The tragedy that descended on 15th of July 2013 in Chappra , Bihar where poor children after having Mid day meal in school fell sick & 23 children out of them died. It was a very sad tragedy which literally shook the conscious of the Nation. But the political class again was found wanting ?
Friday 19 July 2013
Wednesday 17 July 2013
Has the time come to have proportional representation in parliament ?
My intention in this article is not to create confusion or rabble rousing , but sincerely believe for a debate to rise on this issue.
I happened to see a Interview of Prashant Bhushan SC lawyer & Aam Aadmi Party leader on a Malayalam Channel that the best anti dote when rott sets in democracy is more democracy. For more democracy we require to reform institutions & set up new institutions which brings in more transparency .He also went on to say along with these reforms we also should start thinking of bringing electoral reforms & amending the peoples representation act for bringing in proportional representation of the people in parliament which in turn with other electoral & governance reforms will get participatory democracy of ,for & by the citizens on a day day basis. He also went on to show how the present democracy which is just accountable once in 5 years to the people, Politicians who win by just getting a minority share of votes of the people voted to parliament is not democracy in true sense but instead it's just meritocracy .Was our constitution written on the principals of democracy or meritocracy ? After listening to this interview i did some home work on this aspect & found merit in Prashant Bhushan argument with lot of questions which i here by put forth below for a debate to rise.
1, What do i see in present parliament?
A, What i see in present parliament is there are a majority parliamentarians who have got elected by just garnering between 17 -40% votes as per the voter turn out in their respective constituency's.
B, What i see in present parliament is there are lot of parliamentarians who have criminal charge's against them .
C, What i see in present parliament is the majority parliamentarians are crorepati's .
D, What i see in present parliament is a large number of parliamentarians are from political family's so by this parliament has representation of only few family's.
E, What i see in present parliament is women have very low representation .
F, What i see in present parliament is large number of parliamentarians close to corporate are there.
G, What i see in present parliament is majority of parliamentarians have spend crores to win elections .
H, What i see in present parliament is citizens are not adequately represented in parliament as per their size.
I, What i see in present parliament is very few parliamentarians from humble back ground & honest.
J, What i see in present parliament is majority of them love to advertise their power & stature openly.
K, What i see in present parliament is majority of them think they are above the law.
L, What i see in present parliament is majority consensus between 50%-75% made from a
minority representative's to make laws for the whole nation.
2, Now the question which arises based on the above mentioned points is whether this represents true democracy & our parliament represents majority will of the people or is our parliament representing a minority section of citizens ?
To answer this question in points
A, When politicians win with just garnering 17% - 40% votes depending on the voter turn out like seen in UP 2008 state legislative elections due to low voter turn out majority of elected representative won with just 17-25% votes of the total vote's polled and in 2009 lok sabha polls Congress led UPA won garnering 25%-35% votes out of total votes polled.
B, When such low percentage of votes decide winners in election it has become an easy short cut for politicians with money power, muscle power, vote bank politics & party brand to nurture votes which can assure victory.So this leads to catering to a section and neglecting & ignoring the majority section need's & opinions.
C, Now 17% - 40% who vote the winning candidate has their representative but what happen's to the rest 83% - 60% who voted against the winning candidates ? Do they have any representative in parliament? Are the rest who do not vote for the winning candidate not citizens of this country? Do they not deserve representation in parliament? Are they supposed to defend for them self's for next 5 yr's with out any representation in parliament?
D, Is it not amusing when we see 50% - 75% of votes in house required to pass a bill, policy or a law but to get elected to parliament one just requires 17% - 40% votes?
E, Due to this minority representation in parliament we see bills,policy & laws which is asked for by the majority citizens never find consensus of even 50% of the parliamentarians but bills, policy's & laws for a very minority section find consensus of the majority of parliamentarians in no time.For eg like when we saw in case of Janlokpal where the parliament went back on their promise to the nation through the sense of the house resolution & stuck since no consensus found , same with case of women's reservation bill. But in case of minority section of their bill like for instance wage rise for parliamentarians or Sec 66A to clamp down on freedom of expression on Social Media it just took 2min to 4 hrs to reach majority consensus & pass it. Does these incidents not prove some thing seriously wrong which is leading to policy paralysis ?
F, We have seen how SC observation's being challenged by a minority section since it hurts their interests & transparency steps by independent institutions like CIC being threatened to be over turned by ordinance like political party's coming under the ambit of RTI. Is it not misuse of provisions & laws by a minority section to protect their interest's ?
G, We also see how criminally charged people get elected to parliament by a small size of voters whom they nurture and are in position of making law's for the whole nation. Then the question arises is it correct that a decision of a minority voters of a constituency is thrust on the whole nation for making laws on their behalf on the argument that people have elected them? Every elections due to this we are seeing the number of tainted & criminally charged candidates increasing.Is it good for our democracy?
3, So from the above given point's it's clear our parliamentarians only represent a minority & not the majority of citizens .But then what about the argument that it's parliamentary form of democracy & this gives minority's a representation. Is this right ?
A, Our parliament is represented by elected member's or elected party's nominees in both houses.There is no place for politicians who lost elections provided if the party he represents win's in state elections or sizable seats then he may have a chance to be nominated. But in elections we have minority's even loosing in it so in such a scenario what happens to the voter's who voted to the loosing minority candidates. Are they represented in parliament? So the argument that minority's representation is guaranteed holds no water in the existing system.
4, So when seeing the above mentioned points one feels can some thing been done to make democracy more representative?
A, Yes it can be done if we have proportional representation in parliament & not have just meritocracy.
5, How can proportional representation be done with in the existing system ?
A, I not a constitutional expert or a Law expert to how it can be got in to constitution that's the job of Bureaucrats & law maker's but can say what proportional representation should have & propose to give.
B, In the present system we have politicians who win elections as parliamentarians. His vote in parliament is 1 full vote which carry's the will of the constituency though he won with only a section of voter's voting in favor of him .but in proportional representation his power of vote should be linked to the percentage of votes he carry's. Like for eg any one who wins an election getting 17% - 25 % of votes of the total votes in that constituency he will have just 1 vote.
C, Every constituency will send 3 votes to the parliament. If one elected representative wins by garnering 25% or less votes of the total votes he will carry 1 vote.Then in such scenario politicians who come 2nd 3rd or some times even 4th in a constituency whose votes joined together with the winner reaches 70-75% votes will also be declared as elected to assembly carrying votes as per the slab %(25% or below =1 vote,26%-50%=1 vote, 51%-75%=1 vote). This will not only help sending majority voter's voice from a constituency to parliament but will also help Minority's,honest & clean candidates who could not win elections due to various reasons have a chance to take their constituency's voice to parliament.
D, This power of votes a parliamentarian carry's when proportionately linked to the percentage of vote's garnered actually over a period of time will help to clean up electoral malpractice & systems.
E, The party which garners 70% of the total votes in parliament will be declared winner & will form the govt.This number's of majority in parliament can be worked out proportionately to the present percentages followed.
F, A parliamentarian can have 2 to 3 votes also provided he garners 50% to 75% votes from a constituency.
G, Important portfolios in govt like PM, FM, HM, Min for envi & forest, Min of mines, Min of Agri, Min of Irrigation etc compulsory should have contested elections & have 1 vote power.
H, In case of a tie between 2 or 3 party's having equal no of votes which is very much likely to come in proportional representation system the party which gets max 1st place seats will be declared winner to form the govt & then to if there is a tie then party's which have max 2nd place seats will be declared the winner to form govt.
I, In parliament every debate has to end with a vote to register the sense of the house(As advocated by Baijayant Panda of Biju janatadal).
J, There should be different parameter's of votes required to pass legislation based on issues.Like if issue pertaining to minority issues then sense of the house 30%-40% votes enough to pass bills, when issues related to majority or nationally then 60-70% votes needed to pass the bill).
6, Advantages of proportional representation is :
A, Parliament will represent the voice of majority citizens of this country.
B, It will also represent the voices of various minority class.
C, It will help clean up the electoral system.
D, It will make Money power ,Muscle power in elections irrelevant.
E, It will nullify the vote power of criminals in parliament .
F, It will bring stability in govt since single party gaining majority is possible here.
G, It will reduce the power of tantrums of coalition partner pressures.
H, This will reduce electoral corruption.
I, This will bring transparency & accountability in the system.
J, This will discourage crony capitalism.
K, This will open up parliament for honest , hard working, humble back ground politicians.
L, This will take out power from the hands of few & distribute it among many.
M, This will remove policy paralysis & make the system more robust.
N, The people's representation in parliament has not increased with increase in population leading to governance paralysis.Now with this no of representatives of people will increase proportionate to population size.
O, This will reflect truly the majority peoples opinion.
When i analyse the above mentioned points i also do not forget that we are a democracy & democracy is the costliest form of governance.It requires consistent investments made in to it to keep it robust & functioning, unfortunately it's not done in our country.It can be since we are a poor country.But we should not forget democracy is what keeping the idea of India alive other kind of governance may be cheap to maintain but our country with so much diversity it's democracy which is keeping all united that's the reason our fore fathers accepted democracy.We should not forget there is no perfect type of governance modal available in any part of the world & democracy is also not the best modal but we do not have a choice since there is no better type of governance available too.The only way to make our democracy vibrant & kicking is invest in to it. Proportional representation is also one more investment.
So seeing the pros & cons of proportional representation in comparison with the present system in my personal opinion we should seriously think of it.The best disinfectant is more sun light.
I happened to see a Interview of Prashant Bhushan SC lawyer & Aam Aadmi Party leader on a Malayalam Channel that the best anti dote when rott sets in democracy is more democracy. For more democracy we require to reform institutions & set up new institutions which brings in more transparency .He also went on to say along with these reforms we also should start thinking of bringing electoral reforms & amending the peoples representation act for bringing in proportional representation of the people in parliament which in turn with other electoral & governance reforms will get participatory democracy of ,for & by the citizens on a day day basis. He also went on to show how the present democracy which is just accountable once in 5 years to the people, Politicians who win by just getting a minority share of votes of the people voted to parliament is not democracy in true sense but instead it's just meritocracy .Was our constitution written on the principals of democracy or meritocracy ? After listening to this interview i did some home work on this aspect & found merit in Prashant Bhushan argument with lot of questions which i here by put forth below for a debate to rise.
1, What do i see in present parliament?
A, What i see in present parliament is there are a majority parliamentarians who have got elected by just garnering between 17 -40% votes as per the voter turn out in their respective constituency's.
B, What i see in present parliament is there are lot of parliamentarians who have criminal charge's against them .
C, What i see in present parliament is the majority parliamentarians are crorepati's .
D, What i see in present parliament is a large number of parliamentarians are from political family's so by this parliament has representation of only few family's.
E, What i see in present parliament is women have very low representation .
F, What i see in present parliament is large number of parliamentarians close to corporate are there.
G, What i see in present parliament is majority of parliamentarians have spend crores to win elections .
H, What i see in present parliament is citizens are not adequately represented in parliament as per their size.
I, What i see in present parliament is very few parliamentarians from humble back ground & honest.
J, What i see in present parliament is majority of them love to advertise their power & stature openly.
K, What i see in present parliament is majority of them think they are above the law.
L, What i see in present parliament is majority consensus between 50%-75% made from a
minority representative's to make laws for the whole nation.
2, Now the question which arises based on the above mentioned points is whether this represents true democracy & our parliament represents majority will of the people or is our parliament representing a minority section of citizens ?
To answer this question in points
A, When politicians win with just garnering 17% - 40% votes depending on the voter turn out like seen in UP 2008 state legislative elections due to low voter turn out majority of elected representative won with just 17-25% votes of the total vote's polled and in 2009 lok sabha polls Congress led UPA won garnering 25%-35% votes out of total votes polled.
B, When such low percentage of votes decide winners in election it has become an easy short cut for politicians with money power, muscle power, vote bank politics & party brand to nurture votes which can assure victory.So this leads to catering to a section and neglecting & ignoring the majority section need's & opinions.
C, Now 17% - 40% who vote the winning candidate has their representative but what happen's to the rest 83% - 60% who voted against the winning candidates ? Do they have any representative in parliament? Are the rest who do not vote for the winning candidate not citizens of this country? Do they not deserve representation in parliament? Are they supposed to defend for them self's for next 5 yr's with out any representation in parliament?
D, Is it not amusing when we see 50% - 75% of votes in house required to pass a bill, policy or a law but to get elected to parliament one just requires 17% - 40% votes?
E, Due to this minority representation in parliament we see bills,policy & laws which is asked for by the majority citizens never find consensus of even 50% of the parliamentarians but bills, policy's & laws for a very minority section find consensus of the majority of parliamentarians in no time.For eg like when we saw in case of Janlokpal where the parliament went back on their promise to the nation through the sense of the house resolution & stuck since no consensus found , same with case of women's reservation bill. But in case of minority section of their bill like for instance wage rise for parliamentarians or Sec 66A to clamp down on freedom of expression on Social Media it just took 2min to 4 hrs to reach majority consensus & pass it. Does these incidents not prove some thing seriously wrong which is leading to policy paralysis ?
F, We have seen how SC observation's being challenged by a minority section since it hurts their interests & transparency steps by independent institutions like CIC being threatened to be over turned by ordinance like political party's coming under the ambit of RTI. Is it not misuse of provisions & laws by a minority section to protect their interest's ?
G, We also see how criminally charged people get elected to parliament by a small size of voters whom they nurture and are in position of making law's for the whole nation. Then the question arises is it correct that a decision of a minority voters of a constituency is thrust on the whole nation for making laws on their behalf on the argument that people have elected them? Every elections due to this we are seeing the number of tainted & criminally charged candidates increasing.Is it good for our democracy?
3, So from the above given point's it's clear our parliamentarians only represent a minority & not the majority of citizens .But then what about the argument that it's parliamentary form of democracy & this gives minority's a representation. Is this right ?
A, Our parliament is represented by elected member's or elected party's nominees in both houses.There is no place for politicians who lost elections provided if the party he represents win's in state elections or sizable seats then he may have a chance to be nominated. But in elections we have minority's even loosing in it so in such a scenario what happens to the voter's who voted to the loosing minority candidates. Are they represented in parliament? So the argument that minority's representation is guaranteed holds no water in the existing system.
4, So when seeing the above mentioned points one feels can some thing been done to make democracy more representative?
A, Yes it can be done if we have proportional representation in parliament & not have just meritocracy.
5, How can proportional representation be done with in the existing system ?
A, I not a constitutional expert or a Law expert to how it can be got in to constitution that's the job of Bureaucrats & law maker's but can say what proportional representation should have & propose to give.
B, In the present system we have politicians who win elections as parliamentarians. His vote in parliament is 1 full vote which carry's the will of the constituency though he won with only a section of voter's voting in favor of him .but in proportional representation his power of vote should be linked to the percentage of votes he carry's. Like for eg any one who wins an election getting 17% - 25 % of votes of the total votes in that constituency he will have just 1 vote.
C, Every constituency will send 3 votes to the parliament. If one elected representative wins by garnering 25% or less votes of the total votes he will carry 1 vote.Then in such scenario politicians who come 2nd 3rd or some times even 4th in a constituency whose votes joined together with the winner reaches 70-75% votes will also be declared as elected to assembly carrying votes as per the slab %(25% or below =1 vote,26%-50%=1 vote, 51%-75%=1 vote). This will not only help sending majority voter's voice from a constituency to parliament but will also help Minority's,honest & clean candidates who could not win elections due to various reasons have a chance to take their constituency's voice to parliament.
D, This power of votes a parliamentarian carry's when proportionately linked to the percentage of vote's garnered actually over a period of time will help to clean up electoral malpractice & systems.
E, The party which garners 70% of the total votes in parliament will be declared winner & will form the govt.This number's of majority in parliament can be worked out proportionately to the present percentages followed.
F, A parliamentarian can have 2 to 3 votes also provided he garners 50% to 75% votes from a constituency.
G, Important portfolios in govt like PM, FM, HM, Min for envi & forest, Min of mines, Min of Agri, Min of Irrigation etc compulsory should have contested elections & have 1 vote power.
H, In case of a tie between 2 or 3 party's having equal no of votes which is very much likely to come in proportional representation system the party which gets max 1st place seats will be declared winner to form the govt & then to if there is a tie then party's which have max 2nd place seats will be declared the winner to form govt.
I, In parliament every debate has to end with a vote to register the sense of the house(As advocated by Baijayant Panda of Biju janatadal).
J, There should be different parameter's of votes required to pass legislation based on issues.Like if issue pertaining to minority issues then sense of the house 30%-40% votes enough to pass bills, when issues related to majority or nationally then 60-70% votes needed to pass the bill).
6, Advantages of proportional representation is :
A, Parliament will represent the voice of majority citizens of this country.
B, It will also represent the voices of various minority class.
C, It will help clean up the electoral system.
D, It will make Money power ,Muscle power in elections irrelevant.
E, It will nullify the vote power of criminals in parliament .
F, It will bring stability in govt since single party gaining majority is possible here.
G, It will reduce the power of tantrums of coalition partner pressures.
H, This will reduce electoral corruption.
I, This will bring transparency & accountability in the system.
J, This will discourage crony capitalism.
K, This will open up parliament for honest , hard working, humble back ground politicians.
L, This will take out power from the hands of few & distribute it among many.
M, This will remove policy paralysis & make the system more robust.
N, The people's representation in parliament has not increased with increase in population leading to governance paralysis.Now with this no of representatives of people will increase proportionate to population size.
O, This will reflect truly the majority peoples opinion.
When i analyse the above mentioned points i also do not forget that we are a democracy & democracy is the costliest form of governance.It requires consistent investments made in to it to keep it robust & functioning, unfortunately it's not done in our country.It can be since we are a poor country.But we should not forget democracy is what keeping the idea of India alive other kind of governance may be cheap to maintain but our country with so much diversity it's democracy which is keeping all united that's the reason our fore fathers accepted democracy.We should not forget there is no perfect type of governance modal available in any part of the world & democracy is also not the best modal but we do not have a choice since there is no better type of governance available too.The only way to make our democracy vibrant & kicking is invest in to it. Proportional representation is also one more investment.
So seeing the pros & cons of proportional representation in comparison with the present system in my personal opinion we should seriously think of it.The best disinfectant is more sun light.
Sunday 14 July 2013
Aam Aadmi Party In Electoral Politics a Boon or a Bane ?
"Every fight is not won in the end by winning at the end, but there are fight's which is won by the impact created in the fight irrespective of what the end result is."
From the day Arvind Kejriwal declared formation of Aam Aadmi Party which will enter electoral politics to take the agitation against corruption & systemic over haul in to the parliament so that it works as a pressure group in the system to force change since the aam aadmi has no one supporting or listening it's voice in the present political establishment,instead it was very evident during the last phase of Janlokpal agitation at Jantar Mantar how the whole political class ganged up together & went back on their promise of the sense of the house of parliament on Janlokpal bill, they then mocked the civil society it self who where agitating for Janlokpal , then went against civil society people who where agitating for Janlokpal to defame their character bu those politicians in the political class who them self's had questionable intigrity. The political class at last resort ignored the aam aadmi voice & dared them if they want Janlokpal & change in system win elections come to parliament and get what they want.
This level of confrontation literally pit the Political class against the aam aadmi which was very dangerous to our democracy and rightly due to some sane people's involvement & advise Arvind Kejriwal declared let's take the challenge of contesting elections & cleansing the system to save democracy.After Aam Aadmi Party formation we saw a series of disclosure of corruption,crony capitalism,agitations against poor law and order system's regularly and suddenly the nation which was deprived of a good,strong opposition for last 9 years got one as a God send gift in Arvind Kejriwal Aam Aadmi Party.The political class found AAP a sour taste in their happy dinner,a gate crasher in their party threatening to tear in to their happiness.
As elections nearing in the state of Delhi & loksabha elections scheduled for 2014 for center lot's of allegations been thrown on Aam Aadmi Party by the political class. They have gone to tell that Aam Aadmi Party is disturbing the electoral calculations. But as time is passing by towards elections Aam Aadmi Party is only growing strength to strength. They have actually acted as the only & real opposition to the political class. AAP has challenged the political class on every wrong step of their's, have also provided solution in governance by their "SWARAJ"modal of governance. AAP has tirelessly worked & is still working to take "SWARAJ" concept to every nook & corner of the country.As a 1st step Aam Aadmi Party only Ward Councillor in Delhi implemented the "Swaraj" modal in his ward which was blacked out in electronic media but it's live feed was made available on Internet TV viewed across the country by people. The recording of the 1st town hall of "SWARAJ " is still available in Aam Aadmi Party website. Interesting part is every ward budget till date before this town hall was always found to be less to full fill plans for the wards.In this town hall gave a surprising result.A budget allotted for the ward was 50lakhs but with participation of citizens of the ward in planning the budget all their needs was full filled with just Rs 5Lakhs & 45 Lakhs was still left in the kitty to be used so proving that power back to people by "SWARAJ" modal of governance makes governance cheaper,reduces leakages, improves effective delivery & implementation of policy's.
Now coming back to the question Is AAP a boon or a bane? If we take a similar kind of experiment tried by the citizens we do have some examples but if single out a example right away which comes across my mind is the Green party's which came across European country's. Their single point agenda was environment protection by Eco friendly policy's & practice. Though the green party's never won elections but still they emerged victors.When they entered electoral fray & due to their popularity the main political party's fearing of loosing elections was forced to change their policy's & make Ecology related solutions their main election manifesto promises so the main party's where not relegated but the Green party's won since their ideology which was accepted by the main party's won election's.
In the same way what has been witnessed for last some month's show Aam Aadmi Party is already winning since we are already seeing how BJP & Congress party have started talking of empowerment of Citizens for effective governance for example we heard Rahul Gandhi of Congress party speaking in CII about decentralization of power and Narendra Modi speech in FC Pune about empowering the Citizens but also add a caveat it's too early to see in action but at least they have started talking.They are also talking of effective law & order system's. We have seen earlier how political class ganged up against any move to make political party accountable,but now situation has changed with AAP which is supporting moves to make political party's accountable & transparent so there by getting some kind of support to such moves from with in the political class.We also see how the Delhi police have been kept on their toes & forced to act against culprits due to the pressure exerted by AAP. Suddenly aam aadmi has found a platform where they could address their grievances & have started talking .
At least in a slow manner the thinking of political party's like BJP & Congress is changing but would wait & watch how far can they take it .On the other hand AAP is just gaining popularity & is exerting the required pressure on the system for changes weather this will turn in to votes for APP in elections only time will tell but definitely the aspect which can be said is Aam Aadmi Party's Impact is very much visible which is forcing the two main national political party's to change in their thinking.
So to end can tell Aam Aadmi Party is already winning & is a god send boon to clean up the rott.
From the day Arvind Kejriwal declared formation of Aam Aadmi Party which will enter electoral politics to take the agitation against corruption & systemic over haul in to the parliament so that it works as a pressure group in the system to force change since the aam aadmi has no one supporting or listening it's voice in the present political establishment,instead it was very evident during the last phase of Janlokpal agitation at Jantar Mantar how the whole political class ganged up together & went back on their promise of the sense of the house of parliament on Janlokpal bill, they then mocked the civil society it self who where agitating for Janlokpal , then went against civil society people who where agitating for Janlokpal to defame their character bu those politicians in the political class who them self's had questionable intigrity. The political class at last resort ignored the aam aadmi voice & dared them if they want Janlokpal & change in system win elections come to parliament and get what they want.
This level of confrontation literally pit the Political class against the aam aadmi which was very dangerous to our democracy and rightly due to some sane people's involvement & advise Arvind Kejriwal declared let's take the challenge of contesting elections & cleansing the system to save democracy.After Aam Aadmi Party formation we saw a series of disclosure of corruption,crony capitalism,agitations against poor law and order system's regularly and suddenly the nation which was deprived of a good,strong opposition for last 9 years got one as a God send gift in Arvind Kejriwal Aam Aadmi Party.The political class found AAP a sour taste in their happy dinner,a gate crasher in their party threatening to tear in to their happiness.
As elections nearing in the state of Delhi & loksabha elections scheduled for 2014 for center lot's of allegations been thrown on Aam Aadmi Party by the political class. They have gone to tell that Aam Aadmi Party is disturbing the electoral calculations. But as time is passing by towards elections Aam Aadmi Party is only growing strength to strength. They have actually acted as the only & real opposition to the political class. AAP has challenged the political class on every wrong step of their's, have also provided solution in governance by their "SWARAJ"modal of governance. AAP has tirelessly worked & is still working to take "SWARAJ" concept to every nook & corner of the country.As a 1st step Aam Aadmi Party only Ward Councillor in Delhi implemented the "Swaraj" modal in his ward which was blacked out in electronic media but it's live feed was made available on Internet TV viewed across the country by people. The recording of the 1st town hall of "SWARAJ " is still available in Aam Aadmi Party website. Interesting part is every ward budget till date before this town hall was always found to be less to full fill plans for the wards.In this town hall gave a surprising result.A budget allotted for the ward was 50lakhs but with participation of citizens of the ward in planning the budget all their needs was full filled with just Rs 5Lakhs & 45 Lakhs was still left in the kitty to be used so proving that power back to people by "SWARAJ" modal of governance makes governance cheaper,reduces leakages, improves effective delivery & implementation of policy's.
Now coming back to the question Is AAP a boon or a bane? If we take a similar kind of experiment tried by the citizens we do have some examples but if single out a example right away which comes across my mind is the Green party's which came across European country's. Their single point agenda was environment protection by Eco friendly policy's & practice. Though the green party's never won elections but still they emerged victors.When they entered electoral fray & due to their popularity the main political party's fearing of loosing elections was forced to change their policy's & make Ecology related solutions their main election manifesto promises so the main party's where not relegated but the Green party's won since their ideology which was accepted by the main party's won election's.
In the same way what has been witnessed for last some month's show Aam Aadmi Party is already winning since we are already seeing how BJP & Congress party have started talking of empowerment of Citizens for effective governance for example we heard Rahul Gandhi of Congress party speaking in CII about decentralization of power and Narendra Modi speech in FC Pune about empowering the Citizens but also add a caveat it's too early to see in action but at least they have started talking.They are also talking of effective law & order system's. We have seen earlier how political class ganged up against any move to make political party accountable,but now situation has changed with AAP which is supporting moves to make political party's accountable & transparent so there by getting some kind of support to such moves from with in the political class.We also see how the Delhi police have been kept on their toes & forced to act against culprits due to the pressure exerted by AAP. Suddenly aam aadmi has found a platform where they could address their grievances & have started talking .
At least in a slow manner the thinking of political party's like BJP & Congress is changing but would wait & watch how far can they take it .On the other hand AAP is just gaining popularity & is exerting the required pressure on the system for changes weather this will turn in to votes for APP in elections only time will tell but definitely the aspect which can be said is Aam Aadmi Party's Impact is very much visible which is forcing the two main national political party's to change in their thinking.
So to end can tell Aam Aadmi Party is already winning & is a god send boon to clean up the rott.
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