Opinion | The Evolution Of The Aam Aadmi Party

It seems the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP( asked their MLA Alka Lamba to quit the party and resign as MLA. Why? Because the Delhi legislature was adopting a resolution on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots. Some people wanted to include in the resolution a demand for the revocation of Rajiv Gandhi's posthomous Bharat Ratna, and some speeches to that effect were made in the assembly.

Alka Lamba took offense to these speeches, because she believed it was unnecessary and unfair. In her opinion, Rajiv Gandhi had done a lot for the country, and this kind of demand was uncalled for.

Eventually, the demand to revoke the Bharat Ratna was not included in the Delhi legislature's resolution. Despite this, Lamba says she was asked to leave the party because of her support of Rajiv Gandhi.

The AAP: A Party Without a Foundation

The incident raises some fundamental questions about the nature of the Aam Aadmi Party.

What is the basis of membership of the Aam Aadmi Party? Is there any fundamental guiding principle that qualifies one to be an AAP member? Is there a common minimum programme? Is there a manifesto?

Well, I went to the AAP website and looked at the party constitution. 

There is very little there on what the party's principles are. All you see is a paragraph called "Objectives." There are very general, vague, and woolly. I reproduce them here for your perusal:

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A. Democracy is popular self-rule, but the current practice of democracy negates this ideal and reduces the citizen to a mere subject. Aam Admi Party aims to restore power to the people, so as to realise the promise of Swaraj enshrined in our Constitution.

B. Following the Preamble to our Constitution, Aam Admi Party envisions an India, free of corruption, which is Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic

C. Aam Admi Party resolves to secure for all the citizens:

Justice, social economic and political - for everyone including the last person

Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship

Equality of status and of opportunity in all spheres of life, for individuals and communities

And to promote among them all

Fraternity assuring the dignity of the individual and the Unity and integrity of the Nation.

D. The Party Shall bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of India as by law established and to the principle of socialism, secularism and democracy and would uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India

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Essentially, all the "Objectives" stated are: the party wants to promote "true" democracy, in that power should be exercised by the people; the party promises to follow the Constitution of India (a no-brainer, since all of us are expected to follow it). Interestingly in the current context, there is a special emphasis on "liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship."

There is also some stuff in the Party Constitution that members should obey the party directives. All this is covered in the "Code of Conduct":

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a. Every member of the Party shall abide by the following Code of Conduct:

i. A member shall not engage himself in any immoral or illegal activity or such activity as would damage the party and/or tarnish the image of the Party and/or such conduct as would bring disrepute to it.

ii. A member shall not undertake any activity, which is in violation of or is contrary to the objectives of the Party as set out in this Constitution or is contrary to the official policy of the Party.

iii. A member shall not violate any Rule made by the Party or disobey any direction given by it.

iv. Members, other than office bearers, shall be free to express their own opinion within and outside the party fora, unless there is a specific direction to the contrary by the Party for a specified period. Mere expression of difference of opinion will not be considered as violation of Code of Conduct unless it violates the Objectives o f the Party.

b. Without prejudice to the generality of the above, an office bearer must also:

i. Not involve himself/herself in any corrupt practices.

ii. Not have any pending criminal case of a crime involving moral turpitude or should not have been convicted of any such crime in the past.

iii. Not be a part of any organization which spreads disharmony on basis of religion or caste or promotes untouchability.

iv. Not engage in exploiting or ill-treating woman.

v. Not indulge in drug addiction or drunken behavior.

vi. Make an annual declaration of his/her income and assets and that of his family honestly and correctly to the Party.

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Special mention should be made of the clause above that states that "Mere expression of difference of opinion will not be considered as violation of Code of Conduct unless it violates the Objectives of the Party."

Did Lamba Violate the Party Constitution?

Now, in the context of all this, let us consider Lamba's case. First, it is important to understand that before joining the AAP in 2014, Lamba had spent 20 years in the Congress. So, it is not unreasonable that she would be an admirer of Rajiv Gandhi.

Second, what was her offense? That she opposed a resolution which demanded that Rajiv Gandhi's Bharat Ratna be taken away? The party constitution clearly states that mere difference of opinion will not be considered as a violation unless it violates the Objectives of the party - which, as we have already seen, only means that the party follows the Constitution of India.

As far as I understand, saying someone's Bharat Ratna should not be revoked is not an unconstitutional demand.

So, let’s stop beating about the bush and get to the point.

AAP: A Movement That Became a Party

The fundamental problem with the AAP is that there is no underlying principle for membership in this party. The only principle of belonging to this party is that you must agree with what Mr. Kejriwal says. That is why the party has seen so many defections since its inception, and this is why the basis of the AAP is fundamentally weak.

The AAP was formed as a movement to fight corruption. But that meant left-wing and right-wing people could co-exist because the common minimum programme was fighting corruption.

But as I have always said, there is a big difference between a party and a movement. A party must have clear positions on every little issue facing the country; a movement does not. So, when the views of right-wing Kiran Bedi and Shazia Ilmi did not coincide with the views of Kejriwal, they had to go. Also, when the views of left-leaning Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav did not fit in with those of Mr. Kejriwal's, they, too, had to go. Yesterday, Lamba's views did not coincide with Kejriwal's, and so she had to go.

That's the problem with this party - that apart from good intentions among all the party members, and a desire to do good, there are no absolute principles or stands that people must agree to as members. For instance, is there any guideline in the Party Constitution that states whether a party member can support or oppose reservations and still be part of the party? Or the Hajj subsidy? Or support a Godman like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar or Sadhguru? (The AAP itself has stood up for the late Jain monk Tarun Sagar over the opinions of its own party workers. Or the Ram Setu project? None of these issues are fundamentally unconstitutional in India; if they were, then nobody would be allowed to hold views that, for instance, oppose reservations. But the party constitution has no guidance on any issue.

And that's why members have no clue whether they are in violation of party philosophy until they have transgressed it - because the party philosophy is what is in the mind of Kejriwal, and party members are not mind readers to know this before joining the party.

The AAP: Maturing as a Party

Of course, this is not so fundamentally different from the other parties in this country. For instance, the BJP has very clear positions on a lot of things. If you read carefully, and follow things carefully, the BJP's fundamental principles involve working towards a Hindu Rashtra, making minorities second-class citizens, building a “grand Ram Temple,” and a vague commitment to a loosely-defined "vikas" or "development," which consists of unworkable schemes like the bullet train. However, even in the BJP, the founder of the party, and the man who implicitly laid down the above rules, has now been locked up in the loft known as the Margadarshak Mandal. So clearly, these are not the only or the main principles of the party in practice. Nobody can, after all, accuse Advani of not wanting to marginalize Muslims, of not wanting to create a Hindu Rashtra, or of not wanting to build a grand temple at Ayodhya.

No, Advani's fault was that he opposed Modi. So that is the prime requirement for membership in today’s BJP - that you do not cross Modi. You agree with whatever Modi (and Amit Shah) says.

The Congress is the easiest party to understand. It has only one guiding principle for membership - accept that Rahul Gandhi is #1. Once you do that, everything is okay. You can support reservations, oppose reservations; support gomutra, oppose gomutra; and so on. Any combination of views is okay as long as you swear allegiance to Rahul Gandhi. You don't even have to agree with his views. Just profess loyalty to him, and all sins are forgiven (in case you have aired a point of view that is contradictory to something he has professed a few days ago.)

So, in effect, the AAP has become like the other parties in India.

You could say that the party has finally "matured."

(Dr. Seshadri Kumar is an R&D Chemical Engineer with a BTech from IIT Bombay and an MS and a PhD from the University of Utah, U.S. He writes regularly on political, social, economic, and cultural affairs athttp://www.leftbrainwave.com. Views expressed are personal.)