Sunday, 16 October 2016

Me Criticize Aam Admi Party





You need a practical administration to govern and IMHO, AAP doesn't have one yet.

Ideology is great, rooting out corruption is a wonderful ideal to fight for. But you can not rule a country with single minded focus on avenging corruption.

I was always an AAP sceptic, but after the subsidised power stunt in Delhi, I am anti AAP. Coal and other natural resources cost real money. Users must pay for those. First find the money you say will be saved, by a reform of the 'corrupt' ESBs. Don't come up with random subsidies and get my country involved in a truck load of debt. First get the money. Then cut tariffs..

Development can not happen by fleecing the rich and giving to the not rich. Development is giving the poorest of the poor equal opportunities to become rich. And that won't happen by only rooting out corruption. There are lots of other issues, including how to best use our scarce reserves of coal and petroleum.

AAP appears to have a single point manifesto - get the corruption out of the system. But look at how much Kejriwal achieved in Delhi and what Nitish Kumar has done in Bihar. One is a true reformer, the other is a true leader.

I feel everyone has their place in a system. AAP's is in the opposition. They will control corruption and keep the government on their toes. But ask a bunch of ideologists to govern and mayhem ensues.

1) Swaraj : I think the concept of Swaraj and Mohalla Sabha is flawed. The idea of public participation for local issues and fund allocation based on that is difficult if not productive. Getting consensus in even a small group if very difficult so the idea that participatory democracy to the extent that people will get together and prioritize things may result in populism and ineffective decision making. It is tough enough to get consensus among 543 MPs to pass an important legislation so just imagine how difficult will be to take decisions locally - it is also important to consider the diversity in population, the level of literacy levels etc. We already have mechanisms for local representation e.g Panchayats in Village. If we go ahead to for e.g make the local police report to Mohalla Sabha - it will result in too much decentralization and there is a good chance that local strongmen and goons will start controlling these Mohalla Sabha. 

Apart from issues in legislation, control and decision making, organizing people in any form requires a lot of costs - so cost of having Mohalla Sabha's across the country will cost a lot.

2) Social Equality - The idea of social equality where you compare an auto driver with an industrialist and wonder why their difference in earnings is so wide is a bit naive. If you forcibly take money from the rich and distribute to the poor, you may end up benefiting no one. A lot of AAP thinking is around making people equal rather than providing equality of opportunity - there is a subtle difference. 

3) Victimization : The poor vs the rich, the minorities vs the majority, the tribals vs the capitalist, the aam aadmi vs the rich aadmi etc are recurrent themes where by the idea of victimization is institutionalized. There has been a gross generalization in this and this prevents AAP from taking rational stand in certain issues.

4) Gap vs Opportunity - The cost of a protest is sometimes bigger than the reason for protest. The world is not black and white - there is a shade of grey. If someone doesn't agree with you, rather than protesting, the right idea is to win them over. Kejriwal and AAP seem to look at the gaps in our system more than the opportunities and fail to realize that sometimes the opportunities when realized fill the gaps automatically.

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