How Arvind Kejriwal can find his way

Anna Hazare, a veteran crusader, waged his war against corruption; the entire nation supported him to the hilt. Corruption is an agenda which made sense to all, everyone is affected by it. Together with followers including Arvind Kejriwal, he started a fight with the system.

For Arvind Kejriwal, the idea of a political party must have stemmed from two basic thoughts. One, with so much resistance from the system, change may be initiated from within the system rather than from outside. Two, with the support garnered, it wouldn't be too difficult to enter the system.

However, some key elements were forgotten in the equation so formed. One, the support was behind Anna Hazare and Kejriwal suffered a loss with the split with team Anna. Kejriwal himself could never garner the support, the mass following or the media attention he expected with the same cause. Two, corruption alone could not be the theme of a political party looking to make a dent into the biggest political party of the country. It is a sad truth that in a country where religion, caste, regionalism can form the theme of a party, practical issues like corruption can’t.

It is in this search for a theme that Kejriwal lost his way. While it made a big bang entry with high profile exposures cum statements, it soon lost steam. Soon it turned to the age old tactic of fighting for cheaper electricity and water. What a great fall!

In marketing terms, what the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was looking for is a brand identity. It stood for anti-corruption, however that was not enough to complete the identity. Today, Congress stands for inclusive growth, doling out freebies as per its whims and fancies. Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) stands for development through corporates with the inevitable trickle-down effect. When Kejriwal started his fight for cheaper electricity and water, it went the Congress way. A very bad choice indeed as you cannot fight your opponent to its strength. Arvind Kejriwal wanted to bring a change or rather be the change. One cannot be the change by being the same.

AAP is in its inception stage. It is necessary for it to change and find a new identity as soon as possible. AAP has no differentiation with respect to its biggest competitor. AAP seems to show hunger for power; it should show hunger for change.

Here are a few ideas that can help AAP bring the change; and hopefully come to power some day.

1. Kejriwal, the brand ambassador of the party,  is an IITian, one of those considered to be the smartest in the country. AAP can put forth the brand identity of a smart party. It may actively pursue and include young economists and technocrats to develop business and governance models to make suggestions and bring development the smart way. Opportunities lie in plenty in fields such as irrigation and agriculture which actually affect the Aam Aadmi. A recent report stated that poultry farming has created more jobs than MGNREGA. AAP could work on finding the next business to fuel rural growth.
2. Corruption should still be the theme of the party but disguised as better governance. Development of the Aam Aadmi is guaranteed with the removal of corruption. AAP needs to help people see the inverse relation between corruption and development. For example, bad roads as a result of corruption lead to poor connectivity affecting people and business alike.
3. AAP could be the private/political equivalent of CAG and contribute detailed reports on corruption/mishandling of public funds. RTI, a boon by his mentor, can be effectively used to mine data for such reports. It could have prepared a report on the state of irrigation projects in Maharashtra with some immediate feasible solutions to the problem.
4. The Indian voter must be one of the least informed voters in the world. Each un-bought vote is an arrow in the dark. AAP could start a campaign to help voters make an informed decision. It could start a website publishing information on election candidates.
5. Another way of using the internet would be to help provide a channel to the Aam Aadmi to vent his complaints regarding corruption through a website. It would be the Indian wikileaks. It could also have a parallel channel through letters and telephone, if feasible. Information regarding various forms of corruption would be public. AAP could identify recurring issues and take up its fight to rectify the situation. Thus the people will provide agenda to the party making it very relevant to the Aam Aadmi.

The  list of suggestions are in no way all inclusive. The above only suggest a direction of fighting for a change the smart way rather than fighting for power like all political parties. The probability of AAP becoming a major political force is too low. However, if focused upon, the probability of such a party bringing about a change in today's political and social order is much higher.

India: The Doomsday Prophecy

It is striking to see how India has degraded so fast from a land of opportunities to a land of opportunist politicians (Is there another kind of politician?)

India grew in the real sense under the leadership of its then prime minister Shri Atal Bihar Vajapayee. On the other hand even his present day party mates seem to lack even a part of the vision that he carried. Point being that there seems to be no solace visible for development politics in India, this party or that.

The contradiction in the government outlook is clear. While the NDA built a strong base of infrastructure for entrepreneurial India to chart its own growth story, the UPA wants growth by doling out benefits (mostly unearned). While NDA provided employment to crores through its projects, UPA believes in providing unproductive employment thus wasting valuable human resource available.

Another addiction of the UPA is to provide everything free (or atleast subsidized). Subsidized fuel, subsidized fertilizers, subsidized food, free employment, free power. The country is like a wasted drunkard who earns little and spends all on his addiction. Rather than giving people opportunity to earn to buy the goods, UPA believes in either giving it free or doling out cash for the purchase.

India has done this before and it is doing it again. It will be of little surprise if India slips back to its Hindu growth rate in the coming years. What the government needs to do is clear. It needs to concentrate on infrastructure. It needs to build a capitalist economic model atleast to some extent. While India is grappling with power shortage, power generation should be encouraged and not held back due to subsidized rates. While Infrastructure is in no way acceptable, the reckless government spending should stop to reduce interest rates to make such investment lucrative for private players.

However, everyone knows that none of these changes are going to happen. The upcoming election will only see the rolling out and implementation of food security bill which will further empty government coffers. The probability of NDA, hopefully led by Narendra Modi, coming to power still seems low. It will be really painful to see the same things that have happened for the past decade repeat for the next five years. Opening up of more sectors for foreign investment is not going to suffice when the entire economic and business environment is stagnant.

Little wonder that the most probable/popular growth opportunity seen by youngsters today is a stint abroad, or better still a lifetime abroad.