BY TAHIR MEHDI
I understand I might be stepping over many toes. It indeed looks like comparing apples with oranges given the vast differences between the two societies, their political history and the nature of their polities. But, I insist it is worth a thought as at some levels we have a lot in common and I am not just referring to the pre-Partition history or our common linguistic and cultural roots, etc. It’s about our current politics.
My defense against this blasphemous act, of comparing the politics of the two parties, is based on two points. Dare I elaborate?
The cause célèbre for both the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf in Pakistan and the Aam Aadmi Party in India has been corruption in government and politics. Corrupt politicians win elections and form governments that protect and promote corruption. They both identify ‘cleaning of the filth’ as the way forward – the way that will certainly make life easier for middle classes and might also benefit the lower, resource-less classes. That’s one.
The other commonality is that they both find the voter stuck between ‘non-choices’. People may vote to victory party A or party B but governance approaches, economic policies and a lot more remains the same. Elections thus have become sterile and there is weariness with even ‘politics’. So both the parties presented themselves as a third option promising change and wanting to convert this weariness into a new political currency.
The PTI remained unsuccessful in the 1997 and 2002 elections, boycotted in 2008 and fell way short of its own expectations in 2013, despite huge media hype. The AAP surprised everyone with a big win in its very first election and is giving restless days and sleepless nights to other established parties as the national elections, due in April-May, are approaching fast. Some say that success for the AAP has come a bit too early and that it will have impact on its development. But what the AAP might turn into in the years to come is a separate subject.
So, are the voters in India more responsive to change than the ones in Pakistan? Some will jump to say yes. But I find it opportune to first have a look at the political approach of the two parties and their strategies for electoral success. I also earnestly believe that it has a few lessons for everyone wanting to see a political change in the real sense. Here is what the PTI lacked and faltered upon, compared with the AAP.
The PTI promised the moon | The AAP is realistic about its capacity to deliver
Have a look at the Aam Aadmi Party’s manifesto for the 2013 Delhi Elections. It reads like an NGO’s planned outputs, complete with Objectively Verifiable Indicators and Means of Verification. These are succinct, elaborate and completely practical. Consider for example, one agenda item – water, it promised households using up to 700 litres (per day) of free water; transparency in the functioning of the Delhi Water Board and in the long run city-wide rainwater harvesting. On the corruption front, a new law covering all public officers; time-bound investigation and swift disposal of corruption cases; cases against Ministers, MLAs and Secretaries to be completed within six months to a year.
If your approach is so down-to-earth, you are bound to win the confidence of voters. Being realistic may sound far less sexy for the media than boasting of tsunamis; and mantras of 90-day turnarounds can be anything but when it comes to delivering, it really raises your political stature. On the other hand, if you promise the moon to start with and then it turns out to be a hoax, you are bound to get a beating.
The PTI somehow could not realise that campaign promises are not made just to arouse your supporters and incite media frenzy; they are actually meant to be fulfilled, if and when you win. Its promises have been unrealistic and its proposed solutions were not at all different from what is already being done or what others were promising too.
Consider for example the PTI’s manifesto item about energy (a part of its Economic Policy). It promised that it would enforce an Energy Emergency to make Pakistan Energy Secure, and the number one thing they wanted to do was ‘Resolve circular debt by moving to lower cost of production’. How can you lower the cost of production of energy (being mostly produced by private companies) when you can’t do anything about world oil prices? The PTI’s manifesto read more like rally slogans than well-thought out and practical measures that could be adopted to better the situation.
The PTI is desperate for power | The AAP stands for principles
The AAP has launched itself from Delhi, which has a lesser status than that of even a state/province. ‘Full statehood for Delhi’ is actually a part of its manifesto. Their strategy is to start small, increase their base and expand. The PTI, in contrast wanted nothing short of full and absolute power.
In its first elections in 1997, a year after its formation, it fielded candidates on 134 seats out of the 207-seat National Assembly (Results: no seat; 314,820, 1.65 per cent votes). That was just behind the PPP’s 160 and the PML-N’s 176 candidates. In 2002, the PTI contested on 94 seats winning one seat and a total of 242,472 votes.
Its leader lost heart and realised that his ‘fan club’ was not going to get him to the position he aimed for – the top. So, in its elections in 2013, he changed the strategy and swelled the party ranks with ‘the electables’. This was completely contradictory to his stance of cleaning politics by removing all corruption. The same electables now occupy central positions and pose, with broad smiles, in the big family group photo.
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