Aam Aadmi Party leader Jasmine Shah believes no political party in India’s history has ever received a mandate as significant as the one his party secured in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections. He said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came into existence with a promise to transform how the government functions for the average ‘Aam Aadmi’.
He talks to The Statesman about his work in the domain of public policy, and getting into politics after being inspired by AAP following Anna Hazare’s movement. He also reflects on his latest book “The Delhi Model”.
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Q. What prompted you to join public policy and politics?
A: The story goes back to the time when I graduated from IIT Madras in 2007, and then got into a corporate job and was leading a happy life. During that time, I extensively traveled the country and felt an immediate disconnect with the way things were on the ground. I felt there were two Indias. Most importantly, the lives of the bottom two-thirds of the urban population was way different from the top onethird populace. I realized that instead of being cynical and critical of the problems, I should rather become a part of the solution. It was clear to me that to actually bring change, one needs to work with the government. Policy and politics are two sides of the same coin, it is one’s political ideology that defines what kind of policies one comes up with.
Q. The assembly polls are round the corner, why will people vote for the AAP given the challenges it faces in government functioning with Delhi being a Union territory?
A: Nothing else matters than the political intent and will. If there is a government that wants to work for people, no one can stop it. Two years of the (AAP government) were primarily spent on battling the Covid-19 pandemic due to which so many development projects took a backseat, while the last one year was the toughest for the dispensation with attempts made against it to finish it off as a political party. Despite all odds, the party has delivered on its promises, be it the city’s education revolution, health services or others.
Q. Can you elaborate on the trickle up economic model. Does it seem to be reaching the middle class?
A: The ‘Trickle-up’ model basically means in a bid to grow the economy, first make the middle classes and lower classes more prosperous. The way AAP gives free benefits to the people in Delhi, ultimately it comes back to the economy as the benefits give them power to spend. If the middle and the lower classes are empowered, highly skilled and have more spending power then automatically, there is more demand generated in the economy, and this is how finally the economy sustains. Delhi has the lowest inflation in the country at present which is the result of the government’s policies.
Q. What do you have to say on the row over freebies or free benefits to the public?
A: When the AAP government came to power, it wanted to drastically improve the lives of common people and for that some fiscal space had to be created. We worked on two strategies, one was to increase the income of the government, and secondly, bring down all the inefficient spending. For instance, before the AAP came to power and mohalla clinics came into existence, primary health services involved multi-storey concrete structures with higher cost of construction. So the AAP cut off the extra expense, built a structure with an expense of just Rs 20 lakh compared to crores spent in the concrete structure, and provided necessary staff, including a doctor and compounder, just like a usual clinic. Similarly, Satyendar Jain reimagined the design and layouts of hospital beds rather than focusing on big rooms for senior doctors.
Q. Your comment on the deplorable condition of Delhi roads.
A. The biggest learning that the AAP government had in this domain is to have large professional contractors for roads in a city like Delhi, who will build them as per international standards. Secondly, it is not only important that the roads are laid properly but need to be efficiently designed, which are usually designed by in-house engineers who lack global exposure. Back in 2016-17, the AAP government came up with the idea of making world-class roads and built several kilometers of such roads on a pilot basis at Lodhi road and Moti Nagar. However, a lot of things got delayed during the past one-and-ahalf years with the top leaders being jailed in fake cases and all the hindrances created in the work.
Q. Every year, Delhi witnesses a spike in pollution, why is there no effective solution to it yet?
A. Pollution in Delhi is not increasing every year, rather it has gradually decreased. However, the problem is that whatever pollution is generated here is not getting dispersed due to the wind hardly blowing, especially during winters. The AAP has done a lot in terms of reducing pollution, including shutting down thermal power plants, shifting all industries from polluting fuels like coal to piped natural gas, providing 24×7 electricity supply, promoting electric vehicles, among others. However, studies show that local sources of pollution only contribute 30 per cent of the pollution in Delhi, and the rest which the city faces is due to the external sources.
