India Today 18th July 2016 | Page 3

FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF www.indiatoday.in Editor-in-Chief: Aroon Purie Group Chief Executive Officer: Ashish Bagga Group Editorial Director: Raj Chengappa Editors: Kaveree Bamzai (Special Projects), Ajit Kumar Jha (Research) Group Creative Editor: Nilanjan Das; Group Photo Editor: Bandeep Singh Managing Editors: Kai Jabir Friese, Rajesh Jha Executive Editors: Damayanti Datta, Kunal Pradhan, S. Sahaya Ranjit, Sandeep Unnithan Deputy Editors: Prachi Bhuchar, Uday Mahurkar, Manisha Saroop MUMBAI: MG Arun HYDERABAD: Amarnath K. Menon CHANDIGARH: Asit Jolly Senior Editors: Shweta Punj, Sasi Nair, JAIPUR: Rohit Parihar Senior Associate Editors: Kaushik Deka MUMBAI: Suhani Singh, Kiran Dinkar Tare; PATNA: Amitabh Srivastava Associate Editors: Shougat Dasgupta, Chinki Sinha KOLKATA: Romita Sengupta; BHOPAL: Rahul Noronha; THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Jeemon Jacob; BEIJING: Ananth Krishnan Assistant Editor: PUNE: Aditi S. 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Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. ● ● Subscriptions: Printed and published by Manoj Sharma on behalf of Living Media India Limited. Printed at Thomson Press India Limited, 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana) and at A-9, Industrial Complex, Maraimalai Nagar, District Kancheepuram-603209, (Tamil Nadu). Published at K-9, Connaught Circus, New Delhi-110001. Editor: Aroon Purie. ● INDIA TODAY does not take the responsibility for returning unsolicited publication material. P olitical journeys are usually long, winding and arduous. In India, they are either a dynastic inheritance or come from years spent leading student movements, developing an ideology, getting hitched to a godfather in an established political party, tapping into a social or religious group’s anxieties to build a votebank, and steadfastly following the party line while growing within its ranks. While a few leaders deviate from the script from time to time, one politician who has rewritten it completely is Arvind Kejriwal. It was not long ago that Kejriwal was an income-tax officer who ran an NGO, became one of the faces of the Anna Hazare Lokpal movement, and then launched the Aam Aadmi Party as recently as 2012. In less than four years, he has assumed several political avatars. From ‘Muffler Man’ because of his trademark woollen scarves, to the surprise Delhi chief minister with his common man persona and leadership style, to the selfproclaimed “anarchist” who laid siege outside Rail Bhawan, to the bhagora who ran away from Delhi, to Narendra Modi’s vanquished Varanasi opponent who bit off more than he could chew in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, to the bête noire who dimmed Modi’s aura of invincibility in 2015, he has played several characters in his short political career. Now, with Kejriwal as its talisman, AAP is set for audacious expansion, starting with the 2017 assembly elections in Punjab (where it has four MPs) and a surprise assault on Goa. Both states are traditionally bipolar and have sitting NDA governments. AAP sees a window of opportunity in both, and like most other things involving Kejriwal, there is a method in the madness. The states are small enough for AAP to make inroads, and its functionaries have been building a base by tapping into anti-incumbency and the lack of a strong opposition from a diminished Congress party. AAP’s new onslaught may seem slightly rough around the edges, quite like Kejriwal himself, but it’s part of a well-thought-out plan at a time when India is desperately searching for a viable pan-India Opposition leader. He has already done the groundwork. Unlike any other chief minister, Kejriwal constantly portrays himself as a national voice by challenging the prime minister directly, jumping into the discussion over Raghuram Rajan’s second term as RBI governor, the Rohith Vemula suicide in Hyderabad University, the nationalism debate at JNU, the Bharat Mata issue, and even questioning the veracity of Modi’s educational degrees. Ironically, there are many similarities between him and Modi. They both have a mix of the agitational and advertorial brands of politics in them, where they slam their opposition while overstating their own achievements. They are both supreme commanders of their parties and have made the anti-corruption crusade their rallying cry. No wonder they often get under each other’s skin. Our cover story, written by Associate Editor Shougat Dasgupta, who tracked Kejriwal extensively during his Varanasi campaign, looks at AAP’s expansion strategy, focusing on Punjab and Goa while revealing its long-term ambitions. We hit the road with AAP’s backroom boys, and ask if it can again deliver shock victories against India’s most prominent political parties. AAP has some way to go to develop into a national party. It has a fuzzy understanding of national issues concerning the economy, internal security and foreign affairs, and has gathered votes mainly because of its populist rhetoric and righteous anger aimed at national parties. However, its meteoric rise on an anti-politics plank is one of the most important political developments of recent times. The party has emerged as a sort of moral force, even if it may not be immune to corruption charges against its ministers and officials. If AAP is able to fulfil its ambition of establishing a government in another state, which it can run independently, free of the constraints of the Centre it experiences in Delhi, politicians across the country should begin to worry. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only (Aroon Purie) JULY 18, 2016 ◆ INDIA TODAY 10