Within minutes of Arvind Kejriwal taking oath as the chief minister of Delhi NCR, questions on his ability to deliver his promises have started coming up. Undoubtedly his speech would undergo a lot of scrutiny, dissections and continue to remain in national discourse, even if he has categorically ruled out another pan-India "misadventure". Why then are so many people not from Delhi so interested in Delhi affairs while political upheaval in "proper" and far more bigger states of Bihar and government formation issue Jammu and Kashmir are almost sidelined in mainstream and social media? The obvious answer is AAP and Arvind Kejriwal have brought in something to Indian democracy that defies the traditional political narrative and threatens it despite the Delhi CM's statement on not going national.
A narrative is being built that AAP's victory is largely based on freebies it has offered. This is untrue and insult to mandate people of Delhi. What AAP has offered and vowed, is to bring systemic changes and to do away with practices that are unnecessary, corrupt and benefit crony capitalists rather than people. Since every party that has been in power has doled out freebies starting from cycles, TV, laptops and free electricity to sections of population for electoral dividend, it is but expected a lot of people would see AAP's promises as cheap populism. But is it ?
