AAP has to address both organisational, ideological questions: Rahul Verma

Rahul Verma, fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR) and expert on India’s domestic politics, in an interview with Aditi Phadnis, says the AAP has to tackle national issues to politically qualify as a national party. Edited excerpts:

The AAP has said it is now a national party. It meets the technical requirements. But politically, does it?

The CPR does a poll with YouGov which is an urban sample. In the poll we did in July-August 2022, the AAP had 7 per cent national traction. Before that, it used to be just 1-1.5 per cent nationally. So now, the AAP is a talking point among many sections of society. In fact, we asked another question in that survey: In the run-up to 2024 (general election), what kind of Opposition would you like to support — a rejuvenated Congress, a coalition of opposition parties, a new alternative like the AAP, or something else? And “a new alternative like the AAP” was the Number One choice of people.

Second, and this anecdotal, wherever I have gone, people do ask me questions about whether in Delhi you get free electricity and free water; whether education has really improved there… so the Delhi model of governance has created curiosity. Whether it is true or not is a matter of debate. But there is a curiosity among people to know about what it is.

What are the organisational challenges that AAP faces, and also the ideological challenges?

Organisational challenges and ideological questions need to be taken together: Because an organisation is often built around an ideological platform. On both these, the AAP does not have a great track record. For example in Delhi, because it has been winning, you do put an organisation on the ground. New people join — not necessarily for ideological reasons but because they might be enamoured of the leadership; they might join because they think they might get access to patronage. Neither is as strong a glue as ideological glue. Because a day will come when you lose power. Then what would happen to your organisation? And you can’t have the same leader present everywhere. So if a party has to have a long-term strategy, it needs to work on both ideological and organisational questions very seriously.

Second, so far, the AAP’s organisation building has been top-down rather than bottom-up. Because of its presence in Delhi and the movement that gave birth to the AAP, there was an attraction among the urban middle class about this party beyond the issues of corruption and governance. It also had a very decent presence on social media. But the other side of it —organisational presence bottom-up — has not happened in Delhi or Punjab.

The AAP has been charged with ambivalence on religion, caste, and the role of the state. Would you say the AAP needs to work on this also?

Absolutely. Any political party that wants to be a national party, in the long run, needs to have a vision of India. You can’t just say: “We’re a party against corruption and want India to be corruption free, and want good governance.” One, it is really hard to make everything corruption-free, and there is no party that will say: “We don’t want to have good governance" or "we are for corruption”.  These questions —reducing corruption, reducing poverty — all these are issues on which every party is going to be on the same side. The knotty questions are the positional issues: Questions around accommodation of religious minorities,  human rights, and whether India needs to have a hawkish foreign policy or a diplomacy-led foreign policy. On all these questions, slowly the party will have to define where it stands.

Some amount of flexibility is okay. For the last few years, the AAP has been flexible. But flexibility is different from making a somersault. A somersault is problematic for voters. But it is also problematic for your own workers. On what issue are they going to campaign? So you can’t keep your rank and file confused, because if your rank and file is confused, it will be hard for you to create social coalitions on the ground. Your worker first and foremost needs to understand what this party stands for. Only then is he going to toil hard on the ground, especially where you are not present. On social issues like caste also, you need to stand somewhere.