The extension of support by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) to the Aam Aadmi Party has led to much debate within the party and among rights activists in Madhya Pradesh. While NBA leader Medha Patkar has not joined the party so far, its leaders in MP Alok Agarwal, Chittaroopa Palit and others have joined the party.
Mr. Agarwal announced in a press conference here on Wednesday that he is interested in contesting Lok Sabha elections from Khandwa, a seat held the MP Congress Committee President Arun Yadav.
“We have struggled for years remaining outside electoral politics and the government has taken several years even to give basic rights like the relief package for Omkareshwar Dam oustees. AAP has taken a stand against forceful displacement and we are also encouraged by their decision not to allow foreign direct investment in retail in Delhi. There is an uprising happening and the people want to join,” he said.
He added that at least 200 NBA activists have joined the party and a lakh will follow in the coming weeks. The decision to join AAP was taken during several conventions of the NBA in the Narmada Valley.
No AAP leader was present during Mr. Agarwal’s press meet. Its Khandwa district covener Piyush Bhansali pointed out this fact when he spoke to this paper over phone. “Not a single NBA member has contacted me for membership. I am unaware of where Alok ji has taken membership,” he said.
Mr. Agarwal clarified that he had enrolled online.
AAP’s state secretary Akshay Hunka, a mobile application entrepreneur who is currently in Sagar as part of the party’s Swaraj Yatra, said that no one was present as they were busy with the membership drives. The party claims to have enrolled at least 3.5 lakh new members across the state. These include at least 15 retired officers of the All India Services and several under-the-radar leaders of the Congress, BJP and NCP.
When asked about the party’s stand on dams — structures which the NBA has opposed and which are abundant in the state — Mr. Hunka said, “We have a committee which decides on all this. I am not aware of the developments at this moment.”
It is this ambiguity which has worried rights activists who have played the role of the opposition after the Congress suffered three successive crushing defeats in assembly polls. Information and Wildlife activist Ajay Dubey, who won the NDTV RTI award in 2009 — which was given in association with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s Public Cause Research Foundation — said the AAP is confused over the issues the state faces.
“No one knows their leader as they have never worked at the grassroots. These are opportunists who jumped on to the bandwagon after AAP’s success in Delhi. The leadership needs to get their concepts clear before,” Mr. Dubey said.
AAP’s national executive members Yogendra Yadav and Ajit Jha were members of the Samajwadi Jan Parishad (SJP), a Lohia-ite socialist party active in the Narmadapuram and Jabalpur divisions. SJP’s National Executive member Anurag Modi explained that the reason they have refused to merge into AAP, despite being approached by them, is the party’s absence of ideology.
“We fight for alternative development policies. AAP believes that by implementing existing policies well, they can cure the ills of democracy. For them corruption is the disease; for us it is a symptom of wrong policies,” said Mr. Modi.
He added, “A government officer enforcing forest laws and arrests adivasis honestly is alright for AAP. An adivasi’s survival hinges on corruption, on bribes to forest officials to survive in the jungle. AAP is not against the policies which bring misery to the people,” he said.
AAP’s state spokesman Prahlad Pandey, a former professor, said that the party’s stand is that “development needs to be redefined and it does not mean snatching away people’s rights.”
An AAP source in Delhi confirmed that one of the objectives of opening up membership online was too free it from the stranglehold of district committees which may weigh the party down before it can take off nationally.
Tribal and Women’s rights activist Madhuri Krishnaswamy, whose organisation Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sanghatan has held talks with AAP, said that more dialogue was needed for AAP to tap into rural supporters. “There is interest for AAP even in remote tribal villages. We would like further clarifications on their stand on issues like livelihood and displacement. For them to translate their popularity into votes, rural masses need to know what their stand on issues that affect their lives.”
Ms. Krishnaswamy clarified that she wasn’t joining the party.
