Sad, Unfortunate and Foolish

Gajendra Singh committed suicide in AAP rally today. The news hit reflect the sorry state of affairs in our today's politics. Is it politics at its new low? Was this a political drama gone wrong? Or was this a genuine hopelessness and frustration of a farmer forcing him to end his life?
I hope that we come to know the truth soon. This is was a sad, horrible unfortunate and foolish act. Suicide is not an option. I am also surprised at the insensitivity of the people in that rally. How can a farmer attempts  suicide in a rally in a full public view and nobody stopped him.
If this was a staged drama gone wrong then Kejriwal or whoever is responsible should be given harshest punishment for this. This is politics at its nadir. 

Is AAP an idea that has failed?

The recent events in the political environment of the country have saddened me immensely. AAP as a party garnered support from some unexpected corners because of its promise of providing clean and effective politics. However, it can be safely said that it has failed on many fronts and is being perceived by many more people as no-different than other political parties.

We can presume several reasons for AAP turbulent existence and the way it has been damaging its own credentials consistently. Unlike other political parties, AAP is a very interesting mix of young people with zero political experience and ideologies that are significantly different from those of our earlier generation politicians. Furthermore, the approach, and social mobilisation strategy resorted to modern technology and intensive connect with the common people; this gave it a significant political dividend but also magnified its errors. It also failed in vetting its key members’ profile to ascertain their suitability for various roles which required separate skills and attitude. Also, AAP’s success became a magnet to all kind of opportunists who were looking to start a political career to garner money, power and fame.

All organisations and movements go through a chaotic process before they get stabilised. AAP is going through the same process. The leadership needs to ascertain that the chaotic process should not result in destruction of the core values and transform the whole idea into another run of the mill political party.

Arvind Kejriwal has the propensity of taking decision which are not based on a thorough analysis of all the factors and forces in play. What aggravates the situation more is his style of leadership which has some resemblance to dictatorial  leadership. All of these are ignored if things are moving well but these get magnified once things go wrong. Arvind Kejriwal need to reinvent himself as a leader.

We all are hoping that AAP as an experiment evolves, cleanse itself of all the pernicious elements and remould itself into what it promised to many supporters: an honest, transparent and effective political party.