The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Thursday 19 June 2014

NEXT DELHI GOVERNMENT: BJP OR AAP?

With a summer of mounting power crisis, the rush to form the next government in Delhi is in news again. AAP and BJP both are reported to be engaged in efforts.

(Irrespective of the claims, counterclaims, deliberate leaks, denials, and irrespective of the immediate past, and based much on the recent political past, and irrespective of the compulsions of the political ideologies, that has, comfortably, never been the case in the ‘contemporary’ Indian politics.)

AAP (Aam Aadmi Party) negotiating with Congress and BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party) working on ‘rebel AAP MLAs’ options – though such reports and claims have been dismissed by BJP, AAP and Congress – the developments are expected to give Delhi the next ‘elected’ government.

With 3 BJP members of the Delhi legislative assembly becoming the members of the parliament, the sitting MLA strength of the House is now 67. It means, to form the government, a simple majority of 34 MLAs is needed now.

The present combined strength of BJP and its ally SAD (Shiromani Akali Dal) is 29 (28+1) and AAP is at 27. BJP needs 5 MLAs and AAP needs 7 MLAs to reach the threshold.


THE BJP PROSPECTS

That makes BJP’s work easier. BJP can easily scout for the lone independent MLA and the AAP rebel Vinod Kumar Binny. That reduces its need to 3 more MLAs. 

The options are the breakaway factions from Congress or AAP.

Congress has 8 MLAs, 4 of which are Muslims. They, with the Delhi Congress chief Arvinder Singh Lovely, will not go for BJP. Even then, the 3 other MLAs can split up to support BJP as that would be according to the provision of the anti-defection law requiring at least one-third of the members of a political party in a House to split up to form a new entity.

That would serve the BJP purpose but the majority would be razor-thin and BJP would like to go for the greener option, splitting the Aam Aadmi Party. It is being reported that many AAP MLAs are in touch with the BJP leadership and negotiations are on.

Now, no one wants elections in Delhi (if we talk of the politicians). And with depleted popularity and credibility crisis owing to being the deserters and being a major factor behind Delhi’s ongoing power crisis, most of the AAP MLAs, who rode on the 2011 anti-corruption movement and sky-high anti-incumbency ‘wave’ to win (otherwise most of them would not have won), are ‘rightly’ wary that they are not going to win again, because no ‘wave’ would be there next time. The credibility crisis for AAP is real and is here to stay (irrespective of the increased vote share in Delhi in the Lok Sabha polls as the Indian capital city was not hit by its worst power and water crisis, at least in this decade).

In that case, most of the first-timers (and that can be their only chance to sit in the Delhi assembly) would never prefer to go for re-election so soon without experiencing the true test of power (and the associated luxuries of life), that they could, during the first brief stint with the Delhi Secretariat earlier this year. After all, the air around the austere and upright AAP leaders has fizzled out.

And they are the ‘willing’ targets the BJP would love to manage and co-opt and their count will be an additional advantage. Being 27 members, at least 9 MLAs need to form the splitting faction that would give BJP a smooth sail in the House in terms of the number-game (28+1+1+1+9=40). And 9 is just the theoretical count. There may be more.

Also, such ‘willing’ MLAs will not be a headache for BJP even if they are not given the ministerial berths. Being the first-timers, they would stay comfortable ‘even’ with the legislative perks.

THE AAP PROSPECTS

Given the count of 27, AAP, too, like BJP’s 29 MLAs, has the chances. The only catch is, AAP does not have the luxury of putting efforts for more than ‘one easily available options’.

AAP needs 7 MLAs and even in that case it would be just a razor-thin simple majority.

AAP can look for Congress, the lone independent MLA and the lone Janata Dal (United) MLA. They all make for a combined strength of 37 (27+8+1+1).

If this happens, then AAP can expect to manage well for the remaining tenure, provided it meets the ‘criteria’.

And what can be the elements of the ‘criteria’? AAP will have to accommodate each and every demand of the ‘supporting’ MLAs. Here, the problem would not be with the Congress party as it will support from outside. But the 2 other MLAs would extract a heavy price.

But the big question before the stage to ‘meet the elements of the criteria laid’ arrives is whether the Congress party will come forward to support AAP.

There are reports talking of meetings and possible ‘deal’ between AAP and Congress with each vehemently denied by both. But even Congress needs time to prepare for the lost ground in Delhi before it goes to the polls. After the historically low tally in the recently held Lok Sabha elections, there are real chances that an election held now may worsen its situation even further that will further weaken its revival prospects.

So, even if Congress supporting AAP to form the government again after the failed previous experiment may look like a remote possibility as of now, we should not be surprised if some last minute deal could be worked out.

In the present circumstances, Congress has not much to lose politically. Any performing government in Delhi would work anti to its prospects but a performing BJP government would be much more harmful.

In fact, a performing AAP government, running with the ‘crucial and guided’ support of Congress would be the logical option for the Delhi politics of the grand old party of India.

The party will have to bear the opportunity cost of giving AAP another chance to prove its ‘worthiness’ in order to gain time to act further, to act better.

That is the only chance the Aam Aadmi Party has to form the government in Delhi.

©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com