It was the call for Swarajya, the will to bring change, and the energy of the Anna Hazare movement in 2011 that got many educated professionals to leave their jobs and join the common man’s party in 2012.
Cut to 2017. The party that became a representation of the aam aadmi’s collective consciousness has turned into a slugfest. From Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ministers hurling serious corruption charges against the top brass, to leaders breaking away to form their own splinter groups – fissures in the party have been square in the public eye. The exodus trickled down to volunteers as well.
What changed in five years, that saw a party which was the hope for many turn into an experiment that left them disillusioned? We asked those who quit.
‘We Felt Cheated’
The year was 2013. Shinjali* joined the Aam Aadmi Party’s metro wave movement, only to eventually get association with the AAP Volunteer Action March (AWAM). Carrying countless jhaadus, the party’s election symbol and a metaphor for sweeping corruption out of the country, Shinjali and a legion of other volunteers would go door-to-door, campaigning for the party’s cause.
By August 2014, Shinjali’s disillusionment with the party had become apparent. Before the launch of one particular health camp she sought to organise for the party, her number, which was available on pamphlets publicising the camp, was abruptly blocked. “Since my number was blocked, nobody could contact me ,” she says.
With the camp falling flat, Shinjali snapped. And she wasn’t alone. Numerous other volunteers who had been working for the party since its initial days felt duped.
“One year into the party and we were literally depressed. The party was making promises they couldn’t live up to,” Shinjali remembers. After quitting the party in August 2014, Shinjali went back to journalism, only to leave it again in a few months. “We felt cheated. I don’t think I even felt this cheated when my relationship ended,” she laughs. She now works with an events company.
‘Quashed Hopes of Alternate Politics’
In less than two years of the party’s formal launch and the promise of providing an alternate political culture, several notable members had resigned – from Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, to the party’s founding members, Shazia Ilmi and Madhu Bhaduri.
Mayank Gandhi had been involved in social activism much before he joined the India Against Corruption movement. “I am not a politician. I joined the movement and the party because it had good people, who wanted to do something good,” he tells The Quint.
Gandhi served as a member of the party’s National Executive. He also served as the party’s head in Maharashtra before his unit was disbanded in 2015 due of differences with party chief Kejriwal. That, for Gandhi, was probably the turning point.
‘I Think the Gutter Has Overpowered Some’
“After the Maharashtra committee was dissolved, I chose to write a blog post about it. Clearly that left Kejriwal furious,” Gandhi says.
“It is believed that in a political party, only one voice should be there – be it NaMo or Sonia or AK. I think that there should be multiple voices and dissent should be encouraged, so that a rich texture of views and opinions are created, which is one of the key ingredients of healthy democracy,” Gandhi wrote in a 2500-word post.
“The politics that we had come to change seem to have changed us. We used to say and feel that ‘we have no option but to enter the gutter of politics, to clean it’, I think that the gutter has overpowered some,” Gandhi wrote.
Gandhi quit the party in November 2015.
“The party was digressing from its founding principles, there wasn’t any transparency in decision-making. Volunteers who were working for the party were kept out and people with criminal records were chosen as candidates to fight elections,” Gandhi explains as the reason he felt betrayed by the party.
In a letter to volunteers in 2017, Gandhi did not mince any words. He wrote - “Dear AAP volunteers, our quest for alternate politics is over.”
‘We Felt Detached’
In May 2015, almost 350 volunteers quit the party in its Maharashtra unit. In 2017, 500 other volunteers had quit the party in Punjab. For many, the sense of alienation from the party fuelled the anger that had been building up over the months.
“We felt detached because the top leadership wasn’t listening to our demands or issues. They would talk about democracy but would never follow it themselves. After a point, Arvind Kejriwal was surrounded only by sycophants. They wouldn’t let our voices reach the leadership and that was hurting our efforts,” a volunteer who worked with the party in Delhi tells The Quint on condition of anonymity.
‘It Became All About Arvind Kejriwal’
Shyam Anand Jha was a Mumbai-based writer and director till his stint with the party began in 2013. For almost a year, he headed the grievance redressal cell of the party in Delhi.
Everybody was fed up with the Congress government. We all wanted change and the Anna movement was the promise of that change. But when the Aam Aadmi Party took shape, it deviated from the principles it stood on. Initially, many of us thought things will become better. But they never did. The internal democratic mechanism of the party gradually became defunct. It became all about Arvind Kejriwal.Shyam Anand Jha
Jha quit the party in April 2014 and never looked back at politics. “Your life is driven by an ideology. What will happen if and when Kejriwal leaves? What will the party root itself on?” Jha asks. He now works as a social worker in his village in Darbhanga, Bihar.
*name changed on request.
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