A moment of redemption and rectitude

The spectacular return of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) to power in Delhi represents a rare moment of redemption and rectitude in the recent history of Indian democracy. For large numbers of Indians fearful of the majoritarian threats to the social and political fabric of the country, this is indeed the triumph of hope over cynical chicanery chiselled to perfection during the past two years by the forces of communal hatred and barely disguised misanthropy. The momentous event restored the agency of the people as an organic and consequential element to the matrix of electoral calculations, rejecting the convenient notion that mind-numbing PR and media blitzkrieg, hubristic display of power and opportunistic and rabble-rousing rhetoric would replace the role of good and humane politics that is sensitive to the plight of the underdog. The people of Delhi rejected in one go the neo-liberal and communal politics of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the stale politics of the Congress, preferring instead to give a chance to a bunch of creative adventurers who gate-crashed into the fray from the margins and made unpredictability and unconventionality the name of the game.

The most important implication of the election results from Delhi is that it will help all strands of opposition in India shake off the sense of defeatist fatalism that the so called Modi wave induced in them over the past couple of years. The triumphant march of the Narendra Modi juggernaut in the 2014 general elections and the few state elections that followed did create the impression that it was unstoppable and invincible. What saved the situation is actually Modi’s persistent obsession for staging dazzling spectacles sans real substance on all fronts, including foreign policy as recently manifested in US President Barack Obama’s much-feted visit to India. All the defining characteristics of Modi, the politician and the administrator, are antithetical to the idea and nature of India as a country marked by vibrant diversity, boisterous argumentativeness, multidimensionality and anti-authoritarianism.

All his personality traits — centralising and authoritarian tendency, flair for alliterative and often polarising word play, vindictive impatience with dissent and difference, proximity to big corporates, intellectual bankruptcy, communal and sectarian mindset and ludicrous display of megalomania and narcissism — stood in sharp contrast to the basic requirements that a leader of 1.25 billion people must possess. These traits may have stood him in good stead in a largely homogenised state like Gujarat, but ruling India called for an altogether different set of qualities, which his BJP predecessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee possessed in ample measure in spite of his life-long adherence to a divisive ideology.

The stunning success of Arvind Kejriwal and his ardent supporters in Delhi is the harbinger of a new wave of sensible and people-centric politics across India, which is ideology-agnostic without being ethics-neutral or relativist. This new narrative of politics promises a renewed focus on horizontal issues affecting the flotsam jetsam of Indian polity, determinedly away from the vertical and emotive sphere of identity politics.

Seditious statement

That this rejection of Modi’s politics by the people happened close on the heels of the reprehensible attempts by elements within the ruling Sangh Parivar (group of Hindu nationalists) to glorify and canonise Nathuram Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi, is historic. Sakshi Maharaj, a BJP MP, had declared Godse a patriot recently and the place he chose to make his seditious statement was the premises of the parliament! In many ways, the advent and evolution of the AAP in Indian politics can be described as the second-coming of Gandhi. The verdict of the people of Delhi is not only an unambiguous rejection of Modi’s politics, but also a clear indication that attempts to destroy the fundamental values of the Indian Republic will ultimately be foiled.

Given the incredibly humongous mandate that the people of Delhi have given Kejriwal, the only fear is that the leaders and cadre of his party turn smug and complacent over time and forget the factors that make them distinct and inimitable in the otherwise banal and venal politics of India.

If the AAP can guard against such pitfalls and push its politics beyond Delhi into the various states of India in the next few years, it will indeed restore Indian democracy to the heights that the founding fathers lived and died for. Now that the aura of invincibility around Modi is broken, the Delhi verdict may also finally compel him to break his eloquent silence on the divisive activities of his folks and take concrete action to stem the tide of communal frenzy now rampant in many parts of India. If not, his own survival as a politician is very much at stake!

Shajahan Madampat is a cultural critic and commentator based in Abu Dhabi.