Arvind Kejriwal’s new party “Aam Aadmi” launched

Arvind Kejriwal’s new part is now official.  Its name is “Aam Aadmi Party”.  It seeks to be an alternative to the corrupt establishments of today and its goals include:

• empowerment of the common man,

• decentralization of power,

• law-making through referendum,

• devolution of decision-making powers to gram sabha and

• an accessible judicial system.

It was launched at a press conference in New Delhi.  To have internal integrity, the AAP has decided to create an internal Lokpal, and have a provision for the right to recall and for denial of posts and tickets to more than one in a family.  It will contest it first polls next year in Delhi elections and from Monday, the party activists will start a drive to enlist the “aam aadmi” to join the party and become the “founding members”.  Looking for swaraj – or self rule – in retaliation to the corrupt (for self only) rule by the political elite of today, the party is looking to appeal to the common frustration amongst the youth of today.

They mocked Congress’ obsession with Aan Aadmi and the loss of its plank to the new party.  Kejriwal said:

They are just rattled….Congress could never hijack the aam aadmi despite using the term “aam aadmi”. Now they have lost the word too.

After a day long meeting of 300 people where the party’s constitution was adopted, the party announcement was made.

Party’s name selection itself was a very detailed and deliberate process which involved going through the inputs of many people.

Since breaking away with Anna Hazare to form a political party, Arvind Kejriwal and his supporters have had to sift through more than 40,000 emails, Facebook posts and letters before they finalised its name. The name has finally been fixed after a meeting between Kejriwal and 300 of his supporters and is it to be called the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Meanwhile, Kiran Bedi – who is part of Team Anna – has furthered her support (and Team Anna’s) to Arvind Kejriwal’s political effort.

“We will support any honesty. Since he (Kejriwal) stands for promoting integrity, obviously he will be eligible for our support,” Bedi told reporters on the sidelines of the Indian School of Business (ISB) Leadership Summit-2013.

With movements like that of Arvind Kejriwal and Dr. JP Narayan (Loksatta Party); we now have two fairly strong movements with similar aims and very credible people fighting with separate but similar models in the new political arena.

In the coming years, we will have substantial, if not most effective, alternative to the two party system (UPA and NDA.. or Congress and BJP).