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Business News/ Opinion / A message for AAP and the BJP
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A message for AAP and the BJP

It is time for clean performers to tell voters what they must do next if India has to start realizing its potential

Supporters of the AAP and the BJP. Photos: Ramesh Pathania/MintPremium
Supporters of the AAP and the BJP. Photos: Ramesh Pathania/Mint

Even a child in primary school will be able to interpret the results of popular elections to the legislative assemblies in four states in India as a thumping thumbs-down to the Congress party. It is to the credit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that it robbed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of a massive victory in Delhi too, as it had achieved in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. Despite it being called the Aam Aadmi Party, it has won the Greater Kailash seat too. So, clearly, it has struck a chord with not just the aam aadmi. The party won on the strength of its anti-corruption platform and it has a reputation to live up to now. It is a lot easier to harness a protest vote than it is to retain popular support on the basis of actual governance. That is why the repeat victories of the chief ministers in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh deserve acknowledgement and praise.

Clearly, common sense (self-preservation) should rule out the AAP forming the government with the outside support of the Congress, although such an arrangement is a numerical possibility. Two, in theory, the AAP can engineer defections from the Congress or the BJP. That too will go against what the party supposedly stands for. One should also remember that the party has not articulated its governance strategy. Some of the positions it has taken on matters of national importance and security have been, to put it charitably, questionable and naïve and, uncharitably, anti-national. With this victory, the AAP is no longer an outsider. It has a responsibility to translate its votes into something meaningful and useful for the country.

Therefore, it will be doing itself no harm if it allows the BJP to form a government in Delhi by lending support, joining the government and taking up a few portfolios. It will gain administrative and governance experience and can act as a check on the BJP too. After all, it had already forced the BJP to change its game in Delhi with the latter nominating Harsh Vardhan as its chief ministerial candidate, although somewhat belatedly. Should the BJP turn out to be same old, same old, then the AAP will be ready to form the government with its performance in the next polls.

The BJP, on its part, has reasons to be satisfied with the outcome of the elections. No matter how many painful contortions that the Delhi-based left-leaning pseudo-liberal analysts undergo, the truth is unmistakably clear to the uncomplicated mind. India cannot wait to get rid of the Congress rule and for good reasons too. At the same time, the BJP may have to provide for some possible shift in voter sentiment towards the Congress. Human mind works in strange ways. With this massive defeat, the Congress is no longer the arrogant incumbent but, in the eyes of the some, it might become a poor underdog. Therefore, one has to be careful about kicking it too much. By all means, the BJP leadership should remain purposeful, confident and respond unambiguously and forcefully to any dirty tricks that the Congress may unleash. There is no need to become jellies. But, the awareness that one should guard against hubris and arrogance must also set in now, lest one ends up creating some easy sympathy for the Congress.

To be confident when one is down, to be aware and connected with higher goals when one is on the ascendant are hallmarks of great leaders. This quality has eluded India’s political leaders, for the most part. Swapan Dasgupta, in a perceptive column, written before the assembly election results were announced, notes the still-dominant tendency, even in sections of the BJP, to believe that power is for enjoyment and not a platform to produce change. This quality, highlighted above, is what made Nelson Mandela, arguably, the greatest global leader of the 20th century.

This is also time to start to articulate a positive agenda of action for the future besides holding up the Congress performance for scrutiny. As David Pilling of the Financial Times noted, in an otherwise typically shallow analysis of Indian politics, the reality of 10 years of United Progressive Alliance rule is that India has not only failed to convert economic growth into social justice but the basis of the growth itself looks less certain. Manufacturing has not revived and services look jaded. Recently, a courier company in Tamil Nadu delivered a piece of rock in place of a smartphone that was shipped. India has secured low 186th rank among 189 nations in the ease of enforcing contracts in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2014 survey.

Clearly, India is not an easy place to do business in nor are Indians easy to do business with. Now that voters have shown that they know what to do with corrupt non-performers, it is up to the clean performers to tell voters what they should do next if India has to start realizing its potential.

V. Anantha Nageswaran is the co-founder of Aavishkaar Venture Fund and Takshashila Institution. Comments are welcome at baretalk@livemint.com. To read V. Anantha Nageswaran’s previous columns, go to www.livemint.com/baretalk-

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Published: 09 Dec 2013, 04:25 PM IST
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