Aam Admi Party has earned lot of bouquets and
praises for their debut success in the Delhi Assembly elections. People are
praising their ability to garner volunteers as if it is unprecedented. Young
journalists for whom it is a new phenomenon to see volunteers ability to
connect with the masses, have therefore asked established parties to take
a leaf or two from them.
Now I remember the history of BJP, it started as Jan
Sangh when its election symbol was ‘Diya’ a Lamp. Jan Sangh was born out of full time
pracharaks permanently seconded to this newly born party. In their RSS style
(which is still present with the RSS) these pracharaks then got connected with
the masses. Met them, had tea with them, sat with them, discussed issues with
them over ‘Matar Pav’, became one of them and with this connect created the
cadre of volunteers to propagate the cause. Jan Sangh was small party like AAP,
created on the strong character of each individual pracharaks as the pillars of
the party. These pracharaks were mostly unmarried (though not compulsory) gave
their life for the party and to the social causes. There was no money but there
was tremendous will power and self-motivation which drove the party and cadre.
It was a difficult phase people were still under the hypnotic spell of
Jawaharlal Nehru and then Indira Gandhi. Jan Sangh displayed great discipline
coming from the RSS pracharaks and the newly motivated cadres. Shyama Prasad
Mukharjee, Madan Mohan Malviya, Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Atal Bihari Vajpayee
led these cadres and L K Advani and many
others from various regions added their bits to build the party. It included
Bhairon Singh Shekhawat from Rajasthan, Rajmata Vijayaraje Schindia, Sunderlal
Patwa from Madhya Pradesh, Rambhau Mhalgi, Jagannathrao Joshi, Ram Kapse from
Maharashtra, and many other stalwarts. That time was different. People were not
very cynical and angry with Congress because during Jawaharlal Nehru’s time
though there were differences in the policies and ideology, the giants in
Congress were less corrupt. Corruption and numbness shown by the power hungry
politicians was less on display. It was an era immediately after the
independence and ideology was more or less socialist. The blunders by Congress were
on handling of issues which were nationally important. Like any important
national issue there were two perceptions prevalent. For Kashmir, Congress
introduced Article 370 and were holding
one perception about the problem and its solution. On the other hand Jan Sangh
was opposed to article 370 and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee laid down his life for
that, in Kashmir. This was the other perception. Masses because of illiteracy
and other immediate concerns about ‘Roji Roti’ were oblivious to these handling
of national issues and therefore Jan Sangh was slow in creating its national
imprint. Came Emergency and Jan Sangh and other opposition parties came
together to oust Congress Govt under Janta Party. Somewhere during that time
(1975) Congress culture took a more bad turn towards corruption and it has manifested
into todays illness. After Janta Party experiment, Jan Sangh was revived as
Bharatiya Janata Party which is today. So it has got those roots which were introduced
by selfless services of RSS pracharaks and sharp ideology as a result of its
belief in maintaining integration of our nation. The party became big and over
a period of time, some of its purity was washed away due to prolong
participation in politics. For Congress, they have been in power for so long
that power has corrupted it. During emergency absolute power had corrupted it
absolutely.
Aam
Admi Party’s popularity is the result of reaction of the masses to the
corruption of Congress rather than any ideology. Rather I have read and heard
from one of its leader ‘if the people of Kashmir want not to be part of India
then they should have right to self-assertion’ this is a very dangerous view
which affects our sovereignty and oneness of our nation. Any reaction based
movement generally comes with its own cover period. During independence also
the reactionary movements were necessary to make the masses aware and to break
their numbness. When normalcy comes these reactionary forces fold up because
then a system takes over. In case of Aam Admi Party it appears therefore that this
reaction is creating ample heat and it would get enough seats and form the next
Government in Delhi assy when re-election happens. The rise of Telegu Desam was
more stunning in that in its first election itself NTR thronged with two third
majority. It was a reaction to the arrogance of Rajiv Gandhi when he insulted
the Telegu pride. We all know what happened to Telgu Desam Party today.
Therefore one would observe that AAP has fielded their candidates where there
is Congress Govt. as per their new plan next is Maharashtra again a Congress
Govt.
As
I see it therefore though AAP may not be acknowledging but they are more closer
to BJP in their outlook sans BJPs nationalist ideology and BJP should also not
antagonize them, because as AAP is the result of reactionary mood of the
masses, the more BJP antagonize them the more their supporters would vote for AAP
and go away from BJP. In fact BJP should see today’s AAP supporters as
tomorrows increased mandate of BJP when the reaction and hype dries out.
BJP
should again adopt the path of Jan Sangh or RSS pracharaks in Delhi and
elsewhere and take following steps
(a)
Take
out padayatras or cycle yatras in the assembly segments propounding principles
of RASHTRAVRAT for more reading on this, refer to http://rashtravrat.blogspot.in
(b)
Increase
mass contact with old traditional ways of having tea and spending more time in
chit chatting with masses.
(c)
Come
out with district and assembly wise wish list of the people. This can be done
by organizing block wise manifestos, call it ‘Prant Jahirnama’.
(d)
Cut
the pomp and show from everywhere – during rallies, during press briefings and
during various core committee meetings.
(e)
Be
friendlier when talking on television media.
(f)
For
next delhi assembly re-elections get candidates from assembly segments by
interviewing the applicants. Candidates should be new, first timers and young.
It goes without saying that they should not be having any criminal case pending
against them.
(g)
Try
to infuse more pracharaks from RSS. Hold ‘Guru Dakshina’ rallies in the
assembly segments to build up party fund.
(h)
If
these steps are not taken then in the assembly re-election this time AAP would bag more seats than BJP as people are now
determined to bring them. If it happens congratulate them. Remember all
AAP supporters are prospective BJP supporters and not of Congress.
(i)
Please
do not ridicule them but engage them in talk on Kashmir or nationalism.
