Prem Singh
After speculations of over
four months the official initiative has been taken towards formation of
government in Delhi. Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung has written to the
President Pranab Mukherjee seeking his permission to give a chance to the
largest party in the Legislative Assembly to form the government. The President
immediately sent Lieutenant Governor’s plea to the Home Ministry. In the 70
member Legislative Assembly the current number of MLAs is 67, three MLAs of the
BJP having been elected to the Lok Sabha. In the 67 member assembly, the BJP is
the largest party with 29 MLAs including one legislature of its ally Akali Dal.
Even in the Delhi Assembly elections, the BJP was in the first place with 32
seats. However, it did not stake claim for forming the government.
The Lieutenant Governor
has said that even though the BJP has not staked its claim, it may still be
invited to form the government. Delhi BJP president has promptly responded that
the party will consider a proposal as and when it comes. He met the Home
Minister twice in the meantime. Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister and in-charge of
the party affairs in Delhi too met the Home Minister Rajnath Singh in this
regard. It is reported that the central party will also seriously consider the
proposal. However, one theory is that the BJP has done this exercise only to go
past September 9, the date set by the court; in reality it intends to have the
elections in Delhi only after the election results of the four states are out.
It is also being said that some senior BJP leaders are opposed to the idea of
forming a minority government. They argue that if the government is not able to
achieve majority then it can have a negative effect on the image of the Prime
Minister Narendra Modi. However, the state leaders can place a counter argument
as to how long would they sacrifice their political interests for such an image
building project? A similar problem may arise in the four states where
elections are due within one or two months.
The manner in which all
the actions are taking place at high levels, there is a possibility of a BJP
government in Delhi in the near future. It does not need to be stated that the
decision of the BJP high command and the high ups in the central government
have led to the beginning of this exercise. The Lieutenant Governor could swear
in the candidate of the largest party as Chief Minister and then allow him/her
to prove his/her majority in the next six months. It is said that the BJP has
the support of two independent MLAs as well as one MLA who has been expelled
from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). It will need the support of two more
legislators to reach the required 34 figure for the majority. The way
accusations and counter-accusations of ‘horse-trading by mainly AAP and to some
extent by the Congress are being heard, it will not be very hard for the BJP to
muster a majority after forming the government. In fact, there is a possibility
that to avoid the ramifications of the anti-defection law, a group with the
required numbers from AAP might break away and join the BJP government. Or some
of the Congress MLAs might give way to the formation of the government by
abstaining from the house. It is true that no MLA, except Kejriwal, from any
party wants fresh election. Kejriwal has hopes that his dramatic politics will
again make him chief minister of Delhi.
The bargaining power of
the AAP MLAs will be much more. It was heard that the BJP tried to swing four
out of the eight Congress MLAs to their side. But the Congress somehow saved
itself from possible harm. Ever since Arvind Kejriwal resigned, it is being
hotly discussed that the several AAP MLAs are ready to go into the BJP fold. If
there was no suspicion of a break in the ranks of the AAP MLAs, the AAP
leadership would not have made such a hue and cry about the BJP leadership
trying to bribe them. The AAP leadership has even made an appeal to the
President in this regard. Although in the recent sting operation, passed on
first to the press and then to the Lieutenant Governor by AAP, the Delhi BJP
vice president purportedly offered only rupees 4 crores to buy the support of
AAP legislator Dinesh Mohania, it is commonly discussed and has also been
stated by Kejriwal that the amount set for one MLA by the BJP is rupees 20
crores.
Obviously, there is a
bid only when there is something to be sold. It is possible that the AAP
leaders, who are being heard giving statements against the formation of the BJP
government, might become part of the government holding important positions.
One cannot have high expectations of commitment, and that too for long periods
of time, from the MLAs of a party which does not believe in organization and
ideology. AAP’s Pandora’s box is falling apart. Most of the apolitical AAP MLAs
who got elected riding on the wave of the anti-corruption movement, will not
join the Congress. Their destination can only be the BJP. In this scenario,
protestations that the BJP will not be able to prove its majority do not have
much strength.
AAP, which had the second
position in the Delhi Vidhan Sabha elections with 28 members, formed the
government with the support of the Congress. This government lasted merely for
49 days. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal used the Jan Lokpal Bill as an excuse
to tender his resignation and requested the Lt. Governor to dissolve the Vidhan
Sabha. The Congress did not withdraw its support. Actually, the intention of Krjriwal
was not to work for the public of Delhi but to ‘create history’, and after doing
that in Delhi he moved on to Benares.
Throughout this whole
exercise, the people of Delhi, who voted for the AAP and BJP against the
Congress, have simply been taken for a ride. The people
of Delhi need a government, not one more election. The BJP and AAP should get
together and form a stable government in Delhi to serve the people. There is no
ideological or policy related obstacles in BJP and AAP coming together. Both
the parties subscribe to neo-liberalism. The BJP never hides its allegiance to
capitalism. In the last two decades it has scaled higher peaks on its path to
corporate capitalism abandoning its earlier ranks of small traders. Kejriwal,
in the meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), clearly stated
his commitment to capitalism. By now it has became clear that the socialist
elements in AAP have been cornered. Now it is a group of non-ideology warriors
who are destined to be the true servants of the corporate world.
Opposition to the
Congress also binds both the parties together. Both have won in the Vidhan
Sabha elections by declaring their opposition to the Congress. If one looks
back a little in time, it may be noticed that they were together in the India
Against Corruption (IAC) and the anti-corruption movement from which AAP has
emerged. The whole movement was managed under the auspices of the RSS. Kiran
Bedi, a senior as well as active person of the IAC and the anti-corruption
movement has already stated that there is no ideological difference between the
BJP and AAP. This is why she was against the formation of AAP. The 'secular'
face of AAP, Prashant Bhushan, protested against AAP forming the government
with the support of the Congress and suggested that the government should be
formed with the BJP support instead. The BJP and AAP are natural allies, the most
authentic proof of this would be the fact that AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal
helped Narendra Modi win the election from Benares.
There is another facet
of similarity between the two. Both believe in the ‘moral force’ as opposed to
the Constitution and democratic institutions. This has made clear in the
article titled ‘Rule by Messiahs’ by Prof. Prabhat Patnaik. Also, S. P. Shukla
in his article, ‘Myopia, distortions and blind spots in the vision document of
AAP’ has revealed the destructive approach of AAP leaders. It is a well known
story that AAP leaders demonstrated their ‘bajrangi’ attitude by doing ‘justice’
to the foreign women on the streets at night in Malviya Nagar area of Delhi.
Given that there is no difference regarding the
thinking and work-style between the two parties, it will be proper if both get
together to form the government. This will mean that there will be no
horse-trading, no unnecessary heavy election expenditure and no waste of
precious time of government employees.
