Communist Party of India (Marxist) Polit Bureau member Sitaram Yechury has brushed aside the prospects of the Aaam Admi Party (AAP) making inroads into Kerala politics.
He was speaking to The Hindu on Thursday on the sidelines of a seminar on ‘Education and commercialisation’ here.
Indicating that it will be difficult for the AAP to form a third front and retain the Kerala voter’s confidence, he said “the informed electorate of Kerala has perfected the art of keeping successive governments on its toes. The fact that this is a State with the highest human development index shows for it”. Mr. Yechury said the AAP had not revealed its stance on an alternative economic policy and combating communalism could not entice the “informed electorate” of the State.
Bhushan-VS meetAam Admi Party (AAP) leader Prashant Bhushan had visited Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan in the State capital in December immediately after the party’s success in Delhi polls, raising speculation about the AAP’s political ambitions in the State. Mr. Bhushan had come out of the meeting saying he had come to seek Mr. Achuthanandan’s “guidance, help and support to bring about a political transformation” in the country.
Analysing the AAP’s advent, Mr. Yechury said that though it had come at a time when the people were looking for relief, he had doubts whether it would be able to deliver a substitute economic policy which veered away from that of the BJP and the Congress. “A deep burden… a very heavy burden has been thrust on them by the economic policies of the last decade or so. The last two years have been unbearable. They want relief… an alternative that is neither the BJP’s nor the Congress’s in terms of economic policy,” he said.
Asked whether the CPI(M) was reaching out to the AAP in the context of an article by general secretary Prakash Karat in the party organ People’s Democracy , Mr. Yechury explained his party had been working for long on “an alternative that will implement alternative policies, not an alternative to form the government, to provide relief to the people.” But he expressed doubts about the AAP being that “alternative” the people were seeking for.
“The AAP has ridden on the planks of corruption and good governance. They have not addressed two crucial issues – combating communalism and providing an alternative set of economic policies. Until they clarify as to where they stand on these two issues, they will not win the complete confidence of the people,” he said.
