But when 30 volunteers of the Aam Aadmi Party throw down their caps and quit the party, as they did in Benaulim on Friday, culminating a prolonged discord over some of the AAP’s supposed core fundamentals, then these are not symptoms of a passing cold but a more serious ailment – taking the cadre for granted.
And when this happens within the AAP unit Benaulim, the ailment is magnified manifold. It’s akin to trouble in the sanctum sanctorum of AAP’s mission Salcete. The AAP’s relative slide by its own standards from the highs of November 2015 is palpable. Clearly, if a week is a long time in politics, a year is a lifetime. On November 24, 2015, AAP began its door-to-door campaign in Benaulim followed by a public rally. On that day 360 people became members of AAP while 28 donned the mantle of volunteers. The Goa Shack Owners Association head Cruz Cardoso led the campaign and a billboard of the party was installed at his residence.
A year later, almost to the day, on November 16, 2016, workers and members served a 15-day deadline on the party to reopen the candidate selection process in the constituency or face action. Workers said that the choice of the candidate was taken in haste, and they would decide on their future course of action if the candidate selection process wasn’t opened up.
The members said they were shocked and disturbed the way the candidate for the constituency was selected. “Without our knowledge, you chose to discard the process and went ahead with foisting a candidate on us. You are now seeking to force us to accept your “farce” candidate. (Royla Fernandes)”, said one volunteer.
The AAP’s best defence is that since the popularity of the party is growing, dissent is part of the game. But that would sound so much like the Congress or even the BJP. But perhaps what is more alarming here is the grassroots workers have mentally created a wall between them and the party they joined with dreams in their hearts. Look at just one sentence of an AAP worker made on November 16 which was, “You are now seeking to force us to accept your “farce” candidates. When workers speak in the language of ‘you’ and ‘us’, it’s a far more potent signal of mindsets than any smart Facebook post or campaign that the social media savvy party is running.
Less than a month later, On December 9, this Friday, 30 volunteers threw down their caps and opted out of the party, reminding AAP party leaders of the ultimatum they had issued on November 16 to revisit the candidate selection process. And while exiting they attacked AAP of being a party of “builders and developers” and not of simple men. If AAP decided to treat this with disdain and even ridicule those who are speaking in the same voice as volunteers, all it would do is box itself into a hole, blocking out the sunlight of reality.
What should alarm the party is that these volunteers had made some representations and complaints on issues which were causing concern to the party grievances redressal cell, campaign convenor Rajashree Nagarsekar, State Convener Elvis Gomes and member of the National Executive Pankaj Gupta, before writing to the party chief Mr Arvind Kejriwal. It is therefore completely understandable that the frustration of AAP workers in Benaulim is palpable.
Meanwhile it is significant that two of the 30 volunteers who quit, are those who filled up their forms for nominations of party tickets at the insistence of senior AAP leaders. The inference that can be drawn from this, is that the party has failed to percolate its professed core values of practicing peoples politics first with only a few betting into direct electoral politics. But even more grim is the charge AAP is not following its own processes.
For a cadre based party, losing these 30 volunteers is perhaps a greater jolt that its Siolim candidate Dr Prithvi Amonkar resigning and saying that the AAP is controlled by Hindi speaking Delhi-wallas and decisions are imposed upon the locals. These are serious charges undoubtedly, but the force of this is multiple times more when volunteers say this.
And the party not only knows this but speaks about it. Speaking at a very recent rally in Aldona, AAP member Dr Oscar Rebello said, “When Modi or Rahul Gandhi give a call, they face the challenge of not having anyone on the ground to execute it. When Arvind Kejriwal gives a call, the volunteers believe that it is for good.” The good doctor went on about the X factor of AAP was its volunteers.
What happened to AAP in Benaulim on Friday, is that it lost its X factor. And it will be praying, rather than hoping, that this is not repeated. Not in Salcete at least.
