Genuine article or just a gigantic pain in the whatsits.

What their real intentions are only time will tell but till now the Aam Admi Party or AAP, which won 28 seats out of 70 in the elections to the Delhi Assembly has been a delightful pain in the tender regions of all the political parties in India. Born only a few months back out of the anti corruption movement of Anna Hazare it has broken virtually every tradition and has caused extreme consternation among all politicians who had a comfortable understanding to loot the country regardless of party or ideology. While parties are very secretive about their finances the AAP put all contributions on its web site. It relied on unpaid volunteers to campaign door to door instead of paid rallies. Members were always available to the media to answer questions, giving it lots of airtime on news channels. The BJP with 32 seats could have tried to form a government but were terrified to play the usual game of bribing members of other parties because of the AAP effect, especially with general elections in a few months. BJP fellows are extremely upset at missing out on becoming ministers. After all, what is the point of spending vast amounts of money to win a seat if you cannot multiply it by becoming a minister. The Congress with just 8 seats offered support to the AAP hoping to snipe from the sidelines and gain from its failure. Problem is that the Congress in Delhi does not want reelection along with parliamentary elections in May because it does not want to be associated with the extreme unpopularity of the central government and so will have to keep AAP in power till those are over. The danger of a long partnership is that the Congress will have to share the blame if the AAP does fail to carry out its promises. Also the AAP is threatening to examine all the books and expose any corruption of the previous Congress government. Imagine having to support people who want to change your address to Tihar jail. Now that it has decided to form the government the AAP has said that it will refuse cars with flashing lights. This will cause acute discomfort to all civil servants. Imagine a 2 paisa deputy secretary coming in an official car while the minister drives herself in her small personal car or comes by the metro. Succeed or fail the AAP has already changed the rules of the game. We hope it stays long enough to make the changes permanent.