POWER TO THE PEOPLE The Swaraj bill

The Nagara Swaraj Bill will be AAP’s most radical reform. The bill intends to decentralise power by segregating the city into 2,720 mohalla sabhas, which will have functions ranging from the cleaning of roads to public vaccination and inoculation, ensuring universal education and preserving heritage. The draft bill also gives the sabhas power to direct and authorise any kind of expenditure for the welfare of people, on subjects within the jurisdiction of the sabha.

The idea of ruling through mohalla sabhas is the vehicle through which Kejriwal’s new politics will play out. “Rather than dividing the society into various segments like adivasis, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The mohalla sabha will be a unifying force that brings people together. It will connect communities with government,” says a member of AAP national executive. “They will embrace ‘citizenship’ and demand the changes they want to see from their elected representatives.”

Though the Congress has argued that residents welfare associations in the city perform the same functions as mohalla sabhas, the AAP’S counter is that they are limited in function and have largely been taken over by the upper middle class. The mohalla sabha will give provide an opportunity for the disenfranchised and disempowered in each neighbourhood to get better representation. They will have the power to elect members to the sabhas and have a say in administration of their area.

AAP’S first two months in charge of Delhi have provided the catalyst for a national campaign and the party is now set to consolidate. According to Kumar, the next few weeks, when it will release its final list of candidates and its national manifesto, will be crucial. “The list of candidates will reveal whether the party has been truly open to the best candidates,” he said. Of the 32 committees that were initially constituted to form a national plan, many have been clubbed together—such as those on economy and ecology—as the party continues to consult experts in various fields.

Like Kejriwal said, the future of AAP hinged on its first two months in office. On current evidence, the party has very cleverly wooed the electorate it wants.

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