NEW DELHI // As far as political honeymoons go, the Aam Aadmi Party’s has been a short one.
Born out of anti-corruption activism and barely a year old, the AAP won a stunning 28 out of 70 legislative seats in the Delhi elections in December. Accepting outside support from the Congress, the AAP formed the Delhi government in late December, with its founder Arvind Kejriwal becoming chief minister.
But in its first month since assuming power, the AAP has run into problems: the pragmatic challenges of day-to-day governance, controversies involving its members, and a struggle to define its economic agenda.
The issues are undermining Mr Kejriwal’s promises of efficient governance and frugality, a message that was “very inspiring” and “indicated the beginning of a new kind of politics”, according to Chintamani Mahapatra, a professor of political science at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
Foremost among the AAP government’s problems has been Somnath Bharti, its law minister, who this month led a “raid” on a group of African women living in a south Delhi housing colony on the night of January 15.
Mr Bharti, a lawyer by profession, reportedly made racist remarks during the incident and accused the women of running prostitution and drug rackets.
One of the women, in a deposition to a magistrate, said: “They are claiming we are blacks and we should leave their country. We were harassed, beaten.”
After inviting further controversy four days later by promising to “spit on the faces” of some of his critics, Mr Bharti was censured by his party. “He has been clearly told to control himself,” a senior AAP leader told the Economic Times newspaper last Wednesday.
Mr Kejriwal himself attracted criticism by launching a protest in central Delhi last Monday to demand that the city’s police force be placed under the control of his government. Since Delhi is classified as a union territory, its police force is administered by India’s ministry of home affairs, unlike in states, which control their own police forces.
The chief minister also threatened to disrupt India’s Republic Day parade with his protest. When Sushilkumar Shinde, India’s home minister, said such a protest was inappropriate in a high-security area such as the parade route, Mr Kejriwal told reporters: “Who is Shinde to tell me where to protest? I am the chief minister of Delhi, and I have the right to decide.”
Mr Kejriwal however called off his protest on the second day and the parade was held without incident on Sunday.
“If he had really disrupted the parade, it would have been a major, major embarrassment,” said Siddharth Singh, the opinion page editor of the business daily Mint.
“The AAP has to stop believing that the sort of public protests that brought them popularity would work on every occasion, he said. “These guys have to grow up.”
Mr Singh also called the party’s economic philosophy “greatly muddled”.
In recruiting high-profile candidates from the business community but taking a stand against foreign investment, the AAP has a contradiction on its hands.
Mr Kejriwal has withdrawn the Delhi government’s decision to allow foreign investment in the retail sector in Delhi. Although the central government decided to allow foreign investment in this sector, the issue has proved so divisive that states have been allowed to decide for themselves whether or not to do so.
Mr Kejriwal has said that allowing large foreign retailers such as Wal-Mart or Tesco to operate in the metropolis would force small, local shops out of business.
But the AAP has also recruited the likes of Meera Sanyal, a former banker based in Mumbai; Sanjeev Aga, the former CEO of a mobile telephony company; and V Balakrishnan, a former board member of the software giant Infosys.
All these professionals have expressed views on economic policy that favour market forces, foreign investment, and less government intervention in the economy.
Commentators and business leaders have been critical of the AAP’s economic ideas, fearing that they will hurt the investment climate in Delhi. Surjit Bhalla, chairman of a financial advisory firm, told the Financial Times that the AAP’s “economic policies hark back to the 1960s or 70s”.
NR Narayana Murthy, who co-founded Infosys, said recently that the party had to update its ideas on business and commerce.
“Use the technology of 2014, use the business models of 2014, use the globalisation principles of 2014,” he said.
He also, however, praised the AAP’s performance in the election and said: “I think that is where they have to sit down, think and use their immense smartness and goodwill to make themselves attractive again.”
Last week, the AAP announced the formation of a panel to thrash out its economic policy in greater detail. The panel includes Ms Sanyal, Mr Aga and five others.
The panel will discuss ways “to create an inclusive and stable economic environment where Indian and foreign investors have the necessary freedom to invest and the people can benefit from new opportunities without dependence on subsidies,” one of its members told the Economic Times.
ssubramanian@thenational.ae
