Representational Image. (File Photo)
Representational Image. (File Photo)

AAP retains hold, gets a reality check

It got thrashed in a seat that it not only held but is located in an area where there is a strong minority presence and was the scene of the 2019 communal riots.

It was only a by-election in five municipal wards, but it showed that while the BJP juggernaut appears unstoppable elsewhere, it is the Aam Aadmi Party’s election machinery that is well-oiled and revving in Delhi, though there are lessons for it too. Of the five wards that went to the elections, the ruling party in the national capital won four, wresting a seat from the BJP that was widely seen as a saffron bastion. The elections have only extended the misery of the BJP, which last ran the Delhi government in 1998. Ever since, it has had to play second fiddle, first to the Congress and now to the AAP. While the saffron party still heads all the three municipal corporations, that could be under threat when elections for the civic bodies are held in a year’s time. The party has for long been leaderless, rudderless and directionless in Delhi. The AAP, in contrast, enjoys the people’s trust, largely because of its clean image, pro-people policies and a considerably weakened opposition.

But the election result also has a lesson for the AAP. It got thrashed in a seat that it not only held but is located in an area where there is a strong minority presence and was the scene of the 2019 communal riots. The reasons are not far to seek. Not once did Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal or his colleagues in the Cabinet visit the riot-affected areas. Months earlier, they had also refused to extend support to anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protesters at Shaheen Bagh, perhaps fearing that they might lose Hindu votes in the elections to the Assembly and Lok Sabha. But the ruling party in Delhi was only following in the footsteps of the Congress, Trinamool Congress and others, which are trying to ape the BJP’s use of religion for political mobilisation. Such a narrative poses a threat to India’s secular fabric. Minority appeasement is bad, but so is majority communalism. It’s time to vaccinate the body politic from the communal virus.

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The New Indian Express
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