Reversal of roles

It is unfair on the part of the Congress and the BJP to charge the Aam Admi Party (AAP) with running away from  the responsibility to form a government in Delhi when they are unable to meet the party’s conditions. The  situation itself is strange and unprecedented. In the past, parties which have wanted to form governments have sought the support of other parties, which have prescribed their terms and price for support. Parties have also tried to break other parties and win the support of MPs or MLAs through offer of allurements or by other methods. It is exactly an opposite scenario in Delhi. The AAP, which came out as the second largest party in a hung assembly, is being told by the BJP, which is the largest party, and the Congress, a poor third, to form a government. In a reversal of roles the AAP has had to lay down conditions for accepting their support.
Both the BJP and the Congress extended unconditional support to the AAP to form a government even without the party asking for it. But when the AAP has laid down its own conditions for accepting the support they have rejected them. Then how is their offer of support unconditional? If the offers were in good faith and the parties genuinely wanted the deadlock to be broken, they would have accepted the conditions. They were part of the AAP’s election manifesto. The party is right to insist that it should have the power to fulfil its promises to the people if it formed the government. The two parties’ intentions are clear. They want the AAP to assume power and then discredit the government  for not being able to make good its promises. It is also ironical that the BJP, which has turned down the invitation to form a government, is finding fault with the AAP for not forming a government.

AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal has written to the Delhi lt. governor seeking time for presenting the responses of the Congress and the BJP to the people and eliciting public opinion on them. But it is unlikely that the party will compromise on its position. The AAP’s stand on government formation is sound and principled. It is right to maintain that the promises on which its members were elected are important for the party.  It also has the right not to be apologetic about its idealism.