By noon on Feb. 10, it became clear that something historical was unfolding in Delhi. By the end of the day, the upstart Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)—formed just 26 months ago—had won the state assembly elections so comprehensively that the opposition could be bundled into a hatchback.
Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September of 2012, US President Barack Obama said: “It’s time to heed the words of Gandhi: ‘Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit’.”
In 2010, Riyas Komu had an interesting experience in Johannesburg, while waiting for Nelson Mandela to arrive before the final match of the FIFA World Cup began. Everywhere he went during the tournament, the Mumbai-born artist had made it a point to wear a `Gandhi cap’ as a symbolic reminder of Mahatma Gandhi’s political association with South Africa. That evening, as Komu waited on the edge of the pitch for the match to begin, a young man jumped in front of him wearing a Narendra Modi mask.
Jayaprakash Narayan is not your typical Indian politician. He doesn’t even wear khadi, the regulation fabric. Eight years before the Aam Aadmi Party burst on to the political scene, Narayan, a former bureaucrat, founded the Lok Satta Party promising a new kind of politics. At its launch on Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary in 2006, he had said the party would “work to eradicate corruption and bring in electoral reforms,” promises similar to AAP’s.
At 8 o’ clock in the morning, Pappu chaiwalla’s tiny tea-shop near Assighat in Varanasi is reverberating with heated debate. About twenty people sitting cheek by jowl on narrow benches are arguing loudly about the elections. Someone points to a man dressed in a rust-coloured kurta sitting quietly in a corner and says, “you look like that Aam Aadmi party fellow Manish Sisodia.’’ The man smiles and admits that he is a national executive member of the Aam Aaadmi Party (AAP), but not Sisodia.
Any unknown face in this narrow lane opposite the Chetganj police station in Varanasi is carefully stared at.
