Sree Iyer - The Rise and Fall of Aam Aadmi Party: How a party came from nowhere to capture power in the state of Delhi only to fade away just as quickly

The average life span of a Male mosquito is 10 days. Houseflies live for 28 days. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) may end up having the dubious distinction of being one of the shortest-lived political parties in India, to gain and lose peoples mandate so quickly. This party is a typical example of how people can be fooled and lured into believing in an alternate universe with tall claims and white lies. It also shows the publics revulsion against the existing national parties and their willingness to give an earnest sounding party a chance. AAP and its supremo Arvind Kejriwal was the face of media owners, who were basically anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). To keep the pot boiling, AAP was propped up by some journalists, who too liked the status quo and were afraid that in a BJP dispensation, they may be found out. As this narrative unfolds, you will also see how AAP was the B-Team of an existing party.

AAP was born out of the massive anti-corruption movement witnessed in India, after the 2G Scam was blown out of proportion . This anger found expression in their support for the non-political outfit, India Against Corruption (IAC).

The Supreme Court was also rapping the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government on a daily basis on the 2G scam and the Report of Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) estimating a possible loss of Rs.1.76 Lakh Crores to the exchequer really fired them up. The legal battles of the then Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan were the igniting points of this anti-corruption wave.

When these two ideologically different mavericks (Swamy and Bhushan) were fighting their battles in courts, an organization known as IAC was staging small protests in Delhis Jantar Mantar, the allocated area for demonstrations on the rampant corruption in the Commonwealth Games (CWG). After the games were over in October 2010, the protests were losing steam. And many media houses had got their advertisement booty of the CWG and were dialing back on corruption reports in the games. But the Apex Courts intervention, the CAG Report and Telecom Ministers resignation were a telling indicator. People were furious. This was the beginning of the end of the Congress regime.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Sri Sri Ravi Shankars Art of Living and Baba Ramdev were urging the masses to raise their voices against the humongous corruption cases of the Congress led UPA-2 government. The BJP which was hibernating after losing the 2009 Lok Sabha elections slowly started energizing.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar started the ball rolling with a resolution to gather 5,000 Art of Living (AoL) volunteers on March 1st, 2009 to assemble and protest against terrorism and corruption. Titled The March Against Terrorism Against Corruption , AoL had invited Arvind Kejriwal and others such as Mr. Bitta, Mr. Prahlad Kakkar and Mr. Anirudh Bahl.

Around 10,000 gathered that day to march from Parliament Street to India Gate. Chants of Inquilab Zindabad, Youth for Equality, Himmat hai to saath chalo filled the air. Kejriwal even came up with a tag line, free the country from the Black British !

Seeing the success of the event, Sri Sri enlisted Kiran Bedi, then Kejriwal and reached out to Anna Hazare. AoL was committed to bringing the crowds to the IAC meetings while it was expected that someone clean such as Anna Hazare and Kiran Bedi, would manage the event. How Kejriwal managed to hijack this and reap political dividends from this is a fascinating story.

India was waking up to a new scam almost every day. The rampant corruption in the Sonia Gandhi controlled UPA-2 government was drawing many activists to try and mobilize. Many meetings were convened across the country by groups ranging from the Left to the Right ideologies, while the common man started slowly started participating in the protests. Many activists belonging to Sonia Gandhis camp like Aruna Roy, who were part and parcel of National Advisory Committee (NAC), started distancing themselves from the NAC and speaking against corruption. Roy eventually left the NAC in 2013 .

Those days Arvind Kejriwal was considered as an acolyte of Aruna Roy. He was nursing an ambition to become a Member in the NAC headed by Sonia Gandhi when UPA-2 resumed power in 2009. But it was shot down by many in Congress and Arvind Kejriwal slowly started distancing himself from Congress and began getting involved in protests against corruption in CWG along with Kiran Bedi and the IAC. Perhaps it hurt his ego that his contemporary Yogendra Yadav was a member of the NAC and he couldnt get in.

Christian organizations were entering into the anti-corruption movement and Delhi Archbishop Vincent Concessao, who is considered to be close to Sonia Gandhi also joined in the protests. They were cleverly insulating Sonia Gandhi from the corruption occurring in the UPA-2 and putting the blame on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The pot was working overtime to call the kettle black.

But the RSS and Subramanian Swamy directly attacked Sonia Gandhi and blamed her for all the graft in the UPA-2 Government. Many media houses also openly started supporting the anti-corruption movement by this time. Was media used to keep the blame at UPAs doorstep and make Sonia appear above the graft? Read on...

Suddenly a viewpoint that India needs a system called Lokpal to check the corruption in the government started gathering momentum. Words like Independent Ombudsman or Lokpal were floating in the air by early 2011. By February, many prominent activists assembled in Mizoram to strategize anti-corruption movements in the country. Sonias friend Aruna Roy and her team started advocating for a peaceful campaign and stress for the implementation of a Lokpal system. But agitated members argued for protests in the streets and at last a decision was taken to stage a huge gathering in Jantar Mantar by April 2011. Sensing the mood of the gathering, Arvind Kejriwal left his mentor Aruna Roy and jumped in with both feet, with the people who argued for street protests and hunger strikes.

Then the question of who will lead the protests came up. Anna Hazare, who had been spearheading anti-corruption movement in Maharashtra, was persuaded to be the face of the movement. Anna had also successfully got Right To Information (RTI) implemented in Maharashtra. Liberal activists sensed that his Gandhi Cap and Khadi dress will be irresistible and would draw huge crowds. Rustic Anna Hazare was falling into the hands of the urban activists like a puppet. Seeing so much support from people who routinely showed up on TV perhaps made Anna to agree for a fast unto death till the Government agrees for the introduction and passing of Lokpal Bill in Parliament in the forthcoming Session. All the activists argued for a non-political platform.