Bengaluru: Prithvi Reddy, the 47-year-old convenor of the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Karnataka unit views the upcoming Karnataka Assembly election as a stepping stone in the party's long journey ahead. He hopes to be able to provide people with a credible alternative to the usual national parties and says all decisions are being taken in the state and have the full support of the national team. This comes despite the fact that Arvind Kejriwal hasn't been seen aggressively campaigning in Karnataka like other national leaders. Reddy also remarks that the amount of money being spent on elections is also responsible for the "loot of public money".
Edited excerpts of the interview with Reddy follow:
Since this is the first time AAP is contesting state elections in Karnataka, what kind of records will you be placing in front of the public? On what basis can the people be persuaded to vote for you?
I believe that what happened in Delhi three years ago was truly revolutionary. The interesting thing is what's happened since then. In the first 15 days, we gave 20,000 litres of water free per family per month, we have reduced current electricity bills by 50 percent. We have built world-class public schools. We got our teachers trained in places like Singapore, Oxford (UK) and Stanford (USA). This has shown results. In Delhi, the pass percentage in public schools is 89 percent; in Karnataka, it's just about 50 percent. Today, I have just come off a campaign and almost 75 percent of the families I met struggle to pay their children’s school fee irrespective of the income group, because the government is not providing quality education free of cost — the way it is the world over.
Five years ago, if you spoke about honest politics, it was a like a dream, but now you have proof of concept. Speaking of primary healthcare, in this entire area of Sarvagnanagar where I am standing, for a population of six lakh people, there is not a single decent government school or hospital — but on every street or ward, there are private clinics, schools and colleges. Apart from this, we have delivered on a very key issue wherein we have passed a bill to deliver 40 government services to your doorstep (income certificate, gas certificate etc) for which typically you will have to go to government office and pay bribes. It will truly change people's lives.
Prithvi Reddy on the campaign trail. Image provided by Prithvi Reddy
Is AAP in Karnataka insulated from the troubles of AAP in the National Capital?
Let me say AAP in Karnataka is still new. When you say problems in Delhi — we have broken the backs of the water mafia, the private school (mafia), hospital (mafia), electricity mafia, and when you do such things, the system comes to get you. And I believe there is an attempt to try and bury the very concept of good politics.
What are some of the tough questions you have been asked so far on the campaign trail?
The biggest problem we face is that people have given up on the idea of honest politics. The moment you meet them they are so dejected, they say we have tried everyone, we are fed up. In my constituency they have the lowest voter turnout: It's just 50 percent. Our MLA has won four terms in all and the vote share he has been getting is growing — in 2008, it was 15 percent and now it's around 22 percent. In a democracy, it's very dangerous that 15 percent of the people can decide who your elected representative is. So the biggest challenge is changing people's notion of politics.
Tell us about the process of choosing AAP candidates in the state. Why was it limited to 29 seats? Do you feel AAP’s appeal only lies in urban areas?
Not at all. We actually fielded 31. Our nominations were rejected, so it was reduced to 29. Out of 29, only 11 are in Bengaluru. So we are certainly not urban-based. We have fielded candidates in places as far as Bidar, Belgaum, Kittur etc — wherever we could find good people. Unfortunately, politics is still a bad word in our country and good people hesitate to fight elections because they don't think good people can win. We have to break that notion and that's why we found some amazing candidates from different age groups. Our youngest candidate is 26. So we are trying to completely turn traditional notions on the head. A lot of people who didn't get tickets from traditional parties were trying to get them from us, but we refused saying that's not the kind of politics we want to do.
In the case of a hung Assembly, which party will AAP support?
When I said this a couple of weeks ago, someone laughed. I said there is a greater likelihood of the BJP and Congress forming an alliance because they are like-minded. We will play the role of a constructive Opposition, as long as whoever is in power plays the role of a responsible government. We will be the people's voice and ensure that we keep pushing them to do the right thing. We will not join any kind of alliance but we are willing to support any good initiative of the government as a responsible Opposition.
How many seats do you expect to win?
Our responsibility is giving people an alternative. Even if we win one seat, that one MLA will represent a completely different kind of politics and that constituency will be a model constituency for the rest of the state. So it's not the numbers we are interested in. It's about getting into the Assembly, voicing the concerns of people and taking on the corrupt, criminal, communal forces that we believe are doing harm to this country.
Kejriwal’s micromanagement and dictatorial tendencies were a problem, an ex-AAP member from Bengaluru had said.
These elections are being fought by the Karnataka team and each candidate. Someone asked me why is it that if Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi are coming here, Kejriwal is not campaigning? So you are damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. All decisions are being taken by the local team and we have full support of our national team. And ours is politics of principle, it's not politics of personality. I don't think Kejriwal is a dictator at all. The kind of freedom he has given us, I don't think it's available in any political party.
What are the key points in your manifesto?
One is, of course, corruption. Due to the economic boom in Bengaluru and Karnataka, everybody knows that we have gone to another level of corruption. I think we are going to witness one of the most expensive elections that this country has ever seen. This election has been reduced to an auction. And as a result of the amount of money being spent on elections, the amount of loot of public money that is happening is also going up. Farmer distress is a huge issue. Sixty percent of Karnataka is rural and we behave like Bengaluru is the only concern in Karnataka. Water is a big problem and the issue of water either between Karnataka and Maharashtra, Goa or Tamil Nadu has been politicised. You need to make all the stakeholders realise that water is becoming a scarce commodity and we need to use it responsibly.
The complete collapse of Bengaluru — everybody is talking about road-widening, but you'll never solve these problems because our city has reached its capacity for growth. We are not able to handle garbage and sewage. The only real longterm solution is to decongest the city. In our manifesto, we have a commitment that we would like to build around five regional capitals. That is how you create jobs. You don’t need someone from Bidar or Gulbarga to come here for a job. You need to take the industry and jobs there. Our exports are going through Mumbai and Chennai. Why can’t they go through Mangaluru or Karwar?
The author is a Bengaluru-based freelance writer and a member of 101Reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters
Updated Date: May 07, 2018 10:26 AM
