INDIA FOR KEJRIWAL AGAINST AND OVER Modi, Rahul

The Matunga flyover wears the colour of Mumbai – a time-worn grey, the colour of asphalt scarred by tyres, scalded in heat and scraped by millions of shuffling feet. Running along one edge of its back, arched over a noisy Central Mumbai thoroughfare, is a narrow walkway shared judiciously by vendors and two files of people scrambling and elbowing their way past each other to and from the Matunga Road station. At nine in the evening, the walkway is dimly lit, mostly by the shape-shifting yellow cloud of car headlights looming over the road below. Suresh (name changed on request), stands at a makeshift kiosk and squints hard, forehead furrowing into multiple folds, to read a pamphlet he has just received.  The pamphlet is from AAP, containing a long list of its candidate’s achievements in stout, small black print. An AAP rally in Mumbai The AAP kiosk Suresh is hovering over is basically a foldable plastic table piled high with sheaves of pamphlets and a small heap of AAP caps. Two men - one a stoic pamphlet giver and another a smiling, eager-eyed volunteer who’ll spot a prospective pamphlet-taker – man it. Sundar Balakrishnan, a fairly well-known social activist who is known for his work against land grabbing, is the AAP candidate in south Central Mumbai. Suresh, gives one side of the pamphlet in Marathi a quick read and asks, “Is he close to Arvind Kejriwal?” The smiling AAP volunteer, nods his head, a widening smile possibly hinting that the answer is a yes. “Arvind Kejriwal ayenge kya Mumbai? Yahaan rally nahin karenge (Will Arvind Kejriwal come to Mumbai? Won’t he hold a rally here?”) he asks. “Bahut busy hain na who. Koshish to kar rahen hai…(He is very busy, but he is still trying),” answers the smiling volunteer. Suresh, in his late 20s, has only voted once before. An employee with a textile export company in south Mumbai, he lives in what he calls a ‘small’ apartment in a ‘redeveloped’ building in Matunga. He’ll not reveal who he wants to vote for, but says, Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP tops his personal hierarchy of political parties. “They are a clean party. Except for one or two, most of their candidates are sophisticated and highly educated. Look at him, he is a MBA,” he says, gesturing at Sundar Balakrishnan’s gaunt passport-sized picture on the pamphlet. Balakrishnan holds an MBA degree from Narsee Monjee college in Mumbai. Does he think, the AAP then, stands a chance in Mumbai. Suresh is not so sure. And he blames that on a lack of education. “Thousands of people in this city are poor and uneducated. What do they care about which college a leader went to?” Pre-poll surveys suggest that AAP might not be able to get any more than 5 percent of Maharashtra's vote-share and one would expect Arvind Kejriwal’s Delhi theatrics to have cost the party more than a few hundred votes. However, the many who were taken in by the party's blistering Delhi debut, are still willing to give it a patient hearing. And no, they’re not betting on Arvind Kejriwal at all. Mumbai-based artist and writer Gautam Benegal feels that AAP, prior to the LS elections, have emerged as a political entity much bigger than its founder Arvind Kerjiwal. In fact, as the party expands and inducts personalities with stronger decisive powers, Kejriwal can’t continue being the axis the party revolves around. “He is ok as a sort of figure head. But the party has to evolve beyond him. His days will be over...his function was limited to this time...after the elections I feel. I am waiting for a more mature second rung.” AAP itself, while partial to Kejriwal, has also realised this. One of their promotional graphics doing the round of Facebook has a collage of AAP candidates and other party candidates pitted against each other. The AAP collage has everyone from Meera Sanyal, Manisha Lath Gupta, V Balakrishnan, Medha Patkar, Yogendra Yadav and Soni Sori, complete with short work bios. The competing collage has the choicest goons from the other parties. The e-poster says that by voting for AAP, one brings Sanyal and her ilk to power, whereas, by voting for other parties, one votes for goons. The contrast is sharp and telling. And despite Kejriwal's theatrics, many prospective voters are willing to buy it. Kunal Bhatia, 26-year-old architect, photographer and interior designer has never had much stomach for politics. His Facebook page steers clear of Modi-bashing, too many Rahul jokes and such-like. Except for the occasional post or two about AAP, a video he fancies or a poster he thinks is relevant. “I support AAP, because in a broader sense, it is for the first time that we have a plausible alternative to many of the ills that plague other political parties,” he reasons. He is not willing to read too much into the fact of AAP taking the outside support of Congress and defends the decision by asking what other way they could have formed a government where they had a greater say in its proceedings? There is growing impatience with Arvind Kejriwal. “I used to really like him man, but he is doing so much drama now man…,” Malvika, a 23-year-old first-time voter, drawn by the heap of jhadu topis on the Matunga flyover tells me, hurriedly finishing her sentence, only to stretch the ‘man’ at the end of it. In between checking Whatsapp and asking me which ‘magazine’ I work for, the MBA aspirant manages to put in a good word for the party too. “But nobody is saying he is corrupt, na? And all these people who joined his party all come from good companies also. I think that’s very cool,” she adds. But Malvika is evidence of what AAP started out to be initially – the political successor to Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement, the Café Coffee Day of politics, a party that the hashtag generation would feel self-important flaunting. Down the line, it spread its wings, learnt a few old school tricks, grew some grey hair and bared a fang (who can ever forget Khirkee Extension) now and then. However, with its jhadu symbol and trophy candidates, it has continued to be the pop party to its biggest voter-base yet – the urban youth. Kejriwal has changed tracks and decided to plunge into the political mud-pit of Varanasi. AAP has managed to win the confidence of the likes of Medha Patkar, who in real-time will help it break ice with greater swathes of voting masses like the slum population, which would otherwise have little patience for its pop rhetoric. Composer and singer Vishal Dadlani, a staunch admirer of AAP says that when a person like Medha Patkar chooses to associate her life’s worth of work for the underprivileged with a party, there must be some truth to AAP. “I accept AAP is not without its flaws. But these are not seasoned politicians we are seeing. They are enthusiastic people who want to make a difference. Yes, they lack in experience, but they aren’t as cynical and unscrupulous either,” he told Firstpost. So does Medha Patkar backing Kejriwal automatically erase Kejriwal's Delhi debacle? Dadlani says he would not like to call it a debacle in the first place. “When the Delhi thing happened, I was shocked. I was like ‘what the hell, I just campaigned for this party’. But then I read up on what happened, spoke to people and realised that the BJP and Congress completely blocked the Delhi Janlokpal’s path in assembly. And Kejriwal resigned on principle". Like him, his chosen party’s chieftain too is trying hard to ‘explain’ his Delhi outing. In radio ads which have now started airing in Mumbai, and was initially launched in Delhi, Kejirwal is not heard singing paeans about AAP. Instead, he is hurriedly explaining why he quit as Delhi CM. And the attempt to offer an explanation is being read as a mark of accountability by many. “AAP is still a people’s movement, run by people like you and me,” says Dadlani. Despite Kejriwal, many possibly agree with him. However, whether that would translate into a poll victory, is something no one’s betting their money on. As of now, AAP the conscience keeper of Indian politics, would be a good enough role for the party’s admirers.

AAP IN DANGER ZONE : ATTACK IN DELHI N UP AGAINST AAP

Clashes broke out between workers of the Aam Aadmi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party in half-a-dozen towns across the country hours after AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal was briefly detained by police in a north Gujarat town.

AAP leader Ashutosh with party supporters shouts slogans against BJP's PM candidate Narendra Modi in New Delhi. (Vipin Kumar/HT photo)

Protests by AAP workers outside the Delhi BJP office against Kejriwal's detention in Gujarat snowballed into a clash when BJP activists allegedly threw stones at them and the protestors retaliated. While both sides hurled chairs and sticks at each other, police intervened, using water cannons to disperse the crowd.

Angry AAP workers vandalised the BJP hoardings in the area. AAP leaders Shazia Ilmi, Ashutosh and Rajmohan Gandhi were present at the protest site. Ilmi told media persons it was a peaceful protest by them but the BJP workers indulged in violence.

In Gujarat's Kutch, former chief minister Kejriwal's car was attacked by a few unidentified people. The windscreen of his four-wheeler was damaged in the incident.

Armed with brooms, AAP workers also clashed with lathi-wielding activists of BJP in Uttar Pradesh's Lucknow. AAP activists allegedly attacked the BJP office with bricks, drawing retaliation as the saffron party workers, carrying canes, took to the streets.

Several people were mercilessly beaten up by canes after being knocked down on the road as rival groups chased each other away.

BJP supporters clash with AAP supporters outside the BJP office in Lucknow on Wednesday. (PTI Photo)

Read: Kejriwal slams Modi after brief detention in Gujarat

Reports of similar clashes also came in from other UP towns such as Jhansi, Kanpur and Allahabad.

Reacting over the New Delhi clashes, BJP leaders said the AAP was responsible for the fracas.

"Do they believe in Maoism?" asked BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad while another spokesman Nirmala Sitharaman said: "No one should indulge in this kind of destructive politics. What's happening is completely unwarranted, highly condemnable."

While the police were able to round up a few protesters, the violent episode led to traffic snarls outside the BJP office, which is located in the heart of the national capital. The area is a high security zone and both the BJP and AAP supporters claimed the cops did not take immediate action against the aggressors.

A Twitter storm also broke out after AAP leader and former journalist Ashutosh was pictured climbing the gate of the BJP office in New Delhi. While the AAP leader claimed he was requesting his supporters to stay calm, BJP leaders charged him with inciting violence. "Why was Ashutosh leading the violent protests? We demand action against him," BJP spokesperson Nalin Kohli said.

Read: Kejriwal, supporters detained briefly in north Gujarat

BJP leader Anurag Thakur retweeted a photo of Ashutosh climbing the entrance of the BJP headquarters.

Speaking to reporters after the incident, the AAP leader said, "BJP workers attacked me from inside their office, I have been injured. They even hurt our women workers."

The incidents of violence took place barely hours after Kejriwal, who began a four-day tour of Gujarat to check chief minister and BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi's claims that the state was a model of development, was detained by police in a village in north Gujarat. The former Delhi chief minister was released after 30 minutes.

Minutes after the clashes, Kejriwal appealed to his volunteers to stay calm and not resort to any kind of violence.

KEJRIWAL AAP’s office in Mumbai attacked

Party suspects NCP hand

Twenty-three Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) members were arrested by the Mumbai police for allegedly vandalising the office of the Aam Aadmi Party on Saturday.

According to the police, NCP workers started sloganeering outside the AAP’s head office at Chakala in Andheri, a western suburb of Mumbai. The party workers broke window panes, burnt effigies and smeared ink on the door.

“The workers were arrested on charges of rioting and vandalising private property. The exact motive behind the attack is to be ascertained,” Additional Commissioner of Police Milind Bharambe told The Hindu.

Separately, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said Mumbai north-west district president, P. Maske, who allegedly led the attack on the AAP office, had been was expelled from the party.

The attack comes just days after the party launched its election campaign in Maharashtra. On Wednesday, top AAP leaders had attacked NCP leaders alleging that they were corrupt.

The AAP leaders also alleged on Thursday that due to corruption, mismanagement and inefficiency in the state power department Maharashtra had incurred losses to the tune of Rs. 22,000 crore.

In a related development, AAP leader Mayank Gandhi and a few party workers were detained by the police while they were en route to protest outside the NCP office in western suburban Mumbai.

AAP KEJRIWAL chance for the outsiders

The ideology which Lutyens’ Delhi today represents is fundamentally at odds with an India which is growing accustomed to the idea of participatory democracy

Had Raj Thackeray been a ‘manoos’ from Lutyens’ Delhi, he would be facing an existential crisis. A strange wind is blowing across the corridors of Lutyens’ Delhi’ high-walled barbed gates, which metaphorically and physically remain out of bounds for 99 per cent of the population.

Ever since the British moved the capital from Calcutta to Delhi, central Delhi has become synonymous with power and prestige. After Edwin Lutyens radically redrew the capital, power was given a shape and symbol. And those who were fortunate enough to find themselves a space in Delhi’s vicinity invariably became the agents of change in independent India.

From there began an incestuous cycle of power where residents of the ‘chosen land’ dominated the country affairs, either directly or through proxy. Barring the inconsequential tenure of H.D. Deve Gowda, almost all Prime Ministers nourished their national political careers in one of the red sandstone buildings of the capital. For a large part of the last century and until recently, if one did not shape his or her public life under this dome-shaped edifice, he or she would be seen as lacking national appeal.

But now there is a discernible shift in the national mood. India is going for an election where its main political protagonists do not portray the look and feel of the conventional ‘Delhi-based leader.’ On the contrary, a common thread underlying the three key candidates — Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal and Rahul Gandhi — to Delhi’s throne is their sequestered relationship to capital politics.

Emergence of the exceptions

Mr. Modi pitches his candidature as the ‘external redeemer’ who will clean the mess in Lutyens’ Delhi. The last time Mr. Modi lived in the capital was in the late 1990’s when he worked in the party’s headquarters. Though he did play a crucial behind-the-scene role in the party, it is the time he served in Gujarat which has significantly added to his credentials as a suitable leader for the top job. Expectedly, his campaign and aides are not restricted to Delhi, which represents a point of departure for the party’s electoral strategy.

Mr. Gandhi, of late, has been trying his best to rub off the ‘elite stains’ of being a Lutyens’ resident. He projects himself as a mere observer and not actor to all that has unfolded in South block in the last 10 years. Such is the national rage against all those who inhabit the grandiose building of the capital that Mr. Gandhi is making every attempt to break away from this image. His remark — that he would tear up the controversial ordinance that aimed at protecting convicted law makers — was viewed as such an attempt.

Mr. Kejriwal casts himself as the ‘eternal outsider.’ A resident of Ghaziabad, he chooses Lutyens’ Delhi as his preferred choice for protest. Considering the ideology of his politics, given a chance, he may even demolish the lofty monuments built by Edwin Lutyens and replace them with more aam aadmi-like structures.

Delhi: the hub of power

For more than half a century, Lutyens’ Delhi was venerated with both respect and fear. If one wanted to build a career in national politics, it was ‘the place’ to network and mingle. Other than a few exceptions, in the Congress scheme of things, it was the ‘Delhi-based observers’ who would anoint Chief Minsters for States from places as far-flung from Delhi as Kerala and Nagaland.

In our flawed federal structure, it was deemed impossible for one to make the logical and sequential transition from sarpanch to Member of the Legislative Assembly to Member of Parliament and then to Prime Minster. The concentration of power in Lutyens’ Delhi perpetuated a potent cocktail of nepotism and malfeasance. Today, for many, Lutyens’ Delhi symbolises a closed system which defies meritocracy and capability. It is a construct reserved exclusively for the bureaucratic or political elite. For many, it is this concentration of power which is the root cause of India’s corruption problems.

The ideology which Lutyens’ Delhi today represents is fundamentally at odds with an India which is growing accustomed to the idea of participatory democracy. This is not an idea propagated exclusively by the Aam Aadmi Party but is being increasingly adopted by all political parties. Mr. Modi too, through his maxim ‘minimum government, maximum governance,’ is calling for greater involvement of citizens in politics. Even Mr. Gandhi is making an attempt to write his party’s manifesto outside Delhi — a first of its kind for the Congress.

As a pluralistic and regionally assertive India progresses toward modernity, it is becoming clear that the country needs not one single solution but a gamut of localised solutions to problems in the country. An active citizenry, which demands closer physical access to power, is changing the definition of ‘national politics.’ This is evident from a closer analysis of election turnouts.

Between 1989 and 2009, the turnout for the Lok Sabha elections has remained constant at around 60 per cent. Interestingly, the turnout for State elections continues to surge, even while incumbents are voted back to power. The States that went to polls last December saw an average increase of six percentage points in voter turnout compared to the 2008 Assembly elections. This trend could be emblematic of the fact that voters believe they have a larger role to play in affairs to which they have closer physical access.

If this divergence in voter turnout continues, India could produce many more Narendra Modis in the coming years as it will become much easier for a Shivraj Singh Chouhan or a Jayalalithaa to prove their national credentials by performing in their State, rather than trying to emerge from Delhi’s rat race.

The emergence of any of the above three leaders this summer could mark a paradigm shift in Indian polity — AAP making an impressive national debut, Mr. Gandhi rejuvenating the Congress in his new avatar or Mr. Modi becoming Prime Minster. It would make the dream for many to occupy Lutyens’ Delhi seem less distant; the road to the capital can now pass through Gandhinagar, Gangtok or Goa.

(Siddharth Mazumdar is founder of Citizens for Accountable Governance.)