As soon as the Delhi High Court verdict went public, an overenthusiastic TV anchor asked me: “Is the court’s verdict against your party and the government?” I paused for a moment, but couldn’t find a valid reason for his apprehension. After all, we are living in a successful parliamentary democracy.
People vote for a political party with huge expectations and the party that gets the support of the people forms the government. After forming the government, the party starts working in a way so that it can fulfil the promises made to the people during the political campaign.
The people – or the voters – do not expect anything from them or those in power who are either appointed or designated to an important public chair, whereas the elected representative of the people has a straight two-way relationship with the people.
They are answerable to the people for promises they make, whereas non-elected or nominated persons holding any office owe their allegiance to just that person who has got him/her designated to the chair.
It is in this context that Thursday’s HC verdict is against the fundamental spirit of the Constitution. It has seriously damaged the expectations of those Delhi residents who have given the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) 67 of the 70 constituency seats.
After all, why did the people of Delhi support the AAP with such massive numbers? Right from the time Delhi got its first assembly in 1993, Delhi has been ruled by either the Congress or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The BJP ruled the Union Territory for five years and the Congress for 15 consecutive years, before the AAP was formed in 2012. This new party was formed by people who neither had any firsthand experience of politics as such nor did they possess ample money to fight elections.
In their maiden election foray, the party succeeded in getting 29 seats in Delhi. It even managed to form a government. That also means that the AAP was able to get its first electoral victory and was able to form a government within 15 months of coming into existence. The media at that time termed this incident as “nothing less than a revolution”.
The day Arvind Kejriwal offered his resignation in February 2014, everyone assumed that the party would soon be in peril. They even compared it with a bubble. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the AAP lost all seven seats in Delhi, but a bigger miracle occurred in the Vidhan Sabha elections.
The Congress was completely wiped out and the BJP was reduced to three seats out of 31 that it held before the election.
AAP’s Ascent
The ascent of the AAP in Delhi needs to be understood in a better way, so that we understand the HC verdict in the correct perspective. After all, why did the people of Delhi choose to put their trust in newcomers like us than seasoned, senior politicians of the Congress and the BJP?
The sorry state of the Indian political system has a lot in common with certain aspects prevalent in both these grand old parties. Fallacies prevalent in the Indian political system can be easily found in both these parties. For them, politics is just a means to earn their livelihood, rather than social work.
The easiest way to earn money! Every government action demands a lot of money, right from top to bottom. People are busy with their dubious deals. During elections, money power is used to garner votes. Individuals with suspicious background are given tickets to contest polls; the common man hates this politics. For an average, noble man, politics is a formidable bastion where no one wants to make a foray.
The AAP is out to change this concept of politics in the country. If a person like me can dare to enter politics, it’s all because of AAP. This miracle took place in Delhi because the common man is fed up with dirty politics. People want to bring change and they saw this happening with the AAP.
When AAP came to power in Delhi, its first and foremost action was against the corrupt system. It tried to usher in change, much to the chagrin of those who were benefiting from the previous system. It was but obvious for them to be bewildered.
This bewilderment brought all the corrupt forces together, and to sabotage the steps taken by the AAP government against the corrupt officials, the 40-year-old Anti-Corruption Bureau was snatched from the AAP government’s jurisdiction and given to the L-G of Delhi. All this paralyses the functioning of the bureau.
The CNG fitness scam – in which both Sheila Dikshit and Najeeb Jung were suspected to have played a role – was never investigated. According to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), certain power companies are suspected to be involved in various scams amounting to Rs 8,000 crore, but the AAP can’t get it investigated as will be the case after this HC order.
There is a huge mix-up in the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) too, as reported by various committees. But the AAP can’t appoint a commission of enquiry to investigate the case as ruled by the HC verdict. The circle rate for farmers’ land in Delhi was Rs 50 lakh per acre. This was raised to Rs 3 crore per acre, so that farmers are compensated in a much better way, but it was stalled by the L-G. Even the court is in support of the L-G.
The most important of these technicalities is that the Delhi government has full right to legislate in all matters except police, law and order and land, and for the rest, the L-G was bound by the aid and advice of the council of ministers.
Now, the court feels otherwise. Which has turned the democratically elected AAP government subservient to the non-elected L-G.
Now what does that mean? Does this mean that there is no significance of an elected chief minister in Delhi? The elected MLAs do not hold any power, the legislative assembly is useless?
If all these things don’t have any meaning then Constitution Amendment Act 69, under which Delhi was formed and a Vidhan Sabha was created, is also obsolete. In such a case, it leaves a larger question unanswered – why do we hold elections in Delhi at all?
Why do people of Delhi cast their vote? Why is a chief minister elected? Why is a cabinet formed? If all power rests with the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, why this tamasha of holding an election?
‘We the People’ or the common man of the country is the soul of a democratic set-up. The framers of the Constitution have also given due importance to the common man in this whole parliamentary system.
On 22 January 1947, under the leadership of Pandit Nehru, a proposal was passed which later became the basic foundation of the future Indian Constitution. In para-4 of this document, it is written – “wherein all power and authority of the sovereign independent India, its constituent parts and organs of governments are derived from the people.” But in Delhi it has been turned on its head.
Despite a successful election, it is said that all power over here rests with the Lieutenant Governor, a man who never contested polls and one who was appointed by the home ministry, a man whose only accountability rests with the home ministry.
An elected government has to vacate office in five years but a non-elected official can remain there for as much time as he/she wants and enjoy life, by the sheer mercy of the home ministry. What kind of democracy is this? Did our Constitution ever anticipate that one day we would be facing such questions?
Now, the question is what will happen to the trust of the people on the premises of which they voted for Delhi’s AAP ? What will happen to the political experiment and movement that was led by AAP and Arvind Kejriwal?
People do want change, they want to get rid of this political swamp. But if you wake up one morning to find that the AAP government has been kept under the L-G, then will it be able to fulfil its dreams or, for that matter, dream for a better tomorrow?
We all know that this is going to be a long war for change; there would be umpteen hindrances in the path to change, there will be forces which would love to see the movement fail. But AAP is determined. We are not the ones to be bogged down because we are with the truth.
This is no less than a test of strength for Indian democracy. It’s Indian democracy which will succeed or fail in this ordeal. Thus, it’s not the Aam Aadmi Party but ‘We the People’ who have suffered a setback and the SC has to be with the ‘truth’, like it did in the issue of Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
It has to combat the forces which are bent on subverting democracy and support those who want change for better, to fulfil the aspiration of ‘We the People’ and those of the founding fathers of our Constitution.
The litmus test of the Indian Constitution begins now.
(The writer is an author and spokesperson of AAP. He can be reached at @ashutosh83B)
Also read:
AAP vs Najeeb Jung: What Does the Constitution Say?
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