The dramatic political debut of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the recently concluded Delhi state assembly election, and the rout of the Congress party in the assembly elections held concurrently in the Hindi heartland states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, are landmark events in the troubled history of post-independence India, a sorry narrative of the first great nation-building enterprise of the post-colonial world order whose currents have run pathetically awry. The strength of the ruling Congress is reduced in the Delhi legislative assembly from 43 to 8, and from 96 to 21 seats in Rajasthan. Yet even as the euphoria which has followed the defeat of the Congress in these ˜semi-final™ elections (a curtain raiser for the general election due to be called before May 2014) is justified, it is pertinent to remember that within three years of the decimation of the Congress party in the general election of 1977, Mrs. Gandhi and the Congress were voted back into office in New Delhi. Therefore there™s real and omnipresent danger of history repeating itself. Over the past 65 years Congress leaders right down to the grassroots level have accumulated vast wealth, which can and will be used to buy influential vote banks and manipulate the electoral process. Like the communist parties of Russia and China, the Congress has metamorphosed into a mafia-like privilegentsia which will fight fang and claw for the right to continue to harvest the loaves and fishes of office at the Centre and in the states. Yet even if the Congress tainted by venality and corruption has thoroughly alienated the electorate, the prospect of a coalition led by the right wing BJP, urges caution. For a start, just as Congress has corruption embedded in its core, the BJP is infected with the deadly virus of religious fundamen-talism and communalism, which could mire the nation into low-intensity civil conflict of the genre which has destroyed Lebanon and threatens to destabilise several countries of the Middle East and Africa. Moreover, during its first term in office (1999-2004), the BJP also provided ample proof of its susceptibility to corruption and primitive capital accumulation. It™s against this backdrop that AAP™s stupendous debut in the Delhi state election comes as a reviving dose of oxygen for the battered public, which has had to endure the self-serving machinations of Congress/BJP for too long. Yet it is abundantly clear that AAP is a single-issue party which lacks the intellectual depth and maturity to flesh out a comprehensive agenda covering vital issues such as defence, foreign policy, education, public health and fiscal policy and management. These lacunae are bound to be highlighted by wily leaders of the mainstream parties playing for larger stakes in the forthcoming general election. Therefore it makes sense for the AAP leadership to make common cause with new political formations such as Lok Satta and the Children First Party of India, which lack the vast monetary resources of Congress and BJP and are struggling against the public™s Stockholm syndrome, but…
