As God is my witness, I swear I will never betray my pure party and this movement. Betraying the party would be like betraying God.” These lines—spoken by AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal and meant to be repeated by the newly elected councillors in Delhi—must give pause to anyone who thinks seriously about politics.
For a party that has seen dispiriting losses in a string of elections and faces the gloomy prospect of holding together its band of tireless supporters who have had no joy in recent times, it speaks of not just desperation but an astonishing paucity of ideas. A politics built around media valorisations of a messianic personality always runs the risk of the adulation turning into its negative when the promised redemption does not arrive. It's only the ideas emanating from the leadership, that can allow the cadres to not fall prey to despondency.
History is replete with examples of movements joined by people who have had no hope of seeing their project come to fruition in their lifetime. Sometimes there are inspirational leaders around whom they rally. But it is essentially the idea, a sense of right and wrong, that keeps them going.
The anti-apartheid movement, if it must be reiterated, was about human freedom, and not about Mandela. For a party whose founding principles were built around ethical governance, invoking the wrath of God to stop its flock from falling prey to allurements—even if the threat of predatory rivals prowling around is very real—is a mind-numbing nadir, perhaps even worse than the electoral losses.
Transferring the object of loyalty to a higher divinity, rather than the common Indian and the constitutional principles the party stood for, points to a crisis of faith in those very principles. Yes, the opponents would like nothing better than to see the demise of AAP, the one party that seemed to hold out a real alternative. But the answer does not lie in reproducing a cult behaviour and virtually declaring yourself the next thing to a godman.