Election 2014 has seen me the most disinterested and uninvolved with the electoral process and happenings that I have ever been. It is not that I care any less for the country or feel that politics is rubbish, it is just that what is happening in the country has left me even more convinced than ever before about the efficacy of what I have always rated very high – Active Citizenship.

Since I have been a long-time activist and working on governance reform, a number of people in the past year have been asking me when I am joining the Aam Aadmi Party and are left very surprised when I mention that I am actually not very enthused by the efforts and can even be critical about some aspects. This book is an attempt to put together a more substantial answer.

The political reality of the country in 2014 seems bleak and very poor in its ability to bring any real welfare to the people of India and I believe people are spending a disproportionate amount of time in discussing the political goings on and taking positions and contributing their time and resources to a process which seems bound to fail in delivering any good.

If people in India were to spend less energy in engaging with the political process and being what I call ‘Active Citizens’, I feel a lot more outcomes will be achieved in the country in terms of a number of development indicators and economic goods and services.

Far too many resources have been spent in the three years preceding the 2014 elections in creating a platform for ‘clean politics’ with a conviction and belief that clean politics is what is required to bring change to the governance of India. The belief that the existing political class is too venal to deliver any good to its citizens is what has been the underlying base to the idea of clean politics.

I question these beliefs and notions and the strong conviction which is seen in their supporters. Clean politics may be necessary but is hardly sufficient, and in my opinion outcomes can be achieved in a scenario of so called bad politics if there is Active Citizenship.

Citizenship is clearly not about passports and paying your taxes alone. That is passive citizenship and something which most aam aadmis have been enjoying for too long.

For far too long the aam aadmi of India has neglected being an Active Citizen; forever justifying their inaction as being a result of a government and administration, which is useless and filled with inefficient and corrupt people. And for far too long I have found it most fascinating and satisfying to engage with and derive outcome from these same wings of government and administration that the aam aadmi derides, scoffs and shuns.

I contested the Lok Sabha 2009 elections from Mumbai North West constituency on the platform of a small party called Jago, but even before contesting I had spent a decade in the most intense involvement with public affairs in Mumbai working with various levels of the government on a number of issues integral to the functioning and quality of life of Mumbai.

I have to admit that during all these years of involvement there were more moments of frustration and failure than success, but at all times there was clear proof that the government works and that there are good and efficient people in the government. They may not always come in the way we wish to see them externally – as “sophisticated” and “smart” and the kind of people we may see in a brochure of a make-believe world – but deliver they can.

What I saw as wrong in the government – and there is a lot – I did not find insurmountable to change. What I found almost insurmountable was enthusing fellow citizens to join in the process. It was extremely difficult to get citizens to volunteer their time or make monetary contributions, which could help towards creating resources like full time manpower for carrying out advocacy efforts. Most of the improvement that we desire in our daily lives can be achieved effectively through advocacy efforts at a very agreeable cost-output ratio – better than engaging with an AAP.

The purpose of the book is not as much to take away votes from AAP, but to use the electoral fever and interest in clean politics as an opportune time to present some alternate perspectives. And more importantly to drive the message that there is much transformation that is needed in the aam admi before clean politics can as much as get a foothold in India.

Focusing so hard on politics and the electoral process and not discussing even a tenth as much about so many benefits that being an active citizen can bring about is like missing the woods for the trees...The situation can be salvaged but only by Active Citizenship.

Excerpted with permission of the author from The Futility of Aam Aadmi Party versus The Promise of Active Citizenship, published by APK Publishers. Available online here.