Manish Sisodia, one of the founders of the AAP, a member of its Political Affairs Committee and National Executive, and the Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi, speaks to Damini Nath about the challenges faced in the past five years and the future of the party.
In the past five years, what have been the biggest surprises and challenges for the party?
When we formed the party five years ago, we never expected a red-carpet welcome. We knew we were going to fight against certain problems, which were there because there were problem-makers. These problem-makers weren’t going to give us a red-carpet welcome.
But, then we formed the party and got 28 seats in the first election itself. There was fear in our minds, but also faith that the people would support us.
Then, winning 67 seats in Delhi was a surprise for us all. In fact, it was a surprise for the whole country that a new party had won so many seats in its second election.
After that, when we formed the government, the surprise was that the Centre could be so negative towards the city and not allow any work to be done because Delhiites had not voted for their party. Political diversity and rivalries are a given, but it was a setback to us that the Centre would not let the people’s work be done.
But, overall it has been encouraging… The party is still working towards the goals it had in the beginning, making a corruption-free, educated and healthy city. It was a movement and it is a movement still.
What grade will you give the party and the Delhi government when it comes to achieving the goals you had set out with?
My grading doesn’t hold any importance. The grade given by the people is important. Self-appraisal is not the best appraisal practice.
After the results in the Punjab Assembly and the municipal elections in Delhi, there was a sense that the growth of the party had been curtailed. Going forward to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 2020 Delhi Assembly elections, how do you see the potential?
For 2019 and 2020, I don’t know. But, yes, it is a fact that the kind of expectations we had in Punjab, it [results] was a setback. Even critics were getting the sense that Punjab was going the AAP way, but that did not happen. Till today, it is difficult to believe that despite the situation we saw in Punjab, we lost the election.
We are a new party, we have a government in one State, 22 legislators in another and 60-70 councillors in the municipal corporations.
I don’t think the growth of the AAP is a question. It may sound a bit philosophical, but we believe that it is not important for us how much the party is growing. It is important that the mission we set out keeps progressing.
For instance, we started the policy of no red-beacon cars for Ministers. Today, it is being followed all over the country. We are proud of initiating it. People supported that kind of politics in Delhi, so the Centre was also forced to enact it.
Corruption became an issue because of the AAP and even today we are working towards it.
How will you do that? We have seen that the Jan Lokpal Bill you proposed has been stuck.
It will happen. This is a long fight. There were some instant results, some that take more time. In 1930 or 1940, did people think they would get freedom? But, they did get it. Before 2011, when the anti-corruption movement started, did people think one could talk about corruption in politics? We couldn’t think that a group could become a party based on an anti-corruption movement. I am quite hopeful that things we have started will come to fruition.
