The Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) completes three years in the Delhi government on 10 February 2018. It is thus, only natural that we take a look at how India’s youngest political party has fared in the field of governance and what larger impact it has (or has not) had on the entrenched political system of India.
Delhi’s political history, of the last 25 years, had largely been the saga of two political parties – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Indian National Congress (INC) in the state government. The Congress’ name is now synonymous more with acts of financial and intellectual corruption rather than the Indian freedom struggle.
The repercussions in Delhi of this choice between Scylla and Charybdis were faced by the common person who had to encounter severe challenges in accessing healthcare and education, and grapple with non-availability of basic amenities like water, electricity and sewage.
However, in 2013 and again in 2015, the common person on the street and the underclass of Delhi decided to respond to these 'political elites', by democratically electing a social movement-turned-political party called the Aam Aadmi Party under the leadership of the civil servant-turned-activist-turned-politician, and current Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal.
AAP's 'Good Governance'
Despite a resounding mandate from the citizens of Delhi, there was skepticism from certain sections of society about the ability of AAP to run the governance machinery with competence. Those myths have been busted in these three years.
AAP’s vision of the government is one that works for everyone and not just for the privileged few. We envision a government that invests in health and education and doesn’t term it expenditure like just another line item in accounting; a government that spends on basic needs of a city rather than adding one more fast-lane for the super-rich.
It is imperative to understand that long-term sustainability is impossible when 50 percent of the city is not covered by basic amenities like sewage and water supply. The common citizens, in such a situation, tend to find workarounds because they cannot go without these essentials.
These workarounds always tend to be less sustainable, energy consuming and more expensive than the public utility alternative. Cities are sustainable only when public utilities are strong and coverage is complete. And Delhi, in 2015, was far from the notion of a sustainable city.
It is therefore admirable that in the face of such a momentous task and despite being 'toddlers' in politics and 'infants' in governance, AAP has delivered significant socioeconomic outcomes for the citizens of Delhi.
AAP's Role in Healthcare
When AAP came, the education budget was doubled, public health budget was made one and a half times, and welfare schemes to correct 'historical wrongs in public service delivery' of water and electricity were invested in. The Delhi government also became the first state government in India to walk the talk on climate change by implementing the successful road-rationing exercise in a city which is notorious for its proclivity towards private transport.
The healthcare model with the Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics (community clinics), built on the model of providing free-of-cost OPD, combined with free medicines and diagnostics, has significantly eased the pressure on tertiary hospitals and has provided affordable healthcare at the doorstep of the common citizen.
A total of 162 such Mohalla Clinics are already functional with a 1,000 such clinics being planned for Delhi by December 2018. Washington Post and Lancet have lauded Delhi’s efforts in bolstering public healthcare. Where India used to once learn from the West, AAP has reversed the trend.
AAP's Role in Education
Till 2015, government schools in Delhi were known for the following things: inadequate infrastructure, non-availability of teachers, poor quality of mid-day meals, rampant absenteeism and a general apathy amongst all the stakeholders.
The AAP government took multiple measures to resolve these problems:
- Appointment of Estate Managers who look after administrative jobs while allowing teachers to focus on their core job of teaching.
- Appointing School Management Committees (SMCs) and organising parent-teacher meetings to make parents active stakeholders in the education of their children.
- Identifying academically weaker students and providing them with remedial classes to improve their reading and comprehension levels.
- Training teachers and principals at some of the best universities in the world like Harvard and Cambridge, amongst many others.
The decrepit government schools have become aspirational again.
The same storyline is seen in almost every government department which has a direct impact on people’s lives.
Towards a Cleaner, Healthier Delhi
- All households get 20,000 litres of water per month is free for all households.
- Electricity rates have not been increased for the past three years and are the lowest in the country.
- Delhi’s water utility board has bolstered the city’s water supply network, covering more than 300 unauthorised colonies in the past three years, and plans to cover each and every house in Delhi with a piped water connection by December 2018.
- Work on war-footing, is underway to solve Delhi’s chronic sewage problem by constructing over 1,000 Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) in decentralised mode and under the community ownership model.
- Sanitation in Jhuggi-jhopri clusters (JJC) has improved drastically with the installation of 10,000 community toilets.
- The homeless no longer have to stay outside in the biting cold when heated government run night-shelters are available at every nook-and-cranny.
All this and more took place despite the major municipal services in Delhi being governed by the inefficient BJP-led MCD and key issues of police, law and order and land being vested with the Centre.
AAP has made hard choices and unpopular decisions, albeit successfully, much to the chagrin of the political Opposition, lobbies and the mainstream media. Such political will and swift action in the face of political adversity propelled Kejriwal to Fortune Magazine’s 50 greatest world leaders list, with the added honour of being the only Indian on the list.
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What Makes AAP Stand Apart
Lord Acton wisely said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". So, again, how is AAP different? Couldn’t AAP fall from grace just like numerous social movements and revolutions done have in the past?
One part of the answer lies in the grassroots, volunteer-driven structure of AAP that relies on crowd-funding, ensures transparency even when it isn’t legally required and aims for a better norm than the existing political system.
However, the more important distinction is the cornerstone of AAP’s philosophy – which is the devolution of power, decentralisation of decision-making and participatory budgeting.
AAP is not bound by ‘isms’, ‘ologies’ and ideological pigeonholes of an archaic time. AAP’s workers, volunteers, critics and supporters are all common men and women of India, not some ‘cronies’ from a decaying political establishment.
In Delhi, the common people have reclaimed their seats at the decision-making table through AAP, and are defining their agenda to make the Delhi of their dreams. The rest of India beckons.
(Pranav Jain works with the AAP and Delhi Government on key issues. He can be reached on Twitter at @pranavj142. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same)
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