AAP should learn from Janata Party experiment

 AAP should learn from Janata Party experiment

Sakal Times blog

April 9, 2015

The recent unprecedented victory of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi state polls reminded me of the landslide victory of the then unborn Janata Party in the 1977 general elections. At that time, for the first time, the country's sitting prime minister Indira Gandhi was defeated and the Congress was routed in nine northern cow-belt states. I, then still a higher secondary school student and so non-voter, was an active participant of this political bloodless revolution (as naively we had then called it).

I was one of the polling agents representing the Peasants and Workers Party, one of the constituents of the Janata Party, in the counting of votes held at Satara. Congress candidates in Satara and Karad Lok Sabha constituencies were Union Minister Yashwantrao Chavan and Pramila Chavan, mother of former Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, respectively. As the counting of votes continued, at around 2 pm, we learnt that Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was defeated by Raj Narain in Rae Bareily constituency and our celebrations knew no bounds.

In the 1977 polls, the Janata Party of the Jan Sangh, the Charan Singh-led Bharatiya Lok Dal (BLD), the Morarji Desai-led Organisation (Syndicate) Congress and the Socialist parties led by George Fernandes and Madhu Limaye had contested polls with the BLD's Haldhar (farmer carrying a plough) poll symbol. After their poll victory, Morarji Desai was sworn in as prime minister. The Janata Party formally came into existence only a few months later when the major non-Congress parties were merged into the new Janata party, now led by Chandra Shekhar. The new government at the Center soon called for fresh polls in the nine northern states and Janata Party attained power in those states too. Supporters of Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan, who had led the political campaign against Indira Gandhi had then dreamt of a Sampoorna Kranti (total revolution). Alas, their joy and aspirations too shattered within few months!

The squabbling within the Janata Party led to the fall of the Morarji Desai government and another short-lived government of Charan Singh who earned the notoriety of being a prime minister who never faced Parliament. Later, within two and half years after she was defeated, Indira Gandhi returned to power with a majority, which she had never got in the previous polls.

Sketching a similar visual in the eyes of those who lived through this dream of total revolution, the AAP was recently elected to power in Delhi, winning 67 of the total 70 seats. Soon after assuming the power, AAP leaders – Arvind Kejriwal, Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan - have been indulging in mud slinging, much to the annoyance of the party's supporters.

The AAP leaders would do well in learning from history and provide a stable and efficient government for the next five years. The voters from all over the country have been watching their performance with high expectations. These people and also the Delhi voters who reposed their faith in AAP should not be left disappointed.