Nearly everyone is
stunned by the performance of AAP in Delhi and have the same question
"wow, how they pulled off?". Lets try to find out what was the secret
recipe for success of AAP? And what is the thing that has brought a common man
to the so called Janta Darbar.
Lets start from a
small conversation:
Two men travelling
in a bus:
Man1: Few days ago, I went to get my son's driver
license. And we just end up going to the division of motor vehicles repeatedly.
Man2: Oh, yes. You are right. This torture due to
corruption sucks. We need to get rid of it.
Man1: But what else can we do apart from watching.
The law and order is also pathetic here. Its hard to get out of it once you are
there.
Man2: Hmm. Lets just wait for some miracle or believe
in some God to who can free us.
The above
conversation shows the situation of "learned helplessness". According
to psychologists learned helplessness is where people who have been put in a
prolonged situation where they are unable to get results from their actions,
give up trying, and thereafter, helplessness becomes a learned behavior. This
behavior can be better illustrated from the scenario before independence.
Initially the people were helpless and low in confidence having a prejudice
that we shall never be able to compete and fight back with these inevitable British Sarkar. But once the wave of
independence get into the nerves of the Indians, it was able to completely
destroy the British kingdom, the path may be full of barriers but they succeed
because they were determined to, because they had begun the journey from helplessness
to empowerment. And this journey is one-way street, one cannot go back to
feeling helpless or powerless even if they wish to. The contribution of leaders
cannot be denied as they helped to remove the barriers of caste, creed, gender
and brought whole India into one thread.
This scenario can be
compared to the present day where a common man is fighting back to corruption
which currently seems to be inevitable. But like any typical problem, it too
have a solution. What we can see at the present time is the requirement of change.
But what type of change? Experts in change management talk of two ways that you
can make change happen. 1. By putting in place "drivers" that create
a force towards the desired future state or 2. By removing the
"hurdles" or barriers that prevent a system from moving to the
desired future state. Its often easier to change a system by removing
"barriers" rather than putting "drivers". As we could see
who doesn't want a corruption free country(except few who are making profit out
of it). But despite the desire of a majority of Indians for a corruption free
country, there was a sense of helplessness or powerlessness, a belief that it's
the way it is and nothing going to stop it and nothing can change it. Here the
desire of people is the "driving" force to change, but the belief
became a key barrier to this change. It is critical to remove this barrier to
allow the system to change. Large section of Indians had succumbed to the
phenomenon of learned helplessness and felt powerless to change the state of
affairs regarding corruption in the country. Here comes the role of AAP. The
main task was to undo this sense of helplessness and make people feel empowered
to rise up and fight for their cause. Many key messages of the party were
focused on this task only.
First of all, the
name of the party created this sense of empowerment. It gives the sense of
ownership of party to whomsoever wear the cap. Essentially, the topi became the
crown that made them feel like the king of the party.
The first message on
their website also their slogan or "mantra" is "A corruption
free India is not our request, but our demand and obsession". This clarity
and firmness of the purpose has brought people into confidence.
Other messages of the party were also built on
this feeling of empowerment. "the aam aadmi will be selected as a
candidate", "the aam aadmi will got to the parliament and clean
corruption", "the aam aadmi has won from this constituency and will
live not as a minister but as an aam aadmi rejecting all the VIP culture".
These messages give people a sense of being heard. The voice of aam aadmi has
been irreverent in the past several decades resulting in increasing number of
troubles. Politics became a business of votes to win elections and then putting
the very people, their views, their priorities into a corner making their lives
difficult.
The unique thing
about the campaign of AAP was its door-to-door campaign that brought the
feeling of being heard and empowered. Mohalla sabha of AAP to create Assembly
manifestos was another good illustration. A great lesson that could be learnt
from AAP is the real meaning of empowerment. Lets wait for the upcoming
miracles to happen while being honest on our part.
On a common man's
end what he can do to fight along in this battle is to follow the mool
mantra-"We should not accept a favor, which is not our right".
Moreover, a strong belief of being woken up will make the fight complete.
Once
empowered, the people cannot go back to feeling helpless or powerless. The
people of India have woken up; they feel empowered and will not settle for less
any more. They will demand clean candidates, they will demand transparent
political funding, and they will demand that money be spent on the needs of
the aam aadmi. They will insist on their voice being heard and
participating in the political process.
Hail to the power of
the people in the world’s largest democracy!
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