchy is a heroic deed is dangerous. Internal and external enemies and
terrorists wait for an opportunity to destabilise the nation. The
founding fathers of the Indian constitution have carefully drafted the
Constitution to provide ample solutions for any crisis.
Arvind Kejriwal and his team should not play to the galleries. They are
no longer activists. They should realise that activism is different from
governance. Just like they were watching the rulers closely as activists, now
people have started watching AAP also more closely. The people have given them constitutional responsibilities
to govern the Delhi State. Instead of creating a pandemonium before the
cameras, they should sit and calmly discuss with experts and officials to solve
the problems one by one. They should transparently come out with their own past
and present financial transactions before blaming others and to avoid
allegation against them. The nation
expects more from them, to bring the desired change.
By K. Srinivasan, Editor in Chief
Source: www.prpoint.com/ezine/presense0114.pdf