'आप' की जीत पर अखबारों की कवरेज

Interpreting the AAP win

This is more a positive vote for the AAP than a negative one for the BJP or Narendra Modi. Had this been a negative vote for the BJP, the AAP may not have managed to register such a massive victory. While almost all parties promised to provide electricity and water supply at reduced rates, and greater security for women, in reality, the entire election turned into a referendum on the AAP’s chief ministerial candidate, Arvind Kejriwal, and the AAP managed to benefit by projecting himself/itself from this phenomenon. The popularity of Mr. Kejriwal was much higher when compared to any other leader. Even the votes polled by the AAP are a clear indication that some sections of voters voted for the AAP only due to Mr. Kejriwal. Initially, though a large number of voters seemed to have been polarised in favour of different parties, some may have shifted their voting preference from other parties to the AAP at the very last minute of voting, keeping in mind the prospective Chief Minister.
Read Full Article Here

A victory of possibilities

Pratap Bhanu Mehta

The AAP, on the other hand, wears the imprimatur of a new revolution. It is a party that defies the conventional wisdom that you need big money or a sectarian interest to be successful in politics. It is a party that, in response to the crisis of the Indian state, wants to deepen participation — in a new language of democratic experimentalism. In Arvind Kejriwal, it has a leader who, even in disagreement, exudes a sincerity that is impossible to match. He did what no politician has done in India. When he made a mistake, he simply said sorry. It allowed him to move on.

It has, at least in Delhi, a genuine organisation with youth and idealism behind it, a cast of spokesmen who try to exemplify public reason more than clownish antics.

Daniel Bell once said that the challenge of the modern state is that it is too big for the small problems in life and too small for the big problems in life. It has to articulate an idiom that addresses ordinary problems or ordinary people: petty corruption, electricity, water. The AAP hammered home these themes in a homely way.

If the BJP has any sense, it will draw the right lessons. For one thing, it should break the cynical awe in which Amit Shah is held and empower other voices in the party. The line between being clever and being too clever by half is very thin. The BJP is now transgressing it — witness its shenanigans in Bihar. Second, voters are feeling betrayed by the BJP. The prime minister is now trapped by his own mystique. His vacillations in the face of reactionary elements in his party and the sense that the talk is running ahead of the walk are growing. The municipal elections in Rajasthan were also a signal about this in minor key. Third, Modi now has a Congress problem. Other than the ones who predate Modi, the BJP is failing to nurture local leaders who have an independent base and voice. Cooperative federalism cannot be run with a centralised party. The BJP should be grateful that it has got the jolt early enough to correct course. But Modi has to realise that political capital dissipates fast.

Read Full Article here