Five big Takeaways from the Delhi Elections.

Congratulations to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for their resounding victory in the 2015 Delhi assembly elections. The ‘broom’ literally swept the capital clean. No pundit, opinion poll or exit poll, predicted the magnitude of their victory. A new chapter has been written in Indian politics which writes in bold and capital, that you don’t need to rely on communal polarization, dynasty and hundreds and thousands of crores to fight and win an election.

The following are the five biggest takeaways from this election:

1.) Be Humble and Apologize.

A masterstroke by Kejriwal. He apologized to the nation umpteen number of times for running away from power after just 49 days. There was genuineness in his apology and the decisive verdict proves, that people were willing to give him a second chance.

2.) Modi-Shah duo is no longer infallible.

The biggest takeaway from this election. It demolished the invincible aura that the duo enjoyed. The hubris that exuded from the BJP’s demeanour too would’ve been shattered. In a way, this is a good thing for the ruling party as well as the Indian democracy. Too much of centralized and concentrated power at the hands of a few, will always be detrimental in the long run. The winning streak and the public mandate that they enjoyed, gave them a garb to hide under, whenever questions were raised regarding the increasing communal tensions. Hopefully, the BJP will gracefully swallow the bitter pill and get back to their original agenda and promise of ‘acche din’, development and good governance.

3.) Caustic and negative campaigns don’t work.

The BJP made the same mistake which the congress did in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. They should’ve realized from the congress’s puerile strategy, that vitriolic campaigns targeting an individual doesn’t really work. On the contrary, the constant accusations and name calling like ‘bhagoda’, ‘Back stabber’, ‘Naxalite’, ‘Anarchist’ etc. evoked sympathy among the voters and turned Kejriwal from a ‘bhagoda’ to a ‘bechara’.

4.) State elections are about micro issues, not macro.

The AAP was accused of playing agitational politics and being inept at governance. To counter this, they released a detailed and meticulously etched out manifesto to deal with the electricity, water and infrastructural problems. The BJP on the other hand was content with just a vision document which doesn’t mean anything.

Throughout their rallies, the BJP went overboard in selling their ‘centre-state-same-party’ logic, but barely addressed the local issues that plague the people day in and day out. I saw a YouTube video of Amit Shah’s rally, wherein all he doing was extolling the governance of the BJP in the last nine months, the falling oil prices, the Obama visit and India’s deterring response to Pakistan’s ceasefire violations and infiltrations.

5.) Don’t parachute land your leaders at the last moment.

Kiran Bedi is a classic example of why you shouldn’t parachute land your leaders at the last moment. Instead, strengthen your state organisational unit, empower and groom the local leaders. Harsh Vardhan should’ve been the ideal candidate as he won the BJP 32 seats in the last assembly elections. But Amit Shah & Co. tried to be too clever by half and the end result was 19 Ministers, 120 MPs and a mute Bedi against one man.

AAP regrouped after their debacle in the Lok Sabha elections and began their campaign well in advance with the Delhi dialogues. By the time the BJP took stock of the situation, it was already too late.

Commendable work as well as a strong reminder by Barkha Dutt & NDTV.

‘Toxic’ Campaign in Toxic City: Who Cares About World’s Worst Air?

Hawala at Midnight: The Irony and the Mystery.

When you claim to be ‘Holier than thou’, even the slightest of blemish on your character, will be examined scrupulously. This is what happened with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Monday night, when the AAP Volunteer Action Manch (AVAM), a splinter group of the AAP accused the latter of money laundering, labelling it as the ‘Midnight Hawala’ scam. The AVAM revealed that the AAP accepted two crore rupees donation from dubious companies. Four cheques, each of rupees 50 lakh were deposited into their account at midnight all at the same time.

Let’s make certain things clear from the beginning.

1. This is not a ‘hawala’ scam as the payment was made via cheque.
2. Money was deposited on April 5^th, 2014, more than 8 months ago.
3. Exposing this only 5 days before the election day makes the timing suspicious.
4. BJP hand behind this operation and their nexus with the AVAM cannot be ruled out.

Additionally, I wouldn’t use the word ‘expose’, as the information was procured from the AAPs website and not through confidential documents or a sting operation. The most amusing and ironical part of the proceedings, is that the BJP and the congress are going all guns blazing against the AAP. The two national parties just cannot take a morally superior position in this matter. Thousands of crores of funding for the BJP comes from ‘Unknown Sources’ and some of the biggest scams in the history of independent India, happened under the congress regime. The congress in fact, had the temerity to dismiss the 2G scam by claiming that there has been ‘Zero loss to the exchequer.’

The AAP has formed a Political Affairs Committee (PAC) which investigates all donations which are more than 9,99,999 rupees. Though the AAP has demanded a Supreme Court monitored SIT probe on this, they should just admit that there was a lapse in their diligence and not indulge in rhetoric.  The primary defense put forward by Kejriwal and his party men, is that the donations were made by cheque and that they examine only the following three things: 1) if it’s a registered company, 2) their PAN card 3) Cheque of a valid bank account. According to them, they receive thousands of donations every day and it is not pragmatic to check balance sheets and profit and loss accounts of every single company.

While this make sense to a degree, I cant fathom out why their alarm bells didn’t ring when four companies each donating 50 lakh rupees by cheque were all deposited at the exact same time? If I had a NGO and someone was so charitable to donate such a large amount, I would definitely want to enquire and find out who these people are. Granted they might be receiving thousands of donations per day, but in actuality, how many of them donate 50 lakhs and above? Did they not even for once feel the need to meet the proprietors of the company and establish whether there is any expectation of a Quid Pro Quo? Or is that an irrelevant factor? Lots of unanswered questions.

Still five more days to go before the results are out. Will the voters be swayed away from the AAP due to this? We’ll get the answer on the 10^th of this month.

World oil prices Jan2009: $44 per barrel, petrol in Delhi Rs40 per Litre
World oil prices Jan2015: $44,per barrel, petrol in Delhi Rs58.per Litre

Difference: BJP taxes.

The only real defense i think of for the reduction in subsidy, is that BJP wants to improve the fiscal deficit.

Isn’t 18Rs too big a hike? are they willing to explain this to the voters?