AAP report card

Its been close to a month that AAP has been in power and let us see what they've done so far:

1. First the good things, AAP started on a positive note, took decisions (providing free water and power subsidy) which although didn't make much economic sense but still i believe doing something is better than not doing anything. Having said that, it doesn't mean that you talk about 200 crore (total cost of providing power subsidy) as if its an insignificant amount. Anyways, good that you atleast delivered on your poll promise! I kind of agree with you when you say that no other party has ever done work this fast but then lets agree that when you took these decisions, you ass was on fire. You indeed were scared that INC might pull you down. But I still give you credit!
2. Removing VIP culture from Delhi. Really thanks for taking this up! though i've not been to delhi after you became the CM. But if this is really done, I thank you a million times.

Surprisingly these are the only points for which I can give any credit to AK/AAP. I have certain reservations on these as well but I'd like to start on a positive note so that i don't sound critical of AAP and hence a Modi agent.

Now we evaluate the not so good things/decisions taken by the AAP:
1. Providing shelters to the poor feeling the wrath of delhi cold. I believe its a very good step and AAP should definitely get credit for it. A state shouldn't let its citizens die in cold. But, do you realize that Delhi is already over crowded with people and your providing this kind of shelters will only make matters worse as more and more immigrants would now come to delhi. How long can you keep providing shelters to these people.
What could have been done: When taking this decision, if you could have clearly stated that no more people will be provided this kind of facility and if people are still found on the streets, they will be sent off to their respective villages.

2. Letting Autowallas have their way in saying no to commuters (see link). Although i agree that auto drivers aren't able to earn their livings due to several reasons but that doesn't mean that the commuters should suffer. Letting them say no to commuters and removing any check on them might lead to another Nirbhaya mishap. I hope you've not forgotten that one of the reasons for that incident was auto wallas saying no to taking her home. I think this was totally populist politics and infact vote bank politics since these auto wallas voted for you, now you'll agree to whatever they ask for.

3. Waiving off 10-months power bills by defaulters (see link). Now this is irrationality at its best; if the meters were indeed faulty, the power companies should be asked to waive off the bills and if not, please ask the people to pay the dues as they are the ones who have consumed that electricity. Why should you pay these dues by tax payers money. Reasoning all your subsidy decisions just by saying that you are not buying a helicopter is not acceptable.

4. Staging Dharna to protest against Delhi Police. I totally agree that Delhi Police is extremely bad in all aspect. But the way your minister just asked the Police officers to raid a house was really uncalled for, and the way you came and acted in his defense made you look very arrogant and atrocious atleast to me. I've lived most of my life in delhi, in one of the areas where these RWAs are there. I must tell everybody that these RWAs are no becharas as they have been made out to be. There is still no proof of drug trafficking/prostitution yet. And there was no FIR in place. I have already mentioned that just because the residents complain against somebody, it doesn't mean that the issue is right. I've seen instances where the RWAs have made some unlawful demands like stopping cops from writing challans within the colony because the residents want their minor kids to drive within the colony. Can that be justified?

5. FDI in retail. I don't know among this educated party is an economist who believes that FDI in retail will kill the local stores/traders because I find it hilarious. We have seen how FDI has come into various sectors and changed the dynamics of the game. Be it in retail (single brand) or telecom, customers have derived huge value from the growing competition. But looks like AAP has turned a blind eye toward this and is only worrying about the traders who had voted for them and would again vote for them in the lok sabha elections or state elections if INC pulls this govt down.

6. Still not doing anything on creating a separate security force (one of the key issues raised by AK before the elections), drafting lokpal bill (thought this was to be brought withing 15 days), taking actions against congress and Shiela D (again AK had said that he had given a 350 page evidence against SD) long back.

There are some more decisions which i highly criticize, but the point i want to drive here is that AAP after getting a great response in the delhi elections, for most part, are going the wrong way. Instead of working towards the betterment of delhi, it is only pleasing the poor (not different from INC policies) by providing rain baseras and subsidies, wasting precious time on lok sabha elections, dharnas, making stupid comments like referendum in J&K, and now saying that BJP, not congress is our main enemy. Boss enemy venemy chhoddo, bas kaam karo. If you do your work properly, people will give you a clear mandate to run the country, and all the states. But first you will have to prove yourself. Creating helpline and asking people to do sting operations will not do.

Well to sum it up, I can only say that AK and AAP's members are mostly sincere, hard working, and have good intentions and are doing something. I would really like them to run a full term in Delhi. But, they have a huge task in front of themselves of not shifting the focus from the Development of Delhi, restraining from the media and not get into an arrogance mode (AK's interview with Rajdeep was one of the most arrogant political interview i have seen till date). Unfortunately, I don't see that happening thus far and i feel sorry to say but the self destruct button has been pressed!

My reply to AAP spam

Thanks for reaching out. The following are my conditions/questions before I join this movement:

1.       What makes you say that it is my party? Even if I had voted for you, it doesn’t mean that I have become a part of AAP. I vote on the basis of capabilities, policies and ideology of the party/candidate and also on the performance record. If I voted for you in this election, it doesn’t mean I’ll not evaluate your performance the next time I vote.

2.       Why this mad rush to make people join without doing any investigation/enquiry. What if criminals join your party. I know these numbers look very impressive in front of the media but don’t try to fool the very people who voted you to power. We are not that stupid!

3.       I would happily join your party and this movement if you tell me your views on economic policies, foreign policies, reservations, what are you doing for the tax-payers and if they echo my views, I’d happily join. But before knowing any of these, I am sorry to say, but only a fool would join such a movement and unfortunately I am not one.

I have requested you earlier also and requesting again, please take me out of your mailing list. there are enough spam mails in the world and I don’t want to see promotional mails from a political party. Never thought I would say this but in this respect, BJP and INC are better than you guys, atleast they don’t bug me with these kind of mails. We have elected you to take decisions and run the government, not to keep blasting us for support.

Best Regards,

Himanshu Makhijani

From: Aam Aadmi Party [mailto:admin@aamaadmiparty.org]
Sent: Sunday, January 12, 2014 2:12 PM
To: Himanshu Makhijani
Subject: We need your help

Dear Himanshu Makhijani, 

Your party has launched a nation wide campaign to recruit members across the country. Our target is 1 crore members by January 26. This will establish a strong foundation of your party for the Loksabha elections in a few months.

Your party needs your help. We request you to reach out to your friends and family and encourage them to become members. If each one of you enrolls 10 members each, we will reach our membership goal. Becoming a member is simple.

1. Join us online.

2. Send an SMS to 07798220033 with the name, std code and the vidhan sabha name of the member 

During this membership drive, there is no membership fee. 

Help us reach the 1 crore target by January 26. Please forward this email to your friends and family. 

Regards,

Team AAP

Asli aam aadmi

So, Mr. Kejriwal has finally formed a government in Delhi. All I feel is that it is a positive step in politics and both the major parties have come to realize that corruption is no small factor in the minds of the voters and no party is better than the other in corruption and there are numerous examples to prove how both these parties have looted the nation/states on various occasions.

Having said that, what AAP is doing raises a lot of questions in one's mind (I am still not claiming to be an aam aadmi) including:

1. AAP is yet to prove its credentials as a good administrator in Delhi (giving away free water and slashing electricity is not good governance/administration) but they are already talking about going national and contesting against RG, Modi. I always thought it was about policies and not people. I thought this party was different in the sense that they want to have an agenda before they get into an election rather than just challenging anybody, because you have momentum going with you and voters are enthusiastic about you. Its like if I am offered the job of a CEO of an MNC without any prior experience in any senior role, should i take it just because somebody thinks that i am capable to do that job. I personally wouldn't take it because the cost of failing at that level is much higher. Moreover, with the intention of not supporting either of the parties, AAP seems to be following the policy of disruptive politics where they cant form a government and they wouldn't even let anybody form it. Having seen so many minority governments, we all would agree that we now need a stable government to get out of the policy paralysis we face currently.
I personally feel that they should first focus on Delhi. Put your entire team's effort on Delhi and make it a model state if you can, so that people who travel to Delhi even from outside can see the difference. Make it such that people say that it is better than any other Indian state in all respects, be it security, infrastructure, ease of doing business etc. Give it five years and then go national with some proven credentials. Right now, what they are doing doesn't look any better than what any political party would do in this situation. Announce freebies because you think there might be re-elections, and with voter momentum behind you, contest as many number of seats as possible and put your guys in parliament. This is a tedious and slow approach but the one where you are proving your merits before making tall claims.

2. Another point to note is that who exactly is this aam aadmi which AK keeps talking about (aam aadmi bas ye chahta hai ke mujhe chhatt mil jaaye, do waqt ki roti mil jaaye etc. etc.). Having lived in delhi for c. 30 years in an relatively upper middle class colony, I have not come across alot of people who belong to this category. Majority of the upper middle class and upper class people in delhi are traders/businessmen with an average 2-3 cars per family and c. 10-20 cr. of net worth. With my experience, I can say that most of these people dont pay income tax (no data to prove this available) and are responsible for increasing the black market of the country. Over the years, this class has realized that money can buy anything in Delhi and hence care two hoots about the systems and policies. I remember an instance when in my colony, traffic police had started a drive where they were checking the traffic violations within the colony (minors driving, without helmet etc.) and the citizens of the colony approached the local MLA to stop this practice and it was stopped. Now, with AAP's approach of referendum, we would have a colony which wants to violate rules and define their own set of rules. Are we okay with that?
The second class of people i want to talk about are the under-privileged/slum-dwellers. Now these guys really need the freebies which AAP is offering but unfortunately they dont have the water connections, power connections to avail the benefits. Having said that, not all of them are innocent and becharas. Any visitor can vouch for the rudeness one encounters when you talk to taxiwallas, autowallas or even the car parking guy. These guys take law in their hands thinking they have nothing to loose. If you'd remember, Nirbhaya was also raped by people from this strata of society. I am not saying that everybody in this class is a law-breaker but you cant put everyone in the category of aam-aadmi and becharas. I would be elated if AAP comes out and says that although we are doing what we can for this class, but we would take the strictest action if we find any violation.
The third category of people are actually the becharas (I am saying this because I belong here). These people typically work in Government/Private jobs. Pay their taxes properly (although they dont have a choice), avoid any altercation with any body as there are parents/family waiting for them at home, shit scared of the police and would avoid even complaining against anybody thinking they'd get into trouble. Apparently, this class is the one which contributes most to the exchequer in terms of personal income tax but unfortunately nobody listens to them. They dont want freebies, instead they want a better atmosphere, where nobody bullies them, they get better infrastructure, and if possible better job opportunities.

AAP has definitely provided a ray hope for the people of country who are frustrated with the current political system but there is a growing skepticism about their ways of distributing freebies. This is no different from what other parties have been doing since independence. I would like to just sum this up with two bullet points:
1. Government should teach its citizens how to fish and not distribute free fishes
2. AAP is only talking about wealth distribution, where is the talk of wealth creation