AAP’s electoral calamity in Delhi tells us how successfully the BJP has managed to reinvent the ‘aam aadmi’
The BJP has carefully put forward the idea that the “ordinary person” is not the one who may be socially and economically marginalised. It is the one who has been marginalised by earlier political dispensations. This “ordinary” Delhi resident is a middle-class citizen. And that it is middle-classness that can serve as a criticism of earlier forms of politics.
AAP’s electoral calamity in Delhi tells us how successfully the BJP has managed to reinvent the ‘aam aadmi’The BJP has carefully put forward the idea that the “ordinary person” is not the one who may be socially and economically marginalised. It is the one who has been marginalised by earlier political dispensations. This “ordinary” Delhi resident is a middle-class citizen. And that it is middle-classness that can serve as a criticism of earlier forms of politics.
The origin myth of the Aam Aadmi Party — its own imagination regarding its nature — is deeply entangled with four key ideas. First, that there is too much politics in the political life of the nation and that governance is best carried out by politicians who are against politics. Second, in order for this to happen, Indian politics requires political outsiders — those who are not career politicians — to both enter politics but also outsiders through rejecting established ways of doing politics. Third, politicians must be modest in their lifestyle in order to prove that they have entered public life to serve the people rather than for self-enrichment. And, fourth, that the voting public subscribes,
government schools made impressive strides in providing measurably improved education and Mohalla Clinics appeared to make an admirable contribution towards the making of better healthcare facilities. Beyond the socio-economically marginalised, AAP also found some
