(MENAFN- Gulf Times) The Fat Lady has sung and it's all over and how! But this is a song that will reverberate throughout India for some time to come.
Forget the experts, the psephologist and the exit polls. Not even the most passionate supporter of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) could have predicted that the song would end up sounding so sweet to her/his ears.
Of course the elections to the Delhi assembly 2015 were not a referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nine-month old government. Just 70 assembly seats in one city state cannot measure up to the 4,200-odd seats spread across assemblies of 35 other state and federally administered territories in the country.
The Aam Aadmi Party's Yogendra Yadav is the first to say so.
But Delhi is the microcosm of India not just because it is the administrative capital of the country but also because the population of Delhi is a true reflection of the demographic diversity of India. And with a winning vote percentage of 54, Arvind Kejriwal's AAP has demonstrated it can cut across all sections irrespective of region, religion, class and caste and halt a juggernaut that till two months ago was crushing everything that came in its way. In a sense, the AAP, though not a juggernaut yet, is now at least a steamroller.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had thrown everything into these assembly elections. It does so in every election. But the extra emphasis - 120 MPs, 15 cabinet ministers with Modi leading the way, not to speak of the entire party machinery and financial might for the campaign - only showed that the party saw Delhi as the jewel in the crown even as it felt a clear and persistent danger in the resurgence of the AAP.
But unfortunately for the BJP, these elections had been lost long before their dates were announced and campaign had begun. First, the BJP waited for the AAP to break up following its disastrous showing in the parliamentary elections. When that did not happen, the BJP pressed the self-destruct button, in a manner of speaking.
If you were to go through the headlines of India's leading newspapers for the past six-seven months, apart from the times when the BJP won the elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkand and did quite well in Jammu and Kashmir, a good majority of them were discrediting the party and its prime minister one way or the other. And for good reason too. If it was not Human Resources Development Minister Smriti Irani riding rough shod over Delhi University or the Delhi IIT or commandeering schoolchildren to listen to Modi's speeches it was the extremist Hindu elements in the party that were calling to question the pedigree of its rivals or threatening to deport them to Pakistan.
Despite its many forward-looking moves on the economic field, the BJP had managed to get on the wrong side of the press and that was not a smart thing to do. When the so-called hydra-headed extremist fringes came alive, almost every editorial writer in the country wanted Modi to stand up and be counted. The prime minister initially tried to act as if he did not notice the criticism in the media, but when it got to a point where he could no longer ignore it, as in the case of Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti's preposterous "illegitimate candidates" speech, he came up with a meek apology in parliament when he could have done much better by sacking Jyoti who continues to be a minister in his cabinet.
Modi also did not endear himself to many in the nation's capital with his ostentation. His dates with New York's Madison Square Garden and Central Park and Sydney's Allphones Arena created an aura that Modi seemed to enjoy quite well. Much of India enjoyed it too. But it seemed that the Narcissus in Modi was beginning to take shape. It attained full form when President Barack Obama visited India last month and Modi's sartorial statements, including what was reportedly a Rs1mn 'Band-gala' suit, got as much headlines as the Indo-US nuclear deal.
Not exactly a tea-seller come lately, if you ask me.
Be that as it may. The BJP's problems are those that emerge from defeat and in due course it may or may not mend its ways to get back lost ground. But the problems of the winner are what should grab attention now from the Delhi citizen's point of view.
Arvind Kejriwal told reporters that he spent a very calm and peaceful night on Monday just 12 hours before counting day. He did well to do that, for the storm is definitely brewing. Any adjective to describe the margin of his party's victory (67 to just three seats for the BJP) will be understatement. And therein lies the danger. For, in the absence of an effective opposition, it is indeed scary when one realises that this sort of margins are usually available for dictators. Yes, Delhi is a small cog in India's big democratic wheel and it does not even have full statehood. So Kejriwal will perforce have to hold his horses every time he feels he does not know what to do with all that power.
AAP leaders won't say it in as many words but they all admit laterally that they were more than surprised by the party's success in the assembly elections of 2013 and the unexpected success had gone to their heads, especially the head of its all-important leader. And so you had the chief minister arrogantly agitating in the dead of the night in the middle of the road and threatening to fill the route of the republic day parade with protesters and finally running away from responsibility when he realised that the job was beyond him.
In the run-up to this month's elections Kejriwal had been profuse in his apology for such acts of omission and, as the results show, the Delhi voter is more than happy to accept the apology in a spirit of forget and forgive. But the same citizen can be unforgiving if his expectations are not fulfilled in double-quick time. Just as he was profuse in his apologies, Kejriwal has been quite liberal with promises.
The 70-point agenda that the party put forward in its election manifesto will now come under close scrutiny. A number of subsidies are envisaged but there is little explanation as to how they will be financed. It is all very well to say power will be devolved and "mohalla sabhas" (neighbourhood committees) will decide how money for development should be spent. In a country where it is difficult to get consensus at resident welfare association meetings of condominiums, such promises can bite you back in no time.
Prime Minister Modi called Kejriwal to congratulate him on AAP's victory and also invited him to tea. Kejriwal, for his part, said that he was looking up to Modi for co-operation and consensus. If this spirit holds, there is much hope for the citizen. If, on the other hand, friction develops between the state and the centre and Kejriwal starts throwing his usual tantrums, Delhi will be in for hard times. But since hope springs eternal, let's smile.
Post-Script: Someone has compared the Congress party in Delhi to that needle in the haystack. But that is not the case anymore. Because that needle has been used to sew up Congress spokespersons' lips. Only the haystack remains ready to for a bonfire!
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