New Political Culture

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”. These lines of M K Gandhi, the legendary leader of the non-violent struggle against the colonial political system, fit exactly the origin and evolution of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Indian electoral politics. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won the so-called semi-finals of the elections cup, but AAP took away the “Man of the Match” title. What is remarkable in this whole event is not just the entry of a new and different political party, but also the shift in the political culture and electoral behaviour of India.

David Easton, the great political scientist, argued that a political system runs on an input-output model. Demand and support constitute the inputs whereas response and feedback frame the outputs. The analysis of recent political developments from this perspective provides some noteworthy patterns. In the context of AAP, the main input was the demand for a corruption-free system and the support came from all sections of society. The demand was non-traditional with reference to political culture of India, so was the response. The electoral issues in the country have generally been food, clothing and shelter, inflation, secularism, infrastructural development and social justice in the form of reservations. Corruption has been more of a bureaucratic and less of a political issue. But, this time it emerged as a political demand from citizens.