In India, Aam Aadmi Party became a popular political outfit very quickly and within a short period of its formation, it was able to upstage ruling Congress as well as get more votes than BJP in local elections held in Delhi. AAP was able to generate hope among common people that a new third front is now available which will make the country corruption free, but those hopes were shattered soon enough.
A similar situation exists in Pakistan where Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) seemed to be a new and better option for people apart from Muslim League Nawaz and Pakistan People’s Party. However, here also PTI has not been able to rise up to the expectations people had from it.
AAP and Issue of Corruption
Coming back to India, we see that AAP seemed like a way to eliminate corruption but after remaining in power for only 49 days, suddenly it decided to quit on the context of blocking of their anti-corruption bill by other parties. The decision was made close to the general elections that were scheduled in April and the party thought that it had done its best to draw attention of voters to get into central government. However, the outcome of the elections proved that they were wrong.
Failure of AAP
AAP failed miserably in the general elections, which prove that just talking about change is not sufficient; a party should try its best to deliver what it promises to common people. Any party has to understand that there are hurdles to be faced and they will have to work under many constraints. If you promise to bring about a change and then start blaming adverse conditions for not delivering your promises then it clearly indicates your incapability.
Position of PTI
Now if we look at PTI, the party has categorically stated that it will dissolve the assembly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa as well as leave National Assembly; in case, the demands it had about corrections of the mistakes of elections held in May 2013 are not heard.
The stance by PTI is quite similar to that of AAP and may well lead to similar outcome for the party as happened with AAP. The party has also refused to hold local elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that would have helped the party strengthen its position in the province and is being seen as a big mistake by PTI.
Thus as we can seen there are great lessons to be learned from these two parties in two different countries. The decisions taken by these parties highlight the fact that voters are more interested in delivery of promises parties make after they come to power.
