One of the most concerning aspects of Indian politics today is the vote bank politics in which parties try to appease a section of the voters on religious lines, thereby not only creating discrimination but also tearing the secular fabric of the nation. This vote bank based on religious appeasements were initially mastered by the Congress party. Here is an excerpt from a book on Nehru, authored by none other than the eminent Congressman, Shashi Tharoor, who goes on to blame vote bank politics as one of the reasons for the communal disturbances that have taken place in the nation:

So, when a new age, revolutionary party was started an year ago, I was excited because India needed a clean, neutral, non-religious, truly secular, professional party which could undo the grave follies committed by previous parties. But within few months of formation, the party began to show it’s true colors by resorting to the same vote bank politics which was followed by other parties in India.

When the party released it’s manifesto for Delhi elections, I was surprised to find that there was a committee setup to handle issues faced by Muslims but no other committee for any other religion. Check the section 6A in the following official webpage of AAP which says

“C6a Muslim Issues”:

http://delhi.aamaadmiparty.org/page/society-and-communities

UPDATE (27-March-2014)

Looks like AAP has taken down the above webpage. But the webpage is cached by Internet Archive (an international body which saves webpages from popular sites for archive purposes) which can be accessed here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20130620020527/http://delhi.aamaadmiparty.org/page/society-and-communities

This is just like the typical vote bank politics followed by Congress (and pointed out by Tharoor in the above excerpt) which had led to discrimination. It makes one wonder if issues are faced only by people of one particular religion. Does it mean Christians have no issues? Jains have no issues?

One of the most talked about encounter cases in recent times has been the Batla house encounter, which after thorough investigations was declared as a genuine encounter by the Delhi High Court.



Link:

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2013-07-26/news/40815287_1_batla-house-digvijaya-singh-abhishek-manu-singhvi

Surprisingly, in a bid to appease a section of voters, Kejriwal questioned the court’s verdict & took a stand against it by claiming that it was a fake encounter. By doing so, Kejriwal was not only disrespecting the judiciary but was insulting the martyrdom of Mohan Chand Sharma as well. This erupted into a controversy after Kejriwal repeatedly took the same stand which in turn earned him great brownie points with minorities.

Links:

http://www.indianewsco.com/news/aam-aadmi-party-defends-arvind-kejriwal-letter-says-batla-house-fake-encounter-6917042

http://www.electionnewsindia.com/article-113-again-kejriwal-called-batla-house-encounter-fake.html

As the Delhi elections approached, there was another startling revelation. The party, which had begun as a neutral party on anti-corruption plank had intensified it’s vote bank politics and it was found that the party was distributing millions of handouts to Delhi voters and appealing them on religious grounds.

This did not go down well with the constitutional body called Election Commission (EC) which immediately slapped a notice to Kejriwal asking him for an explanation:

Link:

http://zeenews.india.com/assembly-elections-2013/delhi-polls/ec-notice-to-kejriwal-for-seeking-muslim-votes-on-grounds-of-religion_891330.html

Since Kejriwal could not deny it, all that he could do was to defend his actions and as a result, he was given a stern warning by EC not to resort to such vote bank politics on religious lines in future:

Link:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/specials/coverage/myindia-myvote/chunk-ht-ui-myindiamyvote-countdownto2014/ec-warns-kejriwal-on-pamphlets-appealing-for-muslim-votes/sp-article10-1176428.aspx

In the meantime, lot of appeasements have been going on behind the scenes and clerics have been issuing “orders” to their followers to vote only for AAP. Recently, an association from a foreign land which calls itself “non-political”, published a full page ad in Milli-Gazette as follows:

Image source link:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=739531029397883



There has been support from Arab Countries as well who are issuing advice to Indians to vote only for AAP.



News link:

http://www.arabnews.com/news/553071

Soon after the dates for General Elections were announced, Kejriwal and his party members spent a great deal of time to woo minorities by coming up with a roadmap exclusively for Muslim community for the 2014 elections. (Surprisingly, there has been no roadmap for Sikhs or Christians or any other community/religion)



News link:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/AAP-draws-up-roadmap-woos-Muslims/articleshow/32260925.cms

Image source:

Indian Express

The Hindu

Certain section of the minority voters seem to be so much fascinated/impressed by Kejriwal’s appeasement policies that in an article published by a reputed newspaper, Kejriwal is being compared to Prophet Mohammed:

http://muslimmirror.com/eng/kejriwal-a-hindu-by-faith-a-muslim-by-practice/

However, this might not last long because voters are beginning to realize the intentions of the party. Their intention only seems to be to get maximum votes at any cost (even at the cost of appeasement politics which can be harmful in the long run and definitely not expected from a new party of educated elite which claims high moral ground).

What Kejriwal had started as shrewd strategies to garner votes are now haunting him back in the form of boomerangs. For example, in a recent press event, one of the MLAs disrupted the conference and demanded a probe into Batla house encounter:



Link:

http://www.business-standard.com/article/politics/cong-mla-asks-kejriwal-to-probe-batla-house-case-114013000549_1.html

But since Kejriwal himself knows that Batla house encounter was actually genuine and he had used false propaganda to garner votes, he is now distancing himself from it by saying he cannot initiate a probe since he “respects the court decision” (which he had not respected before elections in order to gain some votes) and he “never promised it in his manifesto“!! This apparently has not gown down well with Muslims who had shown him lot of support for his stand on Batla house encounter and his “informal” promise in the form of “handouts” distributed in millions. Latest reports show that Muslims are in fact irked with his stand now and feel cheated/alienated:



Link:

http://www.firstpost.com/politics/muslims-irked-with-kejriwals-comments-on-batla-house-1368955.html

Many more boomerangs might be on the way and a lot more voters who initially supported AAP after falling for its appeasement policies might start distancing themselves from it.