Not an AAP-like act from Jain

When the Aam Admi Party(AAP) was formed in 2012 riding the crest of a nationwide anticorruption campaign against the scams of the then Congress-led UPA government, there were many who wondered if it was really possible to survive and thrive in Indian politics without getting tainted, as the party claimed it would.

Ten years down the line, the same people are posing the same query with the Arvind Kejriwal led outfit getting embroiled in a series of scam allegations despite riding to power in Delhi and Punjab. In the past two days, the nation woke up to shocking visuals of a jailed AAP minister enjoying a massage by a rape accused in Delhi’s Tihar jail.

On Wednesday, more disturbing visuals emerged in which the minister is seen helping himself to a full platter of fruits, vegetables and dry fruits, served by ‘helpers’. The party trying to make the best of the AAP’s embarrassment over the visuals is the BJP, which is fighting a tough poll in Gujarat, the home terrain of PM Modi.

The AAP, though a new entrant in the Gujarat poll scene, is sure to upset calculations in many seats though not many people expect it to be a serious contender for power. In fact BJP bigwigs have concentrated their firepower more on AAP than on the Congress, realising that Kejri and co are fast replacing the Congress as their main foe in many states.

The Tihar visuals have come in handy for the BJP to put the AAP on the back foot with the Gujarat polls now hardly ten days away. That brings us to a pertinent question: is it really so easy to provide clean and effective governance in a country where no paper moves without greasing palms at every level of the bureaucracy and winning any election-to the Lok Sabha or Assembly- is a multi-crore affair?

Statistics can be beguiling but they provide an answer on why corrupt practices have sunk their roots so deep in today’s politics. The ruling BJP spent a staggering 12.64 billion rupees in the 2019 parliament polls while the Congress spent 8.2 billion. When such huge amounts are spent on polls, can one expect any politico to be clean to the core?

That however does not absolve the AAP from explaining why despite all that talk about a corruptionfree society, one of its ministers could so blatantly bend jail rules for his comfort. A jail is no place for a massage and is supposed to be a place where prisoners get reformed and re-enter society as good human beings. And leaders like Jain, who belongs to a party which was born in the bowels of an anti-corruption movement, are supposed to set an example for others to follow.

There have been instances of AAP leaders being thrashed for sale of poll tickets; a top leader like Manish Sisodia himself is under scrutiny for his role in the Delhi excise policy scam. And now comes the expose on Jain, which is sure to sully the image of AAP in the public eye. Coming from a party which promises politics with a difference, this is a huge letdown.

Their leaders would be better off remembering that they are under intense scrutiny and more so because AAP is seen as the main challenger to the BJP in the months and years to come. Clean and transparent politics is what people expect from Kejriwal’s party and when unsavoury episodes like the one involving Jain hit the limelight, one gets a sinking feeling that Indian politics has veered off its destined course