AAP’s success belongs to Shaheen Bagh

By Aijaz Zaka Syed  New Delhi: So the aam aadmi’s ‘jhadu’ (broom) has swept away the toxic garbage that the BJP had flooded the national capital of Delhi with. The credit for the spectacular performance by Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party is being attributed to his brand of development politics and doles like free ‘bijli aur pani’ (electricity and water). The AAP government had also done a commendable job by paying attention to the pathetic state of Delhi’s overcrowded and ill-equipped schools and hospitals.  The former corruption crusader, Kejriwal, survived the most vitriolic, vicious and no-holds-barred campaign in India’s history. Modi’s BJP unleashed more than 300 MPs, dozens of central ministers and chief ministers, not to mention the full force and resources of the Central government on Delhi with federal ministers, openly calling Kejriwal a ‘terrorist’ and demanding his head. That the AAP leader defied all of this to win 62 out of 70 seats in the Delhi assembly right under the nose of Modi and Amit Shah is quite something.  Not a mean feat by any means.    Good governance How did he do it? By cleverly and consciously refusing to take BJP’s bait and getting drawn into the deliberately divisive and deeply polarising issues that the Hindutva party feeds and thrives on. He kept it simple. While the BJP as usual deployed its tried and tested dog-whistle politics, ranting about the “persecution of Hindus” in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan and about throwing out “traitors and termites” (read Indian Muslims), Kejriwal talked about good governance and the promises he has delivered, like the good old ‘bijli aur pani’ issues.  After weeks of confused silence and pent up frustration over the ever-expanding protests against the CAA-NRC-NPR, BJP poured out all that anger and fury in Delhi with central ministers brazenly calling for “shooting the traitors!” ( desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maro salon ko! ) right in the national capital when Parliament had been in session.  The target of their ire, however, was not Arvind Kejriwal but Shaheen Bagh.
The crowded, impoverished neighbourhood in Delhi’s Okhla has been the epicentre of protests for two months with thousands of women, young and old, protesting against the brazenly discriminatory citizenship law and this regime’s stealthy assault on the very identity and existence of the country’s 200 million Muslims.