AAP Effect: Brooms' Point of View

We have always been looked down upon by all Indians as we are involved in keeping surroundings clean, something that figures very low in their priority list. And it shows when you take a stroll down the streets and bazaars of the country. 

Though we have become redundant in the West due to technological advances and scientific methods of garbage collection and disposal, in India we continue to be the front line weapon of the hapless civic workers and housemaids, whose status in the society is no better than ours.

There are many superstitions associated with us. It’s considered inauspicious if we happen to be the first thing people see in the morning. We are supposed to get attached to the house where we sweep, hence if people are moving house, they don’t take us along. And of course there are long standing beliefs linking us with witchcraft (those scrawny evil creatures with long nails supposedly use us to fly!), which spans many cultures and religions.

So when Aam Aadmi Party decided to make us their election symbol we all were quite literally 'swept' off our feet. Political parties in order to show their sympathies towards working class had eagerly chosen symbols such as plough, hammer, sickle etc. But they never touched the lowly broom even with a barge pole. Because those who wielded us belong to lowliest of the low category among workers, what is politely called 'unroganised sector'. AAP decided to make us their symbol as we denoted 'dignity of labour'.

We saw AAP partymen with amusement. They were a youthful lot and seemed like a bunch of a college troupe enacting a drama on freedom struggle, because they were always seen with Gandhi topi. But in order to steer clear from the derogatory connotations it had acquired in independent India, they had mein hoon aam aadmi printed on it.

It was indeed thrilling to feel the soft touch (unlike civic worker's weather beaten hands) of techies, former IAS officers, bankers, IITians, lawyers, B-school alumni and members from all walks of Indian society, who wielded us with pride, as if we were swords. At AAP rallies we began having a pride of place.

All this gave us a heady feeling, but we were little edgy about the party's future. Most of the partymen had cut their political milk teeth with India Against Corruption movement. But organising an agitation and going through the rough and tumble of elections was something as starkly different as playing Farmville and wielding the actual plough. Moreover the party did not have the blessings of the patriarch of anti-corruption crusade - Anna Hazare. He saw politics as an irredeemable cesspool and was disinclined towards joining it.

Media saw AAP as an airy fairy group of trollers who would never make a splash beyond the confines of social media and coffee shops. This dismissive attitude continued till some opinion poll findings in the run up to Delhi assembly elections began trickling in. Even then Arvind Kejriwal's move to contest against incumbent chief minister Shiela Dikshit was seen as tad ambitious, if not foolhardy.

The rest they say is history and the resulting power shifts after the election verdict catapulted AAP into Delhi's gaddi, albeit as a minority government. Now for them the new challenge is of running an accountable government. It calls for a different skill set and there are umpteen examples in Indian politics of parties and leaders who had came to power on reformist platform and street battles, but proved total misfits when it came to governance.

How AAP will perform as a government is in the realm of speculation and not for lowly creatures like us to comment on. We leave this to the rarefied world of TV studios to do the honours. But AAP's one-year long road to electoral politics is indeed dotted with many milestones. It did prove that elections can be fought using shoestring budget and clean money. It is possible to groom a bunch of self made leaders, who don't have pedigree, caste or money power wired in their DNAs. All this was against the grain of how Indian politics was being practiced and shook off the man on the street's from his sab chor hain mental stupor vis-a-vis politics and politicians.

Lastly our chests puff up with pride for the fact that we too are part of this 'sweeping' reform in a humble way and hope this would somehow improve the living conditions of those who wield us to make a living.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat