FEB 13 ― Italy, famously known for its obsession with the F word – Ferrari, fashion, food, family, football ― had some problems because of the F word: Fascism.
A country which evolved from both the sides of the political spectrum revealed ideologies as an encumbrance for Italians. Blessed with beautiful landscape, remarkable art masterpieces, the economy is appearing to be stagnant for many reasons.
Monstrous bureaucracy, expired politicians and corruption are some of its drawbacks. India infamously too is showing some of the characteristics of Italian politics.
As with the Italians, Indians too believe that politicians have become part of the problem. Indians today feel disgusted with the kind of corruption witnessed in the last few years.
Beppe Grillo ― a comedian turned politician who inspired the Five Star Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle) that shook the foundations of Italian politics ― said, “We have to bring politics back to the citizens. We must do politics ourselves. A little more everyday!”
Just like Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement Party, Indians witnessed something similar in Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which stirred the Indian anti-corruption movement in 2011.
Like Grillo, Kejriwal also positioned himself as a disruptive force in India’s traditional politics. He appeared as a Messiah to the masses.
Citizens started to get disenchanted with organised politics. Kejriwal’s objectives and style were stunningly similar to Beppe Grillo’s. Both with their own political party provided an alternative model in the style of politics.
The Five Star Movement, which grew exponentially from Grillo’s blog, went on to protest with the objective of out stinging 25 members of Parliament. Similarly, Aam Admi Party, which evolved out of the anti-corruption movement, propagates the idea of cleaner politics.
Today, Five Star Movement key ideas are oriented towards issues of social justice and equality, such as public water, sustainable transport, development, corruption and environmentalism.
Likewise, the Aam Admi Party also focuses on increase in price of electricity, water, need for sustainable transportation (auto-rickshaw), elimination of bureaucratized corruption, halting VIP culture and so on.
The bottom line is their opposition to the current dispensation which, they say, represents “old politics’’ that is out of sync with the public mood and people’s aspirations. The laundry list of public grievances is long and supporters hail their campaign as “revolutionary.’’
However, in an analytical comparison, one of the critical and potentially dangerous attitudes of Grillo’s and Kejriwal’s supporters is that they often assume they are voicing the “real needs” of society, attacking those who do not understand or support.
Party members often accuse people of being naive or ill informed about issues. If we assume the principle of constitutionally mandated equality, then one has to accept that theoretically everybody can run politics including the petty bourgeoisie.
On another similarity, both the parties have articulated several propositions ― particularly in response to what they regard as rampant corruption. First, both call for redrafting the existing anti-corruption laws in their respective countries. Second, both call for the bringing back of stolen money from the political caste. Third, both call for providing law making in the stands of the common man and fourth, both call politicians “thieves.”
When Al-Jazeera once asked whether his 5 Star Movement (MI5) in Italy can be exported to another country, Beppe replied, “If we can combine the extraordinary tool of Internet and technology with a human face, it can effectively lead to a power shift anywhere in the world.” Fittingly, India’s AAP too believes in penetrating social media to its maximum extent.
Moving to the challenges, firstly, for both the parties, it will be converting a protest movement into a stable governing party system. Then, it will be have to work on internal democratic structures because sceptics have started to believe the danger of letting a bottom-up civil society movement speak on behalf of the people,
And finally, it will be about the party’s ability to move its philosophy beyond urban and progressive areas.
The only difference between both the parties is that Five Star Movement ended up with almost 25.5 per cent of the vote in last year’s general election (emerged as a third alternative in Italian politics), while the Aam Admi Party is yet to face the national elections.
Can the Aam Aadmi Party be the largest party in the upcoming general election? It might sound utopian. But certainly, one can say that Aam Aadmi Party’s leader Arvind Kejriwal is India’s Beppe Grillo.
However, if AAP needs to improvise on its wider goals, it needs to learn lessons from its equivalent in Europe. Of course, for longer innings both the parties require broadening of their base, be it in social, economic or political policies.
Either way, both AAP and MI5 are the party to watch.
* This is a personal opinion of the columnist.
