TOPIC 5 - PART 1:  WHAT SHOULD BE AAP'S FOCUS NOW 


AAP - the Road Ahead

Dear Friends,
To-day we are presenting the first part of a crucial topic, the strengths of AAP. We are thankful to all of you for reading our posts and sending in your comments. We have incorporated your views and they have definitely improved our presentation.

TOPIC 5 - PART 1

1. What things are going in favour of AAP:

a) The enthusiasm of AAP: AAP supporters took a little dip after the election results, but they have resumed their fight with renewed enthusiasm. This shows that AAP supporters are not faint-hearted and are committed in their deep resolve to carry on their fight for AAP’s ultimate success. Short-term failures are not going to derail the movement. AAP supporters have complete faith in the ultimate success of their goal. This is crucial as many parties had a wishful thinking that there will be all-round despondency in AAP, leading to its collapse.

b) Self-starter spirit: AAP supporters have a self-starter spirit. Thousands of discussion groups and news sharing pages have started on social media completely at their own initiative. Such groups help to keep the enthusiasm alive and create new initiatives, and foil the plans of paid-media houses to disseminate false stories. This phenomenon reminds us of the huge viral communication which used to carry Gandhiji’s messages across the whole of India, without any mass media, and in face of British censorship. The situation is not very different to-day.

c) Resolve to analyse the failure frankly: There are serious country-wide discussions in AAP groups to analyse where AAP went wrong. There are no holy cows and supporters have not even spared Arvind Kejriwal for his resignation from Delhi government. However, there is no condemnation, and demand for a change-of-guard, as happens in all parties. This exemplifies the fact that, in spite of being politically immature, AAP leaders and supporters are not hungry to grab power at the first opportunity. There is no internal rivalry and groupism. Other parties have tried to sow such seeds, and have miserably failed. This shows a true democratic functioning, where a free and frank analysis can be done, which is essential for progress. This will stand AAP in good stead in future. No other party can claim this strength.

d) A country-wide panoramic unity for continuing the struggle: No leader can carry on a war where the soldiers start showing fatigue. It’s a measure of unity with a single-minded objective that AAP has followers on an All India basis, even after having lost deposit in most of the seats. There is a near complete absence of criticism that AAP put up its candidates in over 410 seats. People have justifiably said that if there were more resources available, the fight could have been more even. There is no region from where there is a thinking of disbanding AAP organization. On the other hand, every regional group wants to strengthen its units.

e) Impossibility of BJP claims of inclusive politics: There is an all-round condemnation of BJP even after BJP’s resounding win. BJP has tried to claim that all sectors of the voting public have accepted them. The reality, as discussed in TOPIC 1, is very different. AAP supporters know that in the present scenario, BJP cannot take all sections with it. Minority sections which had voted for BJP, due to its promises of inclusive governance, are now repenting, as they hardly see any representation from amongst them, in the parliament. These sections will now move towards AAP, as all other parties have lost their confidence. AAP is thus poised to increase its base in a short period of time. This may be crucial in the coming assembly elections.

f) Aap support base is truly inclusive without caste or religion bias: All AAP facebook forums consist of participants from different castes and religions. There is no attempt of domination by any one and there is a genuine appreciation and respect for all points of views. Most of the groups have strict self-discipline norm, which prohibits offensive and derogatory postings. Such offenders are warned and then blocked. The basic discussions are on news sharing and discussions about activities of AAP and its branches. Even BJP moles are not denounced or hounded, but politely told not to place offensive posts. Members routinely remind each other that as AAP supporters they should be careful and courteous in their postings. This shows that AAP philosophy of discarding caste and religion based politics, is not a mere slogan but is practiced by its supporters. The same cannot be said about any other party. This will be a great strength of AAP for creating a very wide base.

In The Next Topic,  TOPIC 5 - PART 2:, we shall present What things are not in favour of AAP

TOPIC 5 - PART 3: How should AAP utilize its positives and minimize impact of its negatives. This would be presented next.

We invite all of you to send in your comments and suggestions on Part 1, 2 and 3 of TOPIC 5. We would like to incorporate them in our coming presentations.

Please feel free to read our previous posts on AAP - The Road Ahead
TOPIC 1: ANALYSIS OF THE MOOD OF THE COUNTRY
TOPIC 2: WHAT ACTUALLY LED TO BJP-MODI VICTORY
TOPIC 3: WHERE DID AAP GO WRONG
TOPIC 4: WHAT ARE THE STRUCTURAL STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF BJP 

The future strategy for AAP shall evolve from your responses. That will be our final TOPIC:
TOPIC 6 : DISCUSSIONS OF POINTS RAISED BY ALL OF YOU AND FINAL STRATEGY FORMULATION

Sincerest Regards,
Pravin Gupta

AAP - THE ROAD AHEAD