Nepali Times

The political churning the Aam Aadmi Party has triggered in Indian politics has thrown up the delicious possibility of renowned political scientist Yogendra Yadav becoming the chief minister in India’s northern state of Haryana. Though not formally announced, it is almost a certainty that Yadav will spearhead the AAP’s campaign in Haryana during the general elections in April-May and assembly elections in October.

Till now, Yadav has been combining the academician’s eclecticism with the psephologist’s certitude to articulate his party’s ideas. But what has propelled him to emerge as arguably India’s best political spokesperson is the democratic demeanour he sports in the public domain, willing to engage the AAP’s harshest critics and implacable rivals in discussions. He does not equivocate when asked stinging questions, nor does he shy away from being barracked. And yet he always desists from the self-righteous shrillness that defines our public debates.

In the popular consciousness, Haryana has come to symbolise, rightly or wrongly, the very antithesis of what Yadav’s persona represents: democratic ethos and a conscionable, albeit modern, approach to politics. The state has become the bedrock of reactionary social conservatism, earning notoriety for its caste panchayats issuing firmans (decrees) against same-gotra and inter-caste marriages, often ordering the social boycott of the defiant, at times even condemning them to death. Its female child ratio is the worst in the country. The Dalits in Haryana are oppressed and mauled with impunity.

Its politics mirrors the grim social reality. Haryana’s contribution to India’s political lexicon was the term ‘aaya Ram gaya Ram’, which aptly describes the culture of legislators willing to shift their loyalties to the highest bidder. Today, it has become a byword for corrupt governance, a turf for realtors and politicians to combine in enriching themselves at the expense of the people, and a thriving site for a few political families to rule over generations.

Unlike Delhi, Haryana is susceptible to caste politics, which has as its driver the Jats, who comprise nearly 26 per cent of the state’s population. Primarily agriculturists, they are entangled in social and agrarian tensions involving the lower castes, particularly the Dalits, who, significantly, constitute 19 per cent of the population, but are economically too weak to challenge the hegemony of Jats.

The social lay of Haryana consequently makes it tempting for a new entrant to take recourse to the politics of identity, in the hope of consolidating other castes against the Jats. But this route the AAP can take only at its peril. For one, it would invariably compromise the party’s USP of not appealing to voters in caste and religious terms, significantly eroding its countrywide appeal and nixing its national ambition. Second, the AAP in Haryana can’t unduly harp on caste conflict for mobilisation as Yadav’s own caste is perceived to be landed and exploitative.

In the three weeks following the AAP’s spectacular performance in Delhi, the party, under the aegis of Yadav, has been brainstorming to evolve a language to address social and political contradictions without slipping into the quagmire of identity politics. In the pursuit of this goal it will attempt to replicate its Delhi model in Haryana – of dovetailing specific concerns of Dalits and lower OBCs (other backward class) with the problems the poor and the marginalised encounter. Unlike other political parties, it won’t shy away from opposing the panchayat-instigated killings, declaring that there is nothing called honour killing, that murder is murder.

The Aam Aadmi Party has chosen to focus on Haryana because the anti-corruption movement from the Anna Hazare days elicited a robust response here. For instance, the state supplied more than 2,000 volunteers for the AAP’s Delhi election campaign, of which around 200 made the capital city their home for weeks to end. It also happens to be the home state of party mascot, Arvind Kejriwal, as also Yadav, a fact likely to sway voters.

Lastly, innumerable land scams, particularly involving the Indian Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law, Robert Vadra, would give the AAP’s anti-corruption plank a sharp edge. It also makes immense psephological sense for Yadav to focus on Haryana. With five political parties in the fray, the threshold of vote-share required to govern gets lowered to around 25 per cent. It’s a situation advantageous for a debutant.

Yadav’s demeanour will come to tellingly symbolise the AAP’s strategy. His rooting for a new type of politics – interest vs identity – will have credence because he won’t be viewed as a typical politician mouthing trite slogans. After all, he has risen to national prominence outside the bounds of politics, in the world of academia, thus making it easy for the AAP to project his entrance into the electoral arena as a means to cleanse the polity of corruption and make the system more democratic and equitable.

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