Predicament and Potential of AAM ADMI in India

                                                                                                                   John Samuel

 Political Context and Trends

 The  emergence of Aam Admi Party ( AAP)  is a positive political experiment in its embryonic stage.  It is a significant development in the Indian political landscape- as its electoral victory reflects the frustrations and anger of a whole range of people against the entrenched nexus between economic elites and political elites and consequent corruption that infected the very body politics of India. It also reflects a frustration and disdain against  the 'career politician' syndrome wherein politics itself is reduced to a career option to capture and enjoy the power of the  state and comforts and paraphernalia of power within the government or in the shadow of the government . Idealism within political party praxis began to fade away from the early eighties and eventually a large number of people joined full time politics with an ambition to enter electoral politics or to get positions of power in the government (unlike the generation driven to politics to fight for freedom or justice or a larger cause) .AAP  has also successfully demonstrated  how civic politics can get morphed in to viable electoral politics  and possibilities, even if it is in a limited manner.

It would be worthwhile to highlight some of the trends in the context of AAP, the DNA of which came from the Anti-corruption movement, led by the Anna team. Here are the earlier observations that  I made in the context of the anti-corruption movement, which served as a spring board for the  AAP.

1) There is little space for the politically aware middle class to join a political party or mainstream political process as political parties are still in the old mode, allowing no room for horizontal entry beyond the usual feeder mechanisms. Even today, in most political parties (except for the left parties) lineage matters more than political vision, commitment or grassroots experience. One in every six MPs is there because of his/her family connections. And many of the political parties go after ‘celebrities’ as a quick fix to win votes, at the cost of committed party workers or cadres. No one will be able to tell how Govinda or Hema Malini contributed as  MPs or to the parties that offered seats to them! Millionaires and billionaires can buy their way in to Parliament or even control few hundred MPs to bat for their corporate cause inside or outside the Parliament.  Millionaires in our parliament increased exponentially over the last two decades. So to enter in to inner circles of established political party establishments, people either needs correct lineage, or money or muscle or the patronage of cast/community feudal network.  This has alienated large number of politically conscious middle class and poor people from the political party process and their role got reduced in to passive voters  once in four or five years or consumers of the inefficient services of government. This has frustrated a large number of middle class who are more aware about politics and who expect more and better options in and from party politics and government.

2) The software of Indian politics is changing though the hardware has not changed. The political and policy process in India has changed significantly in the last 15 years. There is a new middle class with more access to knowledge, technology, social networking, income and global exposure. Modes of power, social legitimation and leadership have changed significantly in the last 20 years. However, the structural character of the Indian political party system is still based on a model that emerged in the early-1980s, the post-Emergency period in Indian politics.

3) Modes of communication determine modes of mobilisation and also modes of politics in many ways. Look at how the profile of political leaders has changed with televised political communication. Few have worked directly with the people or mobilised them at the grassroots. Many have walked onto the political stage through the TV studios. They are telegenic and articulate and derive their political legitimacy in the television studios, though they may not be at ease with the dust and sweat of the road or the noise of the masses. Many of them have been lawyers or relatively better-educated members of the urban upper-middle class. Consider Kapil Sibal, Manu Abhishek Singhvi, P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat.

Telegenic politics has caused journalism itself to become a ‘performance’ in the TV studios or on the road, eclipsing the old modes of analytic journalism and nuanced critique. This kind of instant journalism is all about playing to the moment and performing for an imagined community. Mass politics has been submerged under this form of media politics. The market and the media have collided to create an instant ‘sensex’ of politics.

It is here that new-age advocacy actors from the non-party political/civil space have begun to outsmart the old politicians by performing media politics and utilising network modes of mobilisation. They are the telegenic civil society counterparts of the telegenic politicians.  They belong to the same class: articulate, urban, upper-caste middle class. The people were to them largely the means and not the end of democracy. Rhetoric often preceded the reality of a billion people.  In a world where market, media and telegenic performance determine political clout, the new civil society too has learned the art of politics as performance, competing for TRP ratings in the marketplace of media mediation.

But now in the age of social media and new possibilities of communications, the name of the game is changing again. Here, the civil society actors are ahead of the old political class in shaping perceptions of power through communications. The power of influencing perception has become more important than the real power of the people on the ground. Politics itself has been reduced to a ‘virtual’ game in the marketplace of perceptions.

4) When mainstream political parties are reduced to an electoral network that merely wins or loses elections, other actors fill the empty political spaces. That is precisely the reason for the relevance and space of new advocacy networks and organisations -- from KSSP to Narmada Bachao, to the RTI movement, to the right to work (NREGA) campaign to the present anti-corruption campaigns. Look at all the key legislations (including the campaign for political participation of women) in the last 15 years. None of them came from the mainstream political parties. Most of the demand first emerged in the political-civil space beyond political parties; then political parties responded by absorbing the demands into policy agenda. This is bound to happen when the sole preoccupation of political parties is winning or losing an election, and then staying in power.

Ideology has taken a backseat -- except in empty slogans and rhetoric. The politics of electoral convenience has replaced the politics of conviction. Political opportunism has been elevated to the position of 'smart' politics -- hiring media experts, advertising professionals, campaign managers, and slogans coined by copywriters of ad-firms in charge of designing the best campaigns to grab more seats (by hook or by crook). This is a far cry from the idealistic politics of the Nehruvian phase in post-independence India.

When ideology (or political vision/mission) is replaced by a mix of identity- (caste, creed, language) and interest-based electoral arithmetic, the politics of transformation is reduced to pressure politics and redundant, ‘instant’ rhetoric. It is in such spaces that civil society activism find its relevance and influence in the mainstream political landscape of India.

5) Whether one likes it or not, the middle class has always shaped the broader political discourse in India and elsewhere -- from communism to capitalism to fascism to Hindutva.  So the role of the middle class in Indian politics is not new. Most of the ideologues and political leaders have come from the Indian middle class, and largely from the upper-caste.

Anna Hazare happened to be simply a signifier: here the old idealism met with new modes of mobilisation -- beyond the usual institutional network of political parties. There is also a message: those in government or power can no longer simply take the people for granted. And in the age of social networking, mobilisation and public opinions can also be shaped beyond mainstream media and mainstream politics. This gives rise to the possibility of a new politics beyond the electoral games we witness every five years.

6) The rural-urban divide has political implications in India. In independent India, there have been four major political transitions -- the end of the 1960s Nehruvian era;  the end of one-party rule following the Emergency;  the emergence of telegenic politics in the 1990s and the age of globalisation; and assertive Hindutva competing for the vote-bank late-’80s onwards.  Almost all of these periods have had an urban middle class link -- even in the case of the Naxalites -- in shaping the discourse.

7) However, it would be rather simplistic to compare the new social network-based mobilisation of the urban middle classes to the Gandhian mode of political struggles for freedom against colonialism and imperialism. Politics against injustice, oppression and domination preceded the methods of Gandhi. Gandhian methods did not define his politics. His politics and ethics shaped his choice of methods and communication. Gandhi’s politics was the politics of the masses and not the politics of the mass media. Gandhi worked and lived with the people, listened to them, educated and empowered them and spent a lifetime experimenting with his ideas and methods, without compromising the ideal of transformation. Gandhi sought to transform politics, not transcend politics.

Here, in the media-driven performance of Team Anna, method preceded politics. This was the politics of instant performance, seeking to influence the perceptions of a particular class, rather than a mass politics to challenge and change the situation. It sought to transcend politics rather than transform politics.  It sought to create symbols devoid of substance.  It is interesting to note how Team Anna team played to the needs of the media market. The  protest performance began with the backdrop of an image of Bharat Mata (Mother India), appealing to upper-caste Hindu sentiments, and when this was criticised for its saffron leanings, the backdrop was changed to an elegantly designed photograph of Gandhiji  with the charkha, and the waving of the national flag to ‘nationalise’ and ‘secularise’ the performance of the fast. This colourful performance of protest, where Kiran Bedi played the cheerleader on the ‘stage’ and Anna pretended to be Gandhi was a spectacle of politics aimed at the media. The masses became simply a means to show power rather than the real source of power. This was a mockery of Gandhian principles, practise and methods of politics. The media followed Gandhi’s politics. Here the politics of performance followed the media.

9) Anna was just a symbol in a campaign primarily promoted by Delhi-centric upper-caste and middle class actors. Anna, an ex-army man from rural India of the jai jawan-jai kisan variety with a bit of the Gandhian touch and grassroots NGO background, was set against an urban backdrop, with mass media filling in the gaps: Anna symbolised the ‘old’ India onscreen, and young India was represented by the youth on the streets, the whole performance televised. Kiran Bedi put up a good performance for the media, of the elite, post-retirement ‘civil service’ transiting into ‘civil society’.  ‘Civil society’ itself became a residual space for the new elites to find their niche within the media mediations. Bollywood star Aamir Khan added the celebrity quotient to the new ‘civil society’ performers manufactured by the media.

You have to admit it was a smart experiment in new modes of advocacy campaigning -- making strategic use of symbols (Anna too was one), media and networking. This was not a political struggle or a Satyagraha of Gandhian politics. It was a smart, urban-based advocacy campaign. Though there are many interesting lessons to learn from it, India Against Corruption’s campaign cannot be compared with the salt satygraha or even the anti-Emergency campaign.

The Potentials and challenges for  AAP

1)      Revitalizing and redefining politics and democratic experiment.

I consider AAP experiment as a continuation of the earlier political process that challenged the established power-cartels in the late 1960s, during the JP Movement, during the initial years of BSP and also in the early nineties. None of them survived as broad political movement- though parts of such movements got absorbed by the establishment and they themselves became establishment. However, these movements played an important political role to revitalize and redefine the Indian democratic process and experiments. In that sense, AAP is a positive political experiment that would force the existing political party establishment to rethink their politics and approach and eventually revitalize the Indian democratic experiment. I would argue that Indian democratic experiment survived for more than six decades because of the politics of dissent and organisation of protests and frustrations within the framework of democratic electoral politics. So I will not be dismissive or be cynical about the AAP political process.

2)      Bandwagon Syndrome

 While AAP has some credible leaders, it also attracts a whole range of actors, including the residues /disgruntled elements from the political party system and also a whole range of people with multiple personal, political and ideological agenda and persuasion- ranging from right wing to left wing .This bandwagon syndrome on the one hand reflect the new enthusiasm of the people to go beyond the rather sterile and closed political party structures and interest-networks within those political parties  However, this bandwagon syndrome will also trigger the ideological and internal contradictions within the DNA of AAP. To mediate and negotiate multiple interests and ideological persuasions any party needs clear institutional capacity and process and also a coherent and collective sense of leadership and vision beyond the bandwagon syndrome. That is what history taught us. As of now AAP does not have any filtering mechanism. All sorts of actors (from RSS, BJP background to new left or social movements) are all jumping in to the bandwagon, more as a reaction to the frustrating experience from the established political parties. There is a distinction between politics as a proactive choice and politics as a reactive choice. Now the bandwagon syndrome is indicative of a 'reactive' political choice. If AAP has not won Delhi election, many of those who join AAP now would have been ridiculing the formation.

3)      Quick-Fix Solutions?

It is too early to predict its political trajectory and viability as the Pan-Indian reality is different from the urban-centric perspective or political locations. Politics is as much as local, regional, linguistics and global. And large number of aam admi live in rural India and belong to Dalits, Adivasies, minorities and marginalised communities and those who live with less than 100 rupees a day. While it is rather easy to get excited over face book, social networks or TV, the real India still lives in villages, beyond social networks and urban conclaves.. And it requires years of political work and commitment beyond the ‘quick-fix’ solutions to politicise and historicise the Indian democratic and political process.  BSP took more than twenty years. BJP( in its post Jansangh) form ( and in-spite of the RSS structural support) took more than twenty five years to make viable presence- and even now BJP is not a pan-Indian party. So while AAP is a good experiment, it is too early to say that in its present trajectory beyond the urban centres, whether it has a potential to transform politics in a sustainable manner

4)       Umbrella party?

 AAP itself got such a visibility because it was a 'Delhi-centric' experiment, where it was much easier for the 'national media' and 'international media' to cover. If AAP happened in a north-eastern state or in a relatively marginalised state, it would not have had such a visibility. If you ask about an umbrella party with multiple interests and multiple ideological spectrums, Congress is already established, where there are indeed multi-vocal voices as well as inbuilt mechanism for dissent and negotiating dissent. However, Congress Party ( like most of other parties) have become victim of the decay within, and  the rather entrenched network of interests, identity and corporate agenda at the cost of the original ideals and idea of Gandhi, Nehru or the first generation congress leaders who fought for freedom and  justice. And it is in this context of dissolving of the ‘congress system’ that AAP as a political process emerge and tend to fill in that space, even if temporarily.  As of now AAP does not have a coherent, cohesive or collective sense of leadership and broad political imagination that can capture the imagination of 1.2 billion Indians.

5)      Media mediations and competing cult syndrome?

 As of now Aravind Kejariwal faces the predicament of being reduced to a ‘cult’ figure in line with the ‘mediated’ media image competing with Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi. This ‘image’ mediation and competing ‘cult’ in the media based on Face Book hits and twitter followers do not transform politics on the ground.  And the key challenge for AAP leadership will be  to
outgrow the ‘cult-syndrome’ and ‘bandwagon’ syndrome. And also how to move beyond ‘reactive’ political spaces to a ‘proactive’ political space with a large vision for all the people of the country as well as how to make the promises of the Indian constitution real for everyone in India. This requires a more coherent and cohesive political imagination,  a pan-Indian leadership cutting across cast, creed ,gender and class. The challenge is more than winning an election. The challenge is whether such an experiment can transform the very body politics of India to really democratise politics in an inclusive manner with a sense of mission and vision.

 I am generally positive to this political  experiment though I am less inclined to jump in to a bandwagon, due to any ‘reactive’ reasons.  The question is whether AAP will be able to transform the frustration and anger of people in to a cohesive and coherent political party with clear programme and ethical leadership and with an ability to move beyond politics of protest to politics of viable proposals and clear political agenda for empowering  more than a billion aam admies on the ground.

The term Aam Admi is taken from an old slogan of the good old congress party. Ironically the  slogan still remains a slogan. And the question is what it takes to transform a slogan in to real politics on the ground, fulfilling the unfulfilled promises of the Indian constitution and Freedom to the large majority of ordinary people living in the invisible villages and congested slums of India. One can only hope that the embryo AAP will give birth to a healthy new generation of leadership and political process and not another example of a still born baby of dead promises. The challenge is on and I still remain optimist about Indian democracy and politics.