When presented with the Padma Bushan award on Monday, prominent academicians Llyod and Susanne Rudolph predicted how the Aam Aadmi Party led by Arwind Kejriwal has a strong chance of changing the face of Indian politics if it performed well in the Lok Sabha elections this year.
With a 6-decade research on Indian politics backing them, the Rudolph couple also revealed BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi’s attempts at re-inventing himself and easing to the center.
Dr. Llyod Rudolph indicated that his views were based on AAP’s performance in the Delhi elections last year. He also revealed that a similar good show could potentially play spoiler to the other parties in the general elections. Rudolph revealed in an interview, “AAP as far as I can see is an urban party and is more appealing to middle class and younger people. If it does well in other cities, then there will be something significant in national politics”.
Rudolph claims that with no party likely to win the elections outright with majority seats, the AAP could show great influence in the creation of a coalition government. However, he expressed doubts about the AAP joining hands with BJP should the need arise.
Rudolph also indicated Narendra Modi’s attempts at conversion into a moderate, revealing that Modi is desperately trying to shed his communal past and ask individuals to consider him as a Centrist instead. Whether his attempts at projecting himself as an economic growth person would bear fruit or not would depend on the elections.
The Rudolphs have witnessed India’s changing political landscapes over many years, starting from 1956. They have authored several books on Indian democracy, including “Postmordern Gandhi and Other Essays” as well as “Indian Democracy: A Fifty-Year Perspective”.
Rudolph has described India’s successful growth to be great and surprising as well. However, he reiterated the fears of several of the country’s citizens when he mentioned that presently, the country’s political and economic growth seems to have slowed down considerably.
India had a majority elected government back in the ninth general elections. After that, the country has been subjected to one hung Parliament after another. In addition, Rudolph sees no end to this phase now.
Rudolph also revealed how caste politics had changed tremendously in the country over the past few decades. Whereas individuals of different castes used to work together to achieve peace and harmony in the society at one point of time, Rudolph implies that the caste system has now become selfish and more intent on displaying muscle power and violence. As such, he indicated that the main problem the country would need to deal with the negative forces that attempt to tear it down into estranged pieces.
In an interview on Monday, academicians Llyod and Susanne Rudolph revealed how a strong performance by the Aam Aadmi Party could potentially change India’s political landscape. They indicated about the strong influence the AAP could have on a coalition government. Llyod Rudolph also indicated about Narendra Modi’s attempts to become a Centrist and how India to tackle negative forces, like caste politics, if it needs to stand up as a unified country.
