Objective analysis: An insight into AAP’s Delhi Govt beyond media frenzy and mud slinging

By Sreyashi Mazumdar

Blowing the conch of victory, Arvind Kejriwal took over the reign of the national capital with a whopping 67 seats in his pocket in the Delhi assembly elections. However, with the overarching hullaballoo over his inefficiency as a leader and his taking after Modi's one-man-army trick, the party has been lampooned over a considerable period now.

Ranging from his new found fetish for ads to publicize the achievements of his party to his law minister's scandalous episodes, the party has been overtly bitten by its adversaries.

Nevertheless, like every coin has a flip side, the muffler man's party has much to its credit too. The conniving media reports and the vicious tactics of the opposition parties have somewhere down the line vitiated the achievements of the party.

"Thanks for the unprecedented victory. But it's very scary, the kind of support the people of Delhi have extended and the mandate we have been given," this is what the maverick had to say on his glorious victory. Despite playing the sheep, the intent to unleash an era of development with public engagement in order to bring forth a transparent and clean government was etched on his mind.

The little good things

Kicking off with the positives of the party, one would surely reminisce of his attempt at making educational opportunities readily available to the citizenry of Delhi, laying off the hassles one might run into. Being one of its kinds in India, the Kejriwal government gave a nod to the higher education and skill education guarantee scheme.

The scheme enables the individual under question to game for a loan of Rs 10 lakhs irrespective of his financial background. The scheme turns out to be a game changer as it doesn't require a witness or a guarantor to ensure the availability of the loan. The new development cracks down upon the impediments of higher and vocational education.

Keeping in line with the Delhi High court order of 2013, the mango man's government has given a green signal to the 'Witness Protection Policy.' The newfangled approach of the government towards ensuring the security of witness in crucial cases has added another feather to the capital city's attempt at refurbishing justice.

There have been cases where crucial witnesses were murdered or were subjected to excruciating bouts of torture; therefore, the new policy seems to be an easement.

The newly inaugurated Mohalla clinic at Piragarhi Relief Camp is one of the several steps taken by the leader in the recent past to make medical facilities readily available to the poor. 1000 such clinics are on their verge of getting constructed in the city.

According to the health minister, Satendra Jain, averse to the investments made by the previous governments in the construction of such clinics, the new clinic has been built at a very reasonable rate; the cost of construction was 1/25th of what the previous government had been doling out.

Adding another feather to the party's cap, the legislators of the nation's capital have also rendered a relief to the pension beneficiaries. According to an NDTV report, around 30,000 pension beneficiaries have been successfully granted the awaited amount and another 20,000 of them will be garnering their share soon.

Despite having rolled out a series of policies benefitting the masses, the party also bears loop holes if introspected in the right order.

The little bad things

The muffler man's party kicked off on a positive note, seemingly striking the chords of unity; however, with each passing day, it seems the entire essence of deliberation has somewhere down the line, got obliterated. Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan's expulsion from the national executive and laying off Admiral Ramdas's participation in the national council meeting, further, the exemplification of a one-man show through the ad campaigns hints at a dictatorial tendency creeping in.

Kejriwal's populist measure of delivering free wi-fi facilities in the capital city, if mulled over closely, unravels a string of disadvantages. For instance, only government websites would be accessible through the free wi-fi facility, the service wouldn't cater to websites like YouTube. Further the party's plan at juxtaposing women security facilities with the wi-fi wouldn't fetch a sound result as the service wouldn't be available in the desolated corners of the city.

When the rebel started off his party, with a vision of changing the political system, it was the media which gave him the podium, the space to ravel out his plans and policies. In an attempt at being the harbinger of a participatory democracy, he took to every method which would fulfil his goal; which would accelerate public participation.

Media was one of those means which AAP took to in order to mark his triumph in the assembly elections. However, his recent attack at the media has somewhere down the line scarred his endorsement of participation in politics. His dig at the media raised a million eyebrows, as his snap at the same wasn't quite expected of him. Being tethered by the growing controversies, he even went to the extent of blaming the media of conspiring against him and his parties.

The party's new found fetish for ad campaigns got vehemently criticized by people across the board. The Delhi High court's recent take on the party effort to promote its accomplishment through ad campaigns got chastised by the judges looking over the case. On the basis of a Supreme Court judgement that forbids politicians from wasting tax payers' money on ad campaigns, the party got censured.

"Electoral politics in India is more about making gains through money, muscle power and nepotism and less about a contest between competing politics and policies."

While looking into the party's list of objectives on its website, one might have run into the aforementioned statement. However, ruminating on the present development, one might find the party at loggerheads with its own take on electoral politics.

Nonetheless, the muffler man's attempt at making change despite being pocked with a string of irrational and fallacious policies might result in the creation of Swarajya, a state wherein the commoners have a say and an opportunity to render their wisdom in sound policy formulation.