Where AAP came from and what it has become

HOW should the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) defeat in Delhi’s assembly elections be seen? It all depends on how AAP is to be regarded. If it is just another political party then victory and defeat are part of the hurly burly of politics. But if AAP is special and was expected to bring about a transformation in the quality of governance then, perhaps, we should shed a tear for AAP and ourselves. The opportunity to make a difference has been lost and will be difficult to regain.

This magazine has tracked Arvind Kejriwal from much before he became a prime-time headline. Our first issue in 2003 had him on the cover because he was an interesting face in the RTI movement.

We were there in the slums of Delhi, the schools, ration shops, Jantar Mantar protests and public hearings. AAP’s lineage as we know it is complicated. It was born directly out of the India Against Corruption movement whose antecedents have never been fully figured out. But AAP also emerged from a long history of activism in India. These were credible and sincere efforts by different social sector groups. AAP benefited from such disparate efforts and the momentum they provided for accountability and change in the country. They addressed serious problems of growth and development.

The general view is that AAP has let down the people who wholeheartedly supported it. It is true that the BJP government at the Centre gave it a tough time. But it is also true that AAP didn’t deliver on many fronts that it could have. It searched for national status without fulfilling its duties in Delhi and by using shortcuts to popularity like freebies. The most galling of all has been the concentration of power in Arvind Kejriwal. It is a one-man party.

We have for our story in this issue spoken to many of AAP’s well-wishers and raised the question whether AAP has lost more than just the election. Check out their views. The irony is that AAP itself sees the defeat as merely an election setback — some calculations gone wrong. It expects to be back in some combination or the other. For a lot of people that unfortunately is not enough.

Where are millions of young people with some kind of an education going to find jobs? There aren’t jobs though there is growth. And these are AI times. Ravi Venkatesan tells us, in our interview of the month, that the solution lies in engendering an entrepreneurial mindset in the country. The young particularly must learn to be self-starters. There is a lot more in this issue from philanthropy with Pushpa Sundar, strawberries in Bahraich, a mango yatra and our columnists, particularly Venkatesh Dutta braving it out at the Mahakumbh.