“I wonder what effect the PM’s rallies had on Delhiites :p May BJP win more than 10% of the seats to become eligible for sitting in the opposition. Kudos AAP..!” This is exactly the status which I had proudly updated right after Aam Aadmi Party’s overwhelming win in the recent Delhi elections. It was preceded by many other Facebook and Whatsapp status updates of mine, each one glorifying AAP and ridiculing BJP and Congress.
Today, after nearly two months, I am very skeptical of publicly showing the same kind of support for AAP, be it on the social media or among my college friends. It’s not that I am shamelessly withdrawing my support from the party in tumultuous times, but it’s just that feeling of doubt which eventually starts to develop in one’s mind after witnessing a series of heart-breaking events. Also, don’t get it wrong by judging that I’m resenting while writing this letter, rather, I’m more hurt and trying to vent my disappointment through the means of this letter.
For the past 15 days, it has been a bumpy ride for AAP with allegations of horse-trading to internal squabbling over the dissidents Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan. Even then, I didn’t allow the trust and hope to fade because instability has been a shadow of AAP since its very inception and one can imagine it with any newly formed party. But the revelation that really shook me is this,”Sting Operation On Arvind Kejriwal Allegedly Records Him Hurling Abuses At Bhushan, Yadav”. I could barely bear the sight of the word ‘sting’ having anything to do with Arvind Kejriwal. Within a flash, I searched for the audio and gave my ears to it.
Ultimately, what I heard in the audio was indeed reassuring of my faith in Arvind Kejriwal and I felt a bit relieved. That’s because the sting was again the media’s plot to create a ballyhoo of something less bad and less true. Media calls words like “saale” and “kamine” bitter abuses! Come on! Who on the face of earth doesn’t use these comparatively modest words in a state of frustration and anger? Even a 5th standard child won’t disagree with my point. Moreover, your intentions were still as honest as ever. Intentions matter and not the usage of “highly abusive” words like ‘kamine’ and ‘saale’.
The audio sting incident corroborated my faith in you because my belief that you can never fail the junta on accounts of fraudulence and cheating got even stronger. Then where’s the problem? The problem doesn’t lie in your intentions or character, but in the way in which you lead Aam Aadmi Party. Amid a plethora of allegations hurled on AAP in the last 15 days or so, you’ve failed primarily on two stands:
1. Any step (if at all taken) taken by you to curb the rising factionalism among the prominent party members as well as among the party volunteers has failed miserably and you’ve rather emerged as a dictator in the views of many.
2. You’ve restrained yourself from issuing any statement in the press on counteracting the blames put up by Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan on your leadership and the internal democracy of AAP. This silence really kills the hopes of any AAP supporter.
It is not your ideology, but it’s your methodology that has propagated a wave of unrest within AAP and that has made staunch supporters like me to write a letter of dissent and disappointment.
However, what’s done is done! There’s still time left in your hand to bring back AAP to normal ways, to shift your focus from party’s internal intolerance to Delhi’s governance. It is only you who can salvage the Aam Aadmi Party from transfiguring into an Aam Neta Party. Only you can prevent the shattering of hopes of lakhs of young Indian students who, probably, for the first time, so actively participated in the politics on seeing the change in you and your party. An initiation from you can disrupt the trend of resignation of persons like Medha Patkar from AAP.
Please don’t fail the junta that won you 67 out of 70 seats in Delhi..!
