By Swapan Dasgupta
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal is an
effective and even inspirational communicator. However, there is something a
bit jarring in his over-sanctimoniousness, particularly his underlying message
that those who are not with him are somehow implicitly in favour of a corrupt
system. This exaggerated polarisation may have won him adherents but his
contrived saintliness has also made many people deeply uncomfortable. Such
people may actually delight in some recent revelations that seem to suggest
that those living in glass houses should be wary of hurling stones.
To be fair, the Media Sarkar sting operation
directed at a handful AAP candidates for the Delhi Assembly doesn’t
conclusively establish that the so-called ‘alternative politics’ is a sham. To
say that many of those contesting on the AAP symbol are in no different from
the archetypal venal politician is an exaggeration. The AAP hasn’t been around
for long enough and hasn’t ever tasted political power to become tainted.
However, the sting operation—which also happens to be dodgy journalism—does end
up conveying a disturbing message.
It is important to note that people aren’t born
corrupt. They don’t even necessarily become corruption by dipping their toes in
political waters. The real test of integrity is when an individual has the
opportunity to be corrupt and refuses to succumb to it. Those who have no real
opportunity and occasion to engage in corrupt practices can stay pure. But that
is not to say that they are inherently pure. The person who is charged with
rape in a hotel lift in Goa wasn’t always a person who lacked all scruples and
cynically crafted a career path using lofty idealism as commerce. No, his
downfall began when he was overwhelmed by the opportunities available to him.
He was intoxicated by his power. And, inevitably, the arrogance of power
produced a disagreeable form of moral corruption.
In his pious rebuttal of the charges levelled against
AAP candidates, its political guru Yogendra Yadav said that there was nothing
to warrant disciplinary action against those who were ‘stung’. In a sense he
was right. No money changed hands and nothing improper was actually done. Yet,
the Media Sarkar sting did establish something that is potentially very
damaging to the AAP: it suggested that given the right incentives, even the
workers of a holier-than-outfit were willing to join the ranks of a
disagreeable political class.
What the (albeit edited) sting tapes clearly
indicated were two things. First, that like most outfits facing a resource
crunch to fight elections, the AAP candidates weren’t too particular about the
motives behind funding, the source of the funds and, in some cases,
over-the-top cash donations. Secondly, and this is the most disturbing aspect
of the revelations, the AAP activists appear to have turned a blind eye to the
fact that the proposed donations had a definite quid pro quo to them. That AAP
candidates were willing to lend a sympathetic ear and even promise possible
action to intervene in private disputes involving either companies or landlords
and tenants is revealing. Shazia Ilmi, the ever-smiling candidate for RK Puram,
did clearly state that she needed documentary evidence to be convinced about
the rights and wrongs of the case. Yet, she was not averse to any intervention
in a civil dispute that has no bearing on the larger public interest.
The conclusions are distressing. They suggest that
there are people in the AAP who, far from practising ‘alternative’ and
wholesome politics, are mentally willing to walk down the same treacherous path
as many other political parties.
I would be extremely hesitant to suggest that the
likes of Messrs Kejriwal, Yadav and others are cynical practitioners of
realpolitik and are devoid of scruples. But their unwillingness to admit the
party’s shortcomings and instead fall back on attacking the cussedness of Media
Sarkar in not supplying the original tapes is revealing. It indicates that, in
anticipation of a good performance in the election, the AAP is not willing to
practice the lofty idealism it preaches.
Actually, this embracement of pragmatism began
earlier. Beginning with Kejriwal’s courtship of sundry clerics who claimed to
control Muslim vote banks and including his overtures to disappointed ticket
aspirants from the big parties, the AAP has given indications that it is ready
to embrace many aspects of electoral politics as it now exists. Changing the
political culture is a lofty goal and can’t be achieved through one electoral
intervention. But the AAP doesn’t appear to have tried too hard.
Perhaps I am being unduly harsh on the AAP. However,
when a party makes saintliness is uniqueness and sets lofty standards for
others to follow, there will be an inclination to judge it by its own
standards.
There are major lessons to be learnt from the jam
the AAP finds itself in. For a start, it must realise that finding pristine
pure individuals who will resist all temptations is an impossible mission.
Secondly, the AAP must realise that just as it is unfair to judge it by the
lapses of a few individuals in its ranks, it is equally unfair to judge other
parties solely on account of a few rotten eggs. The point to note that politics
has become such a disagreeable business that deviants are naturally attracted
to it. Changing the tone and tenor of politics and statecraft involves a
national awakening that can’t happen by getting a few AAP candidates elected in
Delhi.
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