Delhi polls are all about a clash of ideologies

Last week I was in Delhi. What I saw and heard there has changed my view, for good I presume, about the direction in which Indian democracy is headed, not in the short run, but in the long run. The electoral atmosphere in Delhi is electric.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has transformed me from a dispirited and distanced bystander to a hardcore political junkie in less than a week. It is ironical then that at a time when I find the political fire burning my insides, I no longer have a right to vote in Delhi.

I think it was Mark Twain who had said that while thunder is awesome and often enchanting, it is lightning that performs the magical trick. Come February 10, the day of counting in Delhi, the AAP may just crash on the BJP’s dream like a lightning they had all assumed had lost its charge after the BJP’s thumping victory in the general elections.

Narendra Modi’s towering personality, it was believed, had overshadowed and to that extent obliterated all possibility of a successful experiment in the Indian political landscape. And the AAP is just that: a political experiment that has dared to draw in the disenchanted and given them a reason to dream.

I do not see the elections in Delhi as a clash of personalities. Arvind Kerjriwal doesn’t impress me as much as the middle-aged office-going woman who stops on her way back from work to hold a placard at a busy traffic junction in the Delhi winter with a simple hand-painted AAP electoral promise.

Thousands of ordinary citizens can be seen all across the capital doing their bit and actively taking part in the political process. I have spoken to dozens of average middle-class salaried people who have made political donations to the AAP simply because they want to be the change they want to see.

To me the Delhi election is an election of ideologies. The question before us isn’t whether one party is better than the other, be it the AAP or the BJP but whether the ordinary citizen can be involved in the political process without falling into the rut of politics. Can the voter be expected to do more than just vote?

In all my years as a reporter I have never seen ordinary citizens working harder than political cadres and this is where I think the Delhi elections hold the promise of a better future not just for people in Delhi but everywhere in India. A week in Delhi has taught me an important lesson: there is hope beyond cynicism. Personally I would be happy if the AAP wins. But that will just be the icing on the cake.

The real battle has already been won in the mind of the average Delhi citizen, which is why the BJP (and the Congress to a lesser degree, since it has made itself redundant this time around) appears so desperate, defensive and reactionary. They now know that something real and concrete can be done about the issues that make life a living hell for them. Today it is Kejriwal, tomorrow there may be someone else but the important lesson the aam aadmi has learnt: it is possible for disenchanted and the disenfranchised to throw up leaders that talk for them in a language they understand without being dishonest. And as long as that faith remains, no matter what anyone says, lightning will strike the same place as many times as it needs to.