AAP’s solutionism is not the solution
The Aam Aadmi Party imagines itself transported beyond corruption, to the realm of the pure and the noble.
Think for a moment of the superior air of being beyond Left and Right that the Aam Aadmi Party revels in. Arvind Kejriwal says, we are common people, we have problems, and we want solutions. We are not wedded to any ideology. If the solution exists in the Right, we will take it. Same goes for solutions that might exist in the Left.
AAP imagines itself trans- ported beyond particular interests or ossified ideologies, beyond corruption, to the realm of the pure and the noble. No mediation — it is directly with the masses, leading crowds/mobs, getting crowdfunded. This was so tersely enacted by Kejriwal sleeping in protest by the roadside on that freezing Delhi night when Congress and BJP leaders were enjoying homely comforts.
Take a pause. Reflect on the fact that AAP’s rivals too reject ideology.
Think of the sections within the Congress (and World Bank) who support direct cash transfers (DCTs) in place of employment-based MNREGA scheme, arguing that the latter spawns corruption and vested interests. DCT is a “solution”, directly deliver- ing cash where it is needed, bypassing engagement with wider social relations, with “social complexity”.
Perhaps we can go back to Rajiv Gandhi and his tech people, who thought technology can provide solutions to social problems. Was that the beginning of “challenging politics”, the anti-political tirade which culminates in the Anna Hazare movement, under the guise of anti-corruption and out of which comes AAP? The post-ideological, anti-political wave is larger and includes the Congress, BJP and perhaps even Left parties. It only finds a fuller expression in AAP.
AAP’s denial of ideological affiliation, claiming to focus solely on solutions, is however not entirely new. It is part of what is called solutionism. Solutionism is the attempt to narrow down the problem and suggest a narrow (technological) solution to it. This is the solutionism of Silicon Valley. No wonder that AAP has a major support base among Indian professionals in Silicon Valley. Solutionism holds that efficiency is good, politics is messy. Make politics efficient.
AAP’s solutionism is dif- ferent, as we immediately see that it engages in messy, “inefficient” mass politics. “One solution: end corruption”: this war cry of the aggressive, self-righteous upper middle classes is now taken to the lower classes, giving solutionism a new twist. So much so that solutionism looks like some kind of radical left movement or participatory democracy.
But like Silicon Valley solutionism, with its narrow technological fix to social problems, AAP too leaves the larger body of social relations (say, socio-economic inequalities) untouched, narrowing the problem to say corruption or non-delivery of services. Thus the aam aadmi, or the “popular”, enters the discourse in a way which does not transform the social body but leaves it untouched — nay it mobilises regressive tendencies in society and (re)presents it as the popular will. Hence if there is racism in society, for example, in the attitude towards Africans in Delhi, AAP apparently cannot do anything about it and instead might spearhead and reinforce it.
With solutionism, the popular now reinstates hierarchies and social domination, providing them with a hitherto nonexistent legitimacy. If there are khap panchayats that claim to be organically a part of society, or are “non-Eurocentric”, AAP cannot do anything about it. Instead these “popular” bodies are now mobilised towards an essentially solutionist vision — pull out the “corrupt” or “bad elements” (say, black Africans) to retain the purity of the social body, as though through a technological fix. Khaps and right-wing vigilantism now find a common space with Infosys ex-CEOs and tech-fundamentalists.
Once freed from any social structures, once you focus only on service delivery or on the misuse of power by “bad elements” or corruption, you create an imaginary highway of solutionist success. Like the free space of a mall, which works by keeping every problem outside it, now you can move in this seamless space. Like brandishing a sword in thin air, once you have promised not to cross swords with the real social relations or challenge the “popular”, there will be a lot of shadow boxing, lot of “ab chalegi jhaadu”, but in thin air. A selfsame world, marked by “more of the same”.
Hence, as novel a spectacle as a Chief Minister sitting on dharna and sleeping by the roadside now becomes immediately obsolescence. The theatrical, the comical and the spectacular, regarded as quintessential to Indian politics, now turn tiresome. Neither absurd nor normal, but the normal as absurd, normal faking as absurd. It is solutionism implanted in the belly of the popular-reactionary.
Solutionism in Indian politics allows populist forces to short-circuit away from social inequalities and capitalist relations — all in the name of directly identifying with the masses, making a virtue of not engaging with real structural inequalities.
This is the post-ideological ideology par excellence! The status quo is not really challenged but spiced up with theatre and drama, making it more “interesting” as media gets more eyeballs. We are today witness to a bizarre mix of technocratic solutionism with aam aadmi politics. Saroj Giri teaches Political Theory in the University of Delhi. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is already preparing herself for the post poll scenario in the country. By lending support to the cause of united Andhra Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, the Trinamool Congress supremo consciously reached out to both the leaders and followers of the YSR Congress, as also those who are in the Indian National Congress but are unhappy with the creation of a separate Andhra Pradesh.
Mamata’s concern is also very obvious. While on one hand she knows that the creation of a separate Telangana state will give rise to demands of statehood from others parts of the country including that of a separate Gorkhaland, on the other, she has decided to empathise with Congresspersons, who are disillusioned with the working of their own party. She has also made overtures to former Congress leaders who after breaking away from the main party like her have floated their own parties in different states.
The West Bengal Chief Minister may have detractors, who may disagree with her style of functioning, but there is no one in the political class who can question both her integrity and honesty. It is, therefore, natural that she may be looking at developments as they are happening. Having done her political apprenticeship in the Congress party, she has great access to many top leaders even after she formed her own Trinamool Congress.
It appears that the West Bengal CM is aiming to be the rallying point for all shades of Congressmen and women after the Lok Sabha elections. She has already predicted that the Congress will find it very difficult to cross 60 seats and that the BJP will be the single largest party, a belief many political analysts share with her. Knowing the way the Congress works and recognising the disappointment of the workers with the leaders of their party, Mamata Banerjee is seeking to get them in her fold. She recently announced that her party shall be broadening its base and thus be contesting in many states outside West Bengal where they are in power. She also is aware that there may not be too many seats where they can even offer a fight outside their state, but the logic is that she wants activists and grass root level workers from the Indian National Congress to begin aligning with her at this early stage.
Many Congresspersons, past and present, feel that after the Parliamentary election if the Congress reaches its lowest ever figure and is routed, there could be a challenge to the party’s current leadership. There has been a precedent when a mass leader of Indira Gandhi’s stature lost the 1977 elections. Her leadership was questioned by many whom she considered close to her. Even while she was in power and her government was in its final stages after lifting of the Emergency, Congress leaders led by Babu Jagjiwan Ram, H.N. Bahuguna and Nandini Satpathy broke away and formed the Congress for Democracy (CFD).
Indira Gandhi was a fighter and she fought back during the Janata Party rule. She split the Congress for the second time and with the help of her younger son, Sanjay Gandhi brought the party back to power in 1980. But since there is no leader of Indira Gandhi’s stature at present, it is difficult to imagine what would happen to the present Congress, which is already witnessing signs of revolt as demonstrated by its Chief Minister and many others from Andhra Pradesh. The party’s organisational set up is virtually non-existent and the manner in which the current leadership has conducted itself, the grass roots workers are very saddened and disappointed. With foot soldiers not there to fight back, the challenge in the post electoral scenario is inevitable.
It is in a situation like this when Mamata Banerjee can touch a chord somewhere and become the leader who commands the respect and following of the common Congresspersons, both past and present. She has proved that she is a mass leader, which no Congress Chief Minister today can claim. She will have no difficulty in tying up either with Jagan Mohan Reddy and Sharad Pawar and others like them. But she does not want to play her cards too early. She has sent feelers, but has not ruled out a tie-up in future with the NDA, whom she has praised for creating new states during their tenure in a very amicable and just manner.
Mamata has further strengthened her position by getting an endorsement from Anna Hazare considered by many as the ultimate crusader against corruption. She is a leader to watch. She is evolving every day. Between us.