AAP Succeeds at Trapping BJP in Narrative Snare

Politics today is in a big way about narratives.

- Siddharth Mishra Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice

The Rekha Gupta government, which has taken charge of Delhi, in the past two months has tried to set the development narrative. It has also tried to create a narrative, and rightly so, against the preceding Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government being corrupt. The tabling of the held-up reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) ostensibly have strengthened their stand.

This grandstanding has, however, largely been from the ministerial pulpits within the assembly. The AAP leadership, finding itself on the back foot, as part of strategy resisted engaging with the government on the floor of the house, creating pandemonium and being marshalled out or walking out on its volition. The BJP, however, must realise that its rival is a party whose rise has been fuelled by creating narratives in its favour. It doesn't have qualms about its tallest leader Arvind Kejriwal creating a 'storm' on power cuts by posting on microblogging site X about an innocuous incident.