Bharat Bhushan - For AAP, the name of the game is decentralisation
When the enthusiastic anglicised voice of a young woman on the phone said she had seen me on television, followed me on the internet and admired my work, I thought that finally I had a fan. However, when she asked how she could join my party, the penny dropped. "Madam, you have the wrong Bhushan. You want Prashant Bhushan," I told her.
My ego suitably deflated, I realised that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) would have no problems recruiting volunteers. Already some 300,000 volunteers have joined AAP after December 8, 2012, when the Delhi Assembly election results were declared. Executives from multinational corporations, former legislators and Lok Sabha aspirants from existing political parties are making a beeline for AAP membership.
Such public enthusiasm is both an opportunity and a threat. It could help AAP spread its wings beyond Delhi - the party is already talking about contesting in up to 300 Lok Sabha constituencies. However, the entry of opportunists might also threaten its very nature.
AAP began as the revolt of the non-government organisations (NGOs) and civil society - its entire top leadership comes from these two sectors. These sections of society have for long occupied the Oppositional space in Indian politics outside of legislative politics. Averse to politics and politicking, the only demand of these sections of society was for accountable governance by those already in politics.
When pushed to enter electoral politics, through them AAP brought about a sea change in the processes of politics - crowd funding of elections, a ground-up selection of electoral candidates, decentralised and constituency-based election manifestos, and public conduct which is non-elitist. The existing political practices were turned on their head.
Many who aspire to the same ideals as AAP - of accountable governance with integrity and honesty in public life - will come forward to join the party. However, there is an essential difference between those who come to AAP from civil society organisations and NGOs, and those who are merely switching parties or have an entrepreneurial interest in politics.
While the NGO and civil society activists want to change the system of governance and the engagement of citizens with it, the existing political parties and the political entrepreneurs attempt to make the system work through patron-client relationships. One is a rights-based approach (for example Right to Information, Right to education or work, rights of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, forest dwellers and minorities, Right to food security, etc.), the other is based on patronage (expanding OBC reservations to include more castes, seeking special status for some regions or states, for example). The former has the potential to transform the system of governance while the latter seeks to somehow shore up existing structures by expanding the client base of the politics of caste, community and regions.
An alternative politics will require alternative party structures. Despite various commendable initiatives, party formation is not going to be an easy nut to crack for AAP. A centralised party structure is not the best way to bring together individuals with high integrity but with diverse perspectives and experiences.
The special advantage that the NGOs, civil society organisations and public intellectuals have over the existing political parties is their engagement with the issues of common citizens, an awareness of what needs to be done and a participatory perspective on how problems can be resolved. Decentralised thinking and local structures are a unique advantage since they are not premised on a one-size-fits-all solution for a country as diverse as India. The challenge for AAP is to bring these different perspectives - each valuable in its immediate context - together.
The imminent Parliamentary elections present a unique opportunity for AAP to draw on the diversity and widespread presence of rights-based NGOs, civil society organisations and public intellectuals to build a decentralised party structure. In every state, there are people with integrity who are not in politics. Those who have tried to enter politics up to now have met with failure, unless, like Sandeep Dikshit, they had a family with a political pedigree. With the stellar performance of AAP in Delhi, many in the NGO and civil society sector are bound to be enthused about entering politics. If AAP taps into this enthusiasm, the party will emerge as a broad democratic alliance of numerous state-based parties organised around different issues and individuals in each state.
Several significant NGO activists and public intellectuals have already been marshalled for party building in their states. Some have been invited to Delhi to manage the party structure...
