Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — the name dismayed me. Was this new and making-us-hopeful party really only for men? Or did they, like most all men, assume that ‘men’ includes ‘women’? If so was the rest of their thinking going to be any different, at least as far as gender stereotyping and thinking was concerned? Or had they just not had time to suss out this major issue? People chided me. This was after all a small thing and could be overlooked. Of course they didn’t mean to be male chauvinistic. I swallowed and let it not matter so much.

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Then I decided to join. As a foot soldier for the moment. For what did I or anyone else know about them except that they were open, transparent, wanted to fight corruption and take democracy back to the people. All of this was in consonance with my thinking. And I feel that like-minded people should put their weight behind a positive change, give it gravitas, join rather than sit on the fence. So I did.

The day after, I was sent you tube links to their poet’s speeches — two to be precise. They showed an intense misogyny, an anti-Muslim and anti-gay perspective. And this was the man who will stand from Amethi, their muse, their lyrical voice. Oops. This was worrying. But who to ask? Whom to clarify from? I am not in touch with anyone of the top brass or the think tanks that newspapers tell us have been constituted.

I have been watching what you have been watching. The great divide of opinions within the main players. A rap on the knuckle for Prashant Bhushan’s remark on the Kashmir issue — unjust according to me. His overture to the anti-nuclear movement in Tamil Nadu and his invitation to Udaykumar to led the party in the state (good for you Prashant). 

But what is the party thinking on other issues? GM foods? Agriculture and the strengthening of rural economies by value adding to farm production? Nuclear power versus solar? Mining in Adivasi areas and the issue of our 65 million displaced? Universal good health care and education? Making government school education so good that every upper middle class child wants to go there? Job creation and skill building to make our millions of unemployed employable? Work for women? Education, and water and safety for women? (They have indeed spoken of more police to protect women but is that all?) Crony capitalism? Reservation and the rights of minorities? Women’s reservation in Parliament? And I am not even wondering on the more ponderous defense and foreign policy.

Of course we must give them time. But we — who have joined and those who wish to — need some indicators even if not clear action details on these and many more broad points. The forty committees appointed need to let us know which way the wind blows. Or perhaps we can use the same participatory style in forming opinions. 

 In his book Revolution from Above, Dipankar Gupta argues cogently for the need for thinking ‘elites’ committed to the nation to forge long term visions that will take all people forward, a vision that the politician interested in the status quo will not have.

Is AAP open enough and magnetic enough to entice these citizen elite to come forward and pour in actionable visionary ideas? Or is the profession of no ideology going to keep it a reactive party, going from immediate crises solution to the next? 

We need to know. Quickly!

Mallika sarabhaiThe writer is a noted danseuse and social  activist