The results came in on Saturday, and quite unsurprisingly the Aam Aadmi Party, which had been in power for the past decade with two landslide victories in 2014 and 2019 came second best with the BJP returning to power after a nearly 25-year-long hiatus.
In many ways, the writing was already on the wall -- not just because of anti-incumbency and Arvind Kejriwal’s waning personal appeal, but also because of how the party appeared wishy-washy on various issues especially failing to stand up for the rights of minorities, a stand it is believed the AAP took out of fear of antagonising its core voter base.
The AAP’s defeat has been celebrated on both sides by the BJP, which is now back in power in the Capital, but also by the left-leaning parties who see the AAP as being an imposter -- a party that while standing up against the BJP, wasn’t really against the BJP on ideology. As such, while AAP came to power promising an alternative politics -- focused on a corruption-free government concerned about delivering on services, education and healthcare -- the last few years it has only been caught defending itself from allegations of corruption, personal gain and failing to provide services.
As such, AAP’s performance in the Delhi elections has been seen in context, which is missing from the current jubilant discourse. Focusing solely on AAP’s shortcomings completely misses how democracy has been subverted in Delhi over the past four and a half years or so with the sole aim of dismantling the democratically elected government.
It now seems a long time ago when the Union government enacted the amendment to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) Act, formally redefining “government” in Delhi as the “Lieutenant Governor.” This thereby removed even those powers that were with the Delhi Chief Minister and transferred them all to the Governor, an unelected official who would do the bidding of the Home Ministry rather than the elected Chief Minister.
When the Supreme Court rightly struck down the amendment as being unconstitutional and returned power to the Delhi government, the Union Government nullified the Supreme Court’s order with an ordinance, the challenge to which is still unheard of by the country’s top court.
By making itself the de-facto ruler of Delhi via the L-G, the ruling BJP set about dismantling and paralysing the functioning of the AAP government, which now didn’t even have control over the bureaucrats who were now no longer under the Chief Minister’s charge.
Similarly, the misuse of investigating agencies to launch probes against, and to arrest AAP leaders, whilst ignoring allegations of similar or worse misdemeanours when it comes to governments of or aligned with the BJP and the selective release of CAG reports on the expenses incurred on the renovation of the Delhi Chief Minister’s bungalow were all a case of a misuse of government machinery and a lack of a level playing field at the Delhi polls.
In that context, it’s actually quite remarkable that the AAP has indeed been able to hold on to a nearly 43% vote share and more so hold on to its MLAs. Yes, the AAP needs to introspect, but our democracy needs less victim-blaming and more of holding power to account.
