The recent APP rally in Panaji has generated a lot of heat after the dust has settled. In fact one MLA even did not wait for the dust to settle or worry about his recovery, he was off the blocks asking for the accounts of the rally, who funded it and how much was spent. One can argue that in India that is surely not the norm. Did anyone show anyone the accounts of Modi’s visit to Goa? However, here is where AAP can prove that they are different, walk the talk and give an account. It will be a game changer.
The meeting rattled a few is evident from the fact that new metrics began to emerge, how many posters were put up and how many people attended. Surely, that is new. Point is how many Chief Ministers would accept the challenge and go to another State and expect to address a similar rally?
One thing that was different about the AAP meeting was that there were a number of people who had taken time out on a Sunday, driven in their own cars for a political rally maybe for the first time in their lives. It reminded me of the good old GBA days. At that time it was the Regional Plan that united people, now it seems to be a movement against corruption. People are rightly tired, they were promised zero tolerance to corruption but nothing has changed.
WhatsApp messages were circulated stating that those who attended were being paid Rs. 500 to wear a cap and another Rs. 500 to attend, yet none of the senders knew where one could redeem the same. Caps were distributed freely. Then there were the volunteers. This is another feature of this party, people from all walks of life offering their services for free. They are teachers, professionals, bankers, generally working class who offer a few hours a week because they believe in the stated ideas of AAP. They form the back bone of the movement.
Quite a few volunteers had come in from outside Goa. Surely as the days go by they will have to ensure that the local volunteers equal or exceed the imported volunteers. This does not seem to be a huge task give that they were able to put on a good show with just six months and starting with a handful of people. Post the meeting the volunteers stayed back and cleaned up the venue. Surely this must been a welcome change for the residents of the area who are used to seeing a messed up Campal ground post a political rally. They even took down posters from lamp posts and have appealed for information about any still left. You can imaging the high standard expected of them from people who never take their own posters down, they kept pointing out locations where some posters were still hanging. Maybe they did not want any memory of this history making day to be seen.
The Congress has not been able to field new faces till date and insist on plodding along with the grandfathers as they are now come to be known. AAP announced 40 coordinators, all fresh faces and generally young. Youth is a generally associated with startups. AAP seems to be like the present day startups in business, startups that have over taken 25 year old companies in a short time. So CM Parsekar’s thinking may not be on the ball when he says that it took the BJP 25 years to establish itself so APP would have a long wait. It does not have to be so.
Infiltration is normally associated with insurgency on the borders, but that is now a new word around AAP. Apparently, AAP has been infiltrated by RSS idealogues. On one hand they discount AAP as a non-entity, an upstart, why would anyone want to infiltrate. When Digambar Kamat, the No 2 in the BJP jumped ship and went on to become the No 1 in the Congress no one discussed infiltration. When it comes to APP the goal posts seems to be moveable.
One media head was asked to give up his seat to accommodate an owner of a steel guzzling unit. AAP has a drawn a lot of activists, now balancing the activists on one hand and the demands of business on the other will be tricky. If they can manage that it would be great and therein lies the key. As Dr Oscar once wrote, AAP failed in the Lok Sabha elections because they did not have an economic agenda.
Splitting votes is another aim of AAP, or so say their detractors. Most likely in the next election the ones who would be most likely to do this is the Congress as one thing is sure, it is a dead party walking. The only reason the leaders are around is because the BJP, despite talking of 60 years of misrule and corruption, does not have the will to put them behind bars. AAP’s stated objective is to challenge all 40 seats, and they would not contest for a few seats as that will not allow them to be agents of change.
Lastly, the concept of alphabets. While the BJP feels AAP is the B team of the Congress, Congress is yelling from the roof tops that AAP is the B team of the BJP. Dr. Oscar, feels that AAP is not a B team but an A team and it should be ignored at one’s own peril. Love them or hate them, you surely cannot ignore AAP.
Blaise Costabir is an alumnus of the Asian Institute of Management and a first generation entrepreneur
