As we all know Kodipakam Neelameghacharya Govindacharya, is an environmental activist, social activist, political activist, Thinker and the ideological brain behind the BJP at the height of the Ram Mandir movement. Well, as per KN Govindacharya, the sprouting of Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party is an inexorable response to the anti-people politics of the mainstream parties.
In an interview with Nistula Hebbar, Govindacharya put into words that he has been supporting Kejriwal’s electoral plans since July 2011. Kejriwal may not be able to walk out of the trap laid for him by opposition parties, moneybags and bureaucrats, the RSS veteran says, but adds that even if Aam Aadmi Party fails there are more such political experiments in the pipeline.
When asked him what is the panorama to the emergence of AAP and Arvind Kejriwal, Without complicating the matter, he said, “People were upset with the ruling party and disappointed with the opposition as all parties were affected, and state apparatus was insensitive and dysfunctional. In this state of affairs, it is natural that there is a resettlement process and issues and movements are thrown up. Increase prices, corruption were issues which received a response.”
Both the ruling and opposition parties lost credibility with the people. In all parties now there is double standards and selectivity, and internal negation, double talk, difference of opinion, opportunism and personal ambitions dominate. That’s why people had no alternative among existing political parties. So, a political intensification attracts people.
The release of Anna Hazare from Tihar jail was a climax of the IAC movement. The movement at that time had to live up to the expectations, but for whatever reasons this didn’t happen. The movement of Baba Ramdev was fizzled out in June 2011, Anna Hazare did the strategic mistake of fasting at Azad Maidan without preparation when the support had dwindled.
In this situation, when we looked at it with more experience, it was felt that there should be something from within the process, and that became AAP. That legacy or Ramdev, Hazare was politically transformed into an apparatus.
KN Govindacharaya knew Kejriwal before he turned a politician from a very long time, since 1996-97. Even at that time, he feels that he had the potential of being political or a means of politics, he don’t want to call it ambition.
He says, “I always give the example of a football match where two teams are competing and then they start playing against the crowd rather than each other. That is our political system at the moment, dono team, 22 khilaadi goal daagh rahe hain janta ke khilaaf (both teams, 22 players are scoring goals against the public). In this scenario, the crowd would have to get into the field and make sure the game is played.”
“If anarchy is created in the football stadium then Radical situations need radical solutions,” he said.
The manner in which he explains their position only suggests that he a close association with AAP. All of them are friends to him and would not engage in competitive politics with each other. He said that the one in a position to score should do so, and the others should pass the ball. Scoring the goal is important, that was the main takeaway.
The future of the Aam Aadmi Party is built on the lessons of the past. Even if it fails, it will facilitate others. He feared that Kejriwal may become the Abhimanyu of Mahabharat, where he learns how to enter the chakravyuh and doesn’t know how to exit.
He further says, “In the Mahabharata, the gurus broke the rules to attack him, and Arvind (Kejriwal) too might face such unethical attacks, from thaili shahs (bag men), to naukar shahs (bureaucrats) to rival parties. But the fact is that in terms of a political continuum, the process will be on, many experiments like this are in the pipeline.”