Of late, the Aam Aadmi
Party leader has become much of a darling for the media. Apparently he has come
up with a number of innovative campaigning tactics. However, once you scratch
beneath the surface, you realize that the Aam Aadmi Party hasn’t exactly
started anything innovative but seems to be learning some old tricks from the experienced
ones, the BJP in particular.
Here’s a list of issues
and tactics generally being peddled as AAP’s trademarks but were in fact taken
up first by the BJP first:
1. Bijli Andolan: In 2003, Vijay Goel, when he was a Minister
in the NDA, was the first one to tell off the Sheila Dikshit Government to stop
complaining about power outages. In 2010, the BJP again started an agitation
against Sheila Dikshit for hike in electricity prices. The same issues were
taken up by Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal in 2013. Unfortunately, the
people of Delhi have conveniently bought the lie that the BJP hasn’t done
anything on the issue of electricity, which is a complete lie peddled by the
Aam Aadmi Party. (Reference)
Bijli Marathon organized by Vijay Goel (Lok Abhiyan) in
protest of fast running power meters: Date- Sept12, 2005
(Bijli Rally – The biggest Bijli Andolan ever to happen in
Delhi: Date – 12 Aug, 2013)
2. Manifesto Campaign: As early as 2008, when the BJP was
forming the committee to develop the manifesto for the city, Delhi’ites were
encouraged to give their suggestions to the BJP office at the time. Now that
the times have changed, internet is being used to take suggestions from the
people. What the AAP is wishing for is already a reality in case of the
BJP. (Reference)
3.
Campaigning during morning walks: Once again, it was Vijay Goel who
back in 2009 made an effort to engage with voters in person during morning
walks. Quoting a newspaper article published in Times of India. (Reference)
“BJP's candidate from New
Delhi is trying to jog his way to the voters' hearts. Vijay Goel a former Union
minister during the NDA rule and now the party choice against Ajay Maken of the
Congress has adopted a new way of campaigning. To get an opportunity to
interact with the elite electorate and area residents who take early morning
walks, Goel is regularly going jogging in the parks of the New Delhi
constituency.”
4. Janata Adalats: It was the BJP’s Vijay Goel who
started holding Jan Adalats in his Chandni Chownk Constituency. The same
concept was the inspiration behind Aam Aadmi Party’s Mohalla Sabhas. The Jan
Adalats are still held by the BJP all over the city. (Reference)
5. Electoral Issues: Vijay Goel raised the VAT issue in
support of traders back in the year 2005. To this date, the BJP keeps putting
forth VAT concerns by raising the issue in public, time and again. Now Kejriwal
has also spoken about it. (Reference) He has said he will demand a fair
deal for vendors and hawkers but the same has been raised by the BJP for a long
time now. (Reference)
AAP’s ‘Call Delhi’
campaign too is copied from the much popular Obama campaign (Reference). Though there may be couple of
things that have been tried with certain modifications, it will be naive to
believe the campaign is highly innovative and something that has never done
before.
The problem is that since
certain Aam Aadmis have recently entered into political arena, they think
whatever they do hasn’t been tried ever in the history of Indian Politics. I
will rather ask them to study about election campaigns in details. If they are
so bent on claiming to execute a creative campaign, didn’t they notice that
AAP’s banal android app is a mindless copy of Modi’s mobile application, or AAP
caps being copied from those worn in RSS since its inception? Did no party ever
use public transport for election campaigning? It’s time people come out of
delusions and embrace the facts.
