This is a critique of #AAP. This was not written during its recent betrayals of political morality ( #Article370, #Ayodhya, #CAA,
#ShaheenBagh, #delhipogrom, #Nizamuddin), though I wished to post it on a daily basis. This is from early 2014...early signs. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.outlookindia.com/magazine/amp/aunty-call-the-police/289273

This was written when practically the whole world seemed pro-AAP. Legends from old (and new) social movements were signing up. Elegant voices on the Left were enrolling. NRIs were queueing up. @_YogendraYadav and @pbhushan1 were still there. But the signs were there to read.

People seem surprised now, or shocked. At the 'betrayal'. How can a democratic party, speaking and acting for the 'people', be doing the opposite? I don't know how many remember the incident, when #AAP pitted its full force against the Africans staying in Delhi.

When #AAP already trode that thin line between democratic politics and fascism. In its most extreme, racist form. It championed, gave voice to, and ultimately became part of a largely successful banishment of #africans from Delhi's mohallas. It was our first #NRC, in a way.

A lot of the markers of our overtly fascistic polity were already there. And everybody was participating. Arnab was there (he escapes with what I wish was more than an allusion)...he was just a very popular anchor EVERYBODY was watching. I repeat, PB and YY were there.

All those worthies were finding "democratic" arguments for why the police should have been under them. Why it should be a part of the 'will of the people'. ('People' being the largely savarna middle class). All the building blocks for fascism were plentifully available.

Remember, at that time, the police were being accused of "being corrupt", not of being the frontline of State violence but of being lazy, compromised laggards. The "corruption" was actually a guard, a marker of a more tolerant, less fascistic time. Not theoretically, really.

For anyone who comes around calling this the thoughts of a "Congress apologist", and citing Sabarimala of all things, trust me, I have other pieces I can post. https://twitter.com/malayaliatticus/status/1245640310102736899?s=19

And menstruation. Maybe you would like to see the only full special issue ever dedicated to the topic in mainstream media, the ONLY one ever, which I put together?

People were deluded by the apparent democratic nature of it...this is ultimately a cautionary note to all of us. And to all parties, not just #AAP. That 'democracy' itself can contain the seeds of fascism. Unless it entails equal weightage to ALL views. https://twitter.com/rupagulab/status/1245641729534857217?s=19

PB probably had federal arguments in mind. His presence in AAP was most salutary. I've never heard a mainstream leader so able to voice an ethical, commonsensical position on #Kashmir as Kejriwal when PB was with him. It had a lot of potential. Alas. https://twitter.com/rupagulab/status/1245644004168851458?s=19

It's a kind of curse, to have to make a profession out of methodical scepticism. But honestly, anyone who was there in Delhi at that time, reading the news, and not reacting the same way as I did, frankly, I wouldn't have much to talk with them anyway. https://twitter.com/nuts2406/status/1245645242927214597?s=19

Despite my personal misgivings, I believe Kejriwal had a lot of utility as a leader who can mainstream political criticism in truly accessible, layperson's language. No one explained 'crony capitalism', for instance, in simpler terms than his classic words: "Unki setting hai".