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Journalism of Courage
TEN YEARS after it made welfare schemes focused on the poor the thrust of its politics, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has reached out to the middle class, whose enthusiastic support for its anti-corruption agenda gave the AAP its political launchpad.
On Wednesday, the AAP released a manifesto for the middle class ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections – a likely first for any mainstream political party in the country. The move comes amidst rising heat against the AAP by the BJP, the party identified the most with the middle class.
The manifesto makes seven demands of the BJP government at the Centre, timed to its coming Union Budget, while an accompanying video by Arvind Kejriwal lays out how the AAP government’s measures for the poor are far from exclusionary of the middle class.
The seven demands made by the AAP in its manifesto are:
1) Increase education budget from 2% to 10% (the AAP government in Delhi has among the highest budgets for education in the country); 2) cap fees of private schools (a long-standing demand in Delhi) and give subsidies and scholarships for higher education; 3) increase health budget to 10% and remove tax from health insurance (health is the other showpiece of the AAP government, apart from education); 4) raise income tax exemption limit from Rs 7 lakh to Rs 10 lakh; 5) abolish GST on essential commodities (with inflation a hot issue); 6) frame comprehensive retirement plans for senior citizens and provide them free treatment across the country; and 7) restore the discount given to senior citizens in Railways (a popular provision, now abandoned).
In the video address, Kejriwal said: “Yes, it’s true that your tax money also helps the underprivileged by providing free water, electricity, and bus rides. You might wonder why your money is being used to support the poor, but I believe your parents can answer this better than me… Today, many middle-class people living in small towns and cities have parents who were once poor. They worked hard to transition out of poverty, become the middle class and provide a better life for their children. If they had received even a little support from the government back then – like we are providing today – they would have saved more and done even better for you. Your parents will tell you that only when people’s money is spent on people, does the country truly progress.”
As much as a message to the middle class, Kejriwal’s video told his constituency that his measures could also lift them out of poverty.
The outreach to the middle class is a return of sorts by the AAP to its origins, which lie in the India Against Corruption movement. The agitation had tapped into the middle class angst over the graft allegations against the UPA government at the time (2011), and coincided with a rising BJP.
After Kejriwal broke away, formed the AAP and the party emerged as the single largest in Delhi in 2013 to form its first government – with outside support from the Congress – his focus was still on corruption. Kejriwal’s 49-day stint as CM was marked by eye-catching measures such as ordering audits of power companies, setting up a helpline where people could call in with complaints against officials seeking bribes, and encouraging people to do stings to buttress their charges.
In 2015, after it returned to power with 67 of Delhi’s 70 Assembly seats, the AAP made a pivot to welfare politics, making it central to the party and Delhi government’s policies. Since then, it has fought – and won – several elections in the Capital on the strength of its free power and electricity schemes and the measures taken to improve schools and health facilities for the poor.
AAP leaders admit that the feedback from the ground as Delhi Assembly elections approach is that it is seen as a party solely “for the poor”.
“We have no qualms in admitting that our schemes cater to mostly the underprivileged. But it is not only they who benefit,” argues a senior AAP leader. “In winter months, lakhs of middle class households get zero power bills. Nuclear families can avoid getting water bills for years by managing the use of water. (Again) It is not just the poor senior citizens who go on teerth yatras (pilgrimages) under our scheme,” said a senior AAP leader, admitting that a narrative that they work only for the poor had however been successfully created.
Another AAP leader said that the BJP’s persistent presence in Delhi, where it has retained a vote share of 35%-37% despite being out of power now for over 25 years, is because of its hold on the middle class.
“The BJP has sent out the message that it is good for the middle class. Even though it is this class that pays taxes and gets nothing substantial in return,” the AAP leader said, arguing that the Central Ayushman Bharat scheme, which Delhi has not adopted, would also not be of any benefit to this category.
“Instead, we promise free treatment, without a cap, in all our government hospitals, and will extend free treatment in 81 private hospitals to those above the age of 60 once we form the government again. The Sanjeevani health scheme, which promises this, is aimed specifically at the middle class,” the leader said.
Ramvir Bidhuri, who was the Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly before being elected as BJP South Delhi MP in May, rubbished the AAP’s middle class push, likening Kejriwal’s address to “shedding of crocodile tears”.
“Before placing demands of the middle class before the Centre, Kejriwal should tell what he has done for the middle class in Delhi in 10 years. In the Assembly elections, the public is asking Kejriwal for an account of his work, not the Central government’s,” Bidhuri said, going on to mention the Modi government’s announcement of the Eighth Pay Commission recently “as a big relief to employees of every category”.
In his speech to BJP booth workers virtually Wednesday, PM Modi also referred to the Eighth Pay Commission and made an appeal to the middle class. “The BJP considers the middle class to be the backbone of the country’s economy. Understanding the aspirations of the middle class, we are creating every modern facility, from education to health. But the aap-da has given only troubles and problems to the middle class in Delhi,” Modi said, listing the vast Metro network in the Capital and the spread of national highways and expressways as part of the measures by his government for the middle class.
That the AAP can make inroads into the middle class has been indicated by surveys. In its poll-eve survey in 2020, Lokniti said that while the poorest sections of Delhi were far more likely to have voted for the AAP than the BJP, the AAP’s vote share among them compared to the 2015 Assembly elections had seen a decline.
Lokniti survey said that while 66% of the poorest segments voted for the AAP in 2015, this fell to 61% in 2020. The BJP’s vote share in this segment, by comparison, rose by as much as 12 percentage points from 33% in 2015.
In fact, the two economic segments where the AAP made the most gains between 2015 and 2020, as per the Lokniti survey, were the lower class and middle class segments. Among middle-class voters, the AAP registered a 2 percentage point gain, securing 53% of the votes in 2020, said Lokniti.
