AAP model of politics: A case of habitual cribbing and wild allegations

In the English language, cribbing has two meanings: Plagiarism or theft. Interestingly, while used as slang or in common parlance, cribbing means to complain non-stop. It is a slang used to describe the habit of a non-stop complaining person. As per one study, cribbing is a psychological recluse of the cribber where the reasons for cribbing may be pessimism, seeking attention, shunning responsibility, a negative mindset, and so on. Habitual-cribber is a person who cribs in all the situations, circumstances and with all the persons. This emanates from the paranoid and pessimistic mindset of the cribber where everything is perceived as a threat — real or imaginary.

The major psychological traits of the cribber are:

–         Cribbers do not act but react. Instead of doing ‘action’, they ‘react’ to any situation, person or circumstances. Since they resort to ‘reaction’, they have an opinion of and on and for anything. Instead of solutions, they see problems in everything. They suspect everything. They ‘question’ instead of being ‘curious’ about the situation.

–         They are the worst kind of blame-others. They are other-oriented. They do not take responsibility for their acts or failures. If they are not successful, it is not on account of their faults but because of others. Their life is controlled by incidents happening outside their forte. As a consequence, they shift the responsibility of their own failure on others.

–         They are paranoid where the existence of any other person or entity is perceived as a threat. They will magnify their own ‘actions’ as well as the perceived ‘inaction’ of others.

–         They have less faith in existing systems and establishments. In socio-political affairs, they oppose everything and propose nothing. They work with a perception that blaming is the best way to seek attention or divert attention. They will go for blaming, alleging and vilifying others so as to either seek attention or divert attention.

Now, this model of cribbing and blaming is not confined to personality traits of human beings but pervades in the social and political realm as well. In the political history of the world as well as India, we have seen many outfits, groups, organisations and political parties that have resorted to political cribbing.

For example, there is an influential yet coveted clout of the Left-liberal intellectuals who can see no good happening in India. In the same vein, the model and strategy adopted by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) falls in this category. The AAP started as a movement led by Anna Hazare to fight against corruption. However, it fell into the trap of blame-all and oppose-all strategy.

The major patterns of the AAP model of cribbing and allegations are as under:

–         Blaming and Alleging all: This is a simple strategy to seek attention. You make wild, random and unsupported allegations without any proof. No one can forget that the mentor of the AAP before gaining power had accused politicians across the political spectrum of corruption. Interestingly, none of the allegations was supported by any evidence or proof till date. Interestingly, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal had to seek apology from Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari and Vikram Majithiya (SAD), while the deputy, Manish Sisodia, did the same with Amit Sibal (son of Kapil Sibal). The AAP has always questioned and suspected the source of political funding of various political parties. Interestingly, it keeps mum when the source of its own public-funding is questioned.

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–         Magnifying oneself: This political strategy also implies that you have to over-project your ‘actions’. The AAP has ascribed itself to be the most honest political outfit. What is the basis of this ‘honesty’ is not backed by any survey or public opinion. The titles of “Kattar-Deshbhakt” (staunch nationalist) and “Kattar-Imandar” (dead honest) have been self-credited and self-ascribed. As a further extension of this, they spend more on political advertisement than actual work. Sometimes, the expenditure of propaganda on any act is three-times more than the very act. As per reports, Delhi’s advertisement bill has increased 44 percent in the last 10 years, while the AAP in Punjab has spent Rs 37 crore in 2 months!

–         Double-speak on Corruption: The main plank on the basis of which the movement against corruption was fought was the Lokpal Bill which was seen as a tool to fight institutional corruption. Till date no effective mechanism is devised to stop corruption, leave aside the Lokpal Bill. As a political strategy, it has a ‘mechanism’ where it can certify any one as honest or dishonest. Surprisingly, this ‘honest’, de-criminalised political party has 61 percent and 56 percent of AAP MLAs with alleged criminal records in Delhi (2020) and Punjab Assemblies (2022) respectively.

–         Bait and switch: An extension of seeking attention and diverting attention, the AAP promises freebies like free power, Rs 2,000 to each woman, free water and so on. The moment it comes to power, as in Punjab, it publicly admits having no finances to fulfil the promises.

–         Being Other-oriented: These types of people/organisations have less self-esteem and resort to copying others so as to gain political legitimacy. They are more guided by vested interests than any ideology. Imagine the U-turn taken by the AAP on the issue of nationalism: It first talked about negating nationalism, but later started tom-toming the need for “real” nationalism.

–         Propose Nothing, Oppose Everything: This is one of the easiest ways to seek attention. The AAP can find faults in anything and everything. It can question surgical strikes, oppose construction of the Ram Mandir and blame others for their failures. It accuses others of corruption and criminalisation, while turning a blind eye to the happenings within the AAP.

This is the time for the people of India to have a reality check.

The writer is an independent columnist. Views expressed are personal.

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