In a historic achievement, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has been granted National Party status by the Election Commission of India. The milestone was celebrated by crores of Indians who have shown their steadfast trust in AAP over the last one decade. AAP National Convenor and Delhi CM Shri Arvind Kejriwal expressed his gratitude to the crores of people across India who have given the party a huge responsibility and said that the party will fulfil the responsibility with utmost dedication. He also highlighted the journey of AAP, which started just 10 years ago and has now become a national party. Notably, out of 1300 parties in the country, only three have multiple state governments, and one of them is the Aam Aadmi Party. However, the journey has not been an easy one, Shri Arvind Kejriwal remarked. Remembering the sacrifices of party workers, he said that many AAP leaders went to jail in this journey, the party also misses bravehearts like Late Santosh Koli and Late Meera Sanyal.
The AAP National Convenor also emphasised the party’s commitment to kattar deshbhakti, kattar imaandaari, and insaaniyat – the three pillars of AAP’s ideology. Shri Arvind Kejriwal also spoke about the challenges faced by AAP, saying that anti-national forces want to stop the party from progressing, from building schools and hospitals. They put innocent people like Shri Manish Sisodia and Shri Satyendar Jain in jail, he said.
Despite these challenges, CM Kejriwal highlighted the party’s achievements, including fighting and winning elections without using money and running the government honestly. AAP’s dream is to Make India No 1, he said. Anyone who wants to join AAP can give a missed call on 9871010101.
AAP National Convenor Shri Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday addressed party volunteers at the party headquarters and congratulated them for the party becoming a National Party in such a short span of time. He termed this achievement as “unbelievable, unimaginable and nothing short of magic” and said that it felt like it was just yesterday when on 26th November 2012, the political party was formed. He also said that at that point, many people did not even believe that AAP could have even a single MLA anywhere in the country. However today, after just a little over 10 years, AAP has gone on to become a National Party.
He said that there are over 1300 political parties in the country and among them there are only six political parties that have the status of being called the National Party. “Even out of these six National Parties, there are just three such National Parties that have an elected state government in more than one state. AAP is one such party along with BJP and Congress, and therefore I would l like to congratulate each and every party worker of AAP for this tremendous achievement. I would also like to thank our supporters across the country and each of our voters for making AAP achieve this great feat. I would also like to thank our critics for pointing out where we are lacking our efforts, so that we are able to correct our mistakes and move on,” he said.
Speaking about the initial days of forming AAP, the Delhi CM said that at that point we did not have money or supporters to take our message to the people. He pointed out that even now, the funds are not much, but added that the supporters of the party have grown manifold. Speaking about where the party has reached since its inception over 10 years ago, Shri Arvind Kejriwal said, “We know that God is with us and he wants us to achieve something great. I was just thinking today morning that our party has come such a long way and this would not have been possible without the support of God. They are guiding us to do something amazing and therefore AAP has come such a long way in such a short span of time,” he said.
The AAP National Convenor said that on such a big occasion, every party worker misses Shri Manish Sisodia and Shri Satyendra Jain. He added that if the two senior leaders of AAP were also present on this occasion, it would have been much happier for everyone. But he said that they are two great warriors and they are fighting hard against the negative forces that are trying to destroy the party. “Every political force in the country that is against our country is today trying to destroy AAP. Yesterday I had visited a government school in East Vinod Nagar for laying its foundation stone. In this school, the children are being taught French, Spanish, German and Japanese. I studied in the biggest private school in Hisar when I was young, even in my school such facilities were never available. So, the facilities that are even now not provided in the biggest private schools of the country are being provided in the government schools of Delhi,” he said.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal said that this was the fault of Shri Manish Sisodia for which he was targeted by political opponents and jailed in a fake case. He said that the former Education Minister of Delhi provided hope to the children of Delhi and made them believe that they could also get a good education. The Delhi CM said that for 75 years since Independence, the children of poor families ended up remaining poor because of inferior quality of education and Shri Manish Sisodia ended up breaking this pattern, and for this deed of his, he has been jailed by political opponents.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal added that the dream of Shri Satyendra Jain was that every family in Delhi, irrespective of how rich or poor they were, should be provided with good quality healthcare facilities. For this belief of his, the former Health Minister of Delhi worked extremely hard and came up with a ‘Healthcare Model’ that was to revolutionize what was earlier being followed in Delhi and the country. The CM said that for this effort of his, Shri Satyendra Jain was jailed by political opponents.
Using a popular quote which says ‘No one can stop an idea whose time has come’, Shri Arvind Kejriwal said that despite all efforts being made by political opponents to stop AAP, the Gods were with the workers of the political party and therefore it will continue to rise in the times ahead. The Delhi CM lauded the party workers of AAP for fighting against evil political forces and said that unfortunately some of the workers even had to sacrifice their lives for the good work of the party. “One of our party workers, Ms Santosh Kohli passed away during our struggle. Ms Meera Sanyal also suffered because of our political opponents. There was a boy called Bipin, who passed away due to a heart attack while working for us in Punjab ahead of the polls last year. We have lost many other friends and party workers of ours in this 10-year long struggle and today on this occasion I want to thank them and want to pray to God for giving us these brave fighters,” he said.
He also thanked numerous other party workers who left their well-paying jobs and joined the party as they believed that it was a medium to bring positive change in the country. He said that a lot of these people are very happy today with the way AAP has changed the political narrative across the country and also done tremendous work in various fields such as education and healthcare in Delhi and Punjab.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal also used the occasion to highlight to the party workers the central ideology of the party. “There are three basic pillars that form the ideology of AAP. The first is, ‘kattar imandaari’ or to be morally upright. Our party workers are willing to give away their lives, but they will not betray the country at any cost. We are willing to eat one meal less, but we will not allow money from corruption to enter our households. The second pillar, is ‘kattar deshbhakti’ or immense patriotism. The third and the final pillar is ‘insaniyat’ or humanity. We treat every individual in the country equally and are not in politics to make people fight against each other, unlike some of the other political parties. We firmly believe in this saying ‘insaan ka insaan se ho bhaichara, yehi paigaam hamaara’,” he said.
Criticising other political parties that indulge in corruption, Shri Arvind Kejriwal said that earlier it was said that to fight elections, corruption is necessary as a lot of funds are required for the process. He pointed out that AAP has shown that this statement is false. “We have proved that a successful government can be run by being politically and morally upright. In fact we have made it a norm in this country now, that only if a political party is morally upright can it be run successfully in the country,” he said.
The AAP National Convenor said that the Gods are with the party and possibly it is only AAP that can make India the No 1 country in the world. He pointed out how AAP has gone on to change the political narrative in the country. “For the longest of time, the political narrative in India was gundagardi and false accusations by political opponents. Every media channel was interested in highlighting how one political leader abused the other. But now, wherever elections are to be fought and AAP is in the fray, the political parties have now started to talk about building schools and hospitals and fixing electricity and water. This is our biggest achievement. This is what politics should have been from the start. But at least now, these political parties are talking about schools even though they are not able to fulfil the promises made by them on this matter after coming into power. But soon, AAP will force them to ensure their promises as well,” he said. The Delhi CM also criticised the Prime Minister for his fake degree row and said that at some point in life, AAP will ensure that he goes to an original school and college and gets an original degree.
Shri Arvind Kejriwal also gave a stern warning to party workers and urged them to stick to the ideology of the party. “If anyone over here at any point in their political lives feels that they have a liking towards a particular political post or position or ever feels like indulging in any form of wrongdoing, I would urge them to leave AAP. Also, with the way our political opponents are targeting us at the moment, each party worker will be attacked and may have to spend even as much as 8-10 months in jail. They will eventually get bail as they have not done anything wrong. But if any worker today is scared of these consequences, then I urge you to leave AAP and go somewhere else,” he said.
Highlighting the positive campaign of AAP where there is no enmity or abuse towards any other individual, Shri Arvind Kejriwal said that the party goes to elections on the basis of either its work or its guarantees that it hopes to provide to the people of the state. “In Delhi, we have always gone to the people saying that only if you are happy with our work, you should vote for us. In Punjab, Goa and Gujarat, we went to the people on the basis of our guarantees. We have never indulged in the politics of abuse and hatred,” he said.
The AAP National Convenor highlighted a phone number – 9871010101 – and said that those individuals who want to associate with AAP should give a missed call on this number. Reiterating that it is only with AAP playing a greater role in national politics that India can become the No 1 country in the world, he said that he has spent his life working for the betterment of the country and in the future as well he will continue to do this. “Even if I have to sacrifice my life working for the betterment of India, I would consider myself to be extremely fortunate. Each limb of my body is ready to be sacrificed working for India. I would like to thank the crores of citizens of this nation who have shown such immense faith in our small political party. Becoming a National Party is not a small responsibility and hopefully with the grace of God we will be able to stand up to the expectations that crores of people of India have from us,” he concluded.
During the event, Senior Aam Aadmi Party Leader and Rajya Sabha MP Shri Sanjay Singh said that under the able leadership of Shri Arvind Kejriwal, the Aam Aadmi Party has become a national party within just 10 years. “Today it is a dream come true. Other parties including BJP and Congress used to make fun of us, but despite less resources, this dream has been fulfilled in 10 years due to the leadership of Shri Arvind Kejriwal and the hard work of each and every worker,” he said.
He said that the Kejriwal government has fulfilled its promise made to the people of Delhi. The Kejriwal government has worked in areas including electricity, water, education, health in Delhi. “Shri Arvind Kejriwal has made Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar’s dream come true to provide equal education to all, rich and poor,” he said.
