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So, in short, AAP in Gram/Zilla Panchayats/Municipal Corporations/ District and State Governments is Good while Congress/BJP at the Centre is Good.
India after careful and great deliberation chose the Westminster model of democracy. A hung parliament and assembly is not an unusual occurrence. Cobbling together is a compulsion that cannot only be dismissed as political opportunism. Indeed those who decry Indian democracy, which includes many NRIs should reflect on the bitter and fractious nature of politics in other so called matured democracies, such as Britain, the United States (US), Japan, Israel or Italy.
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We never said, we wont use govt. cars. We will infact use as much as we can. More true colors of AAPCong comes out..
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sought to put the record straight today on what perks he and his six Delhi ministers will be accepting and what they shall eschew.
When the arrival at the state assembly of two of his ministers, Rakhi Birla and Saurabh Bhardwaj, in government cars this morning raised eyebrows, the Aam Aadmi Party chief said, "We never said anything about not using cars. We said we will only not use red beacon cars."
Yesterday, the party proved majority in the state Assembly with the help of the Congress and JDU, which means that the question hanging over the fate of the government it has formed is gone for now. The Congress has promised that it will continue to prop the AAP government up and demonstrated that again today by supporting its choice for Speaker. (Read)
Chief Minister Kejriwal, who has so far operated for a week from his residence in suburban Ghaziabad, will now soon move to a 5-bedroom duplex house on Bhagwan Das Road in the heart of Delhi, which is higher than the accomodation alloted to central minsters and MPs. The new accommodation is not as grand as his predecessor Sheila Dikshit's bungalow, but it is not quite the aam Delhi home either.
And he will have two of those, he shared today. "There are two flats, with 5 bedrooms each. We will be staying in only one. The other will be the office. I can work early morning and late night there," Mr Kejriwal said.
@ Indisher, From a left libertarian perspective, anything at perpetuates power heirarchy and state control has the potential to corrupt, restrict individual freedoms and promote oppression but there is poor fit between the two systems at the practical level as well.
Since they entailed voluntary participation by members of the public, such forums quickly became dominated by advocacy groups leading to several sections of the population, for instance OAPs and youth, becoming excluded from them.
Based on AK's comments on his MLA Binny's 'Jan Sabhaas', his own vision involves jan sabhaas that have sweeping powers in relation to local budgets, law and order etc, with elected representatives being relegated to mere administrative roles and liable to recall by their constituents. From a logistical point of view, such a system is easier to implement in densly populated urban areas (hence AAP's focus on Delhi) but is only likely to meet with limited success as long as the state retains its prerogative over taxation, fiscal policy and can over ride decisions made by community councils. In other words, AAP's plan is fundamentally incompatible with parlimentary democracy and requires the abolition of all central authority in the long term to work in practice.
In the short term, the objective is therefore to create a network of community councils spread across cities and eventually the whole country and beyond, which would employ collective activism to create a 'counterweight' to the state authority and gradually divest it of its powers. When referring to replacing the 'state', the likes of AK are clear that they do not mean the state in an institutional sense but the nation-state as a physical entity.
Also note the distinction Bookchinists make between 'politics' and 'statecraft', their readiness to participate in the electoral process, join forces with elements that would get them into positions of power from where they can unleash their anti state agenda. This perfectly explains AAP's keeness to get in bed with the Congress and their populist policies in government.
AK himself has stated openly that he sees India as a '100 Switzerlands' (see response to Javed Akthar in OP). This guy should be tried for high treason but instead is being lauded by the paid media as the messiah who will deliver the nation from corruption.
Since common sense is in such short supply among the average McDonalds munching AAP supporter who regards protest as a fashion accessory, one can only hope for the sake of the nation that the rigours of electoral politics and trappings of power would in time persuade AAP to shed some of its subversive ideology and truly embrace the leftist, pseudosecular mainstream.
I feel you've jumped the gun on many occasions here. AAP's model is perfectly compatible with Parliamentary Democracy. It's not an entirely new/radical power-devolution system that he has pioneered, but rather a working model visible across many Democracies.
That he is suggesting that Civic bodies at the village and Zilla level be given greater responsibility to manage their infrastructure better is not a bad thing. Example: Didn't Dallas file for bankruptcy recently? The city is responsible for it's own taxation for it's own upkeep. How will this affect US foreign policy in any way? Compare this with our own City Municipal Councils who show losses every year, receive funds from the State, and have only crumbling infrastructure to show for their spending.
His free water and electricity scheme is projected to cost around 350 crore. How much has corruption cost the State Exchequer of Delhi so far? The 24 cases related to the Commonwealth Games pending in courts or undergoing arbitration alone cost about Rs 350 crore!
And how is seeing India as 100 Switzerlands a case for high treason?? He was merely extrapolating the size of Switzerland if it's democratic model were to be applied in India. Please don't take statements out of context and spread further confusion. I've listened to mainstream leaders make direct seditious remarks and slanderous accusations and get away scott-free.