The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) continues to attract big names from India Inc. After V Balakrishnana and Meera Sanyal, Captain Gopinath, founder, Air Deccan, has joined the AAP wagon. CNBC-TV18 spoke to the latest entrant in the party to know what made him take the decision.Also Read: AAP wins trust vote after Kejriwal's emotional speech
Below is the excerpt of his interview on the channel
Q: Even before the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) started thinking about the disempowered, you thought about giving access to the disempowered, to the aam aadmi with low cost airline. In that sense, there is a reconciliation of the ideology of the AAP and your ideology and philosophy. What else has drawn you to join the AAP?
A: I was always part of the Anna movement much before AAP because everybody was part of that. In Bangalore, I took part in the Anna movement along with Santosh Hegde, the Lokayukta here for all the 15 days when Anna was fasting in Delhi. I took part in the movement here physically. I was part of that movement and I met Anna in Bangalore along with Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi. Then it was not a political party it was a movement. Anna gave hopes and aspiration to disillusioned middle class. AAP which has now morphed many of them into the Kejriwal AAP, has given a platform for those aspirations.
Being in Bangalore I was already in touch with all of them. They are all youngsters and I know them very well and have a special rapport with them. I use to give a talk in all the IT firms here (in Bangalore) during the elections because I also contested as an independent last time. So, I was always politically active and I said I will give my time to them and nothing else.
Q: Your stint as an independent candidate in 2009 wasn’t successful but how do you reconcile yourself to the economic agenda of the AAP because whatever we know about the AAP, they are not particularly free market, they are not particularly free enterprise, they stand for government subsidy, as a man who has benefited from a free market economy, how do you reconcile yourself to that economic ideology?
A: As far as I know, barring this particular daily episode of giving free water and free power in the first 48 hours, which has raised those kind of doubts, I myself have not seen the economic manifesto of AAP.
Q: Doesn’t that concern you?
A: Yes, of course it concerns me. What we need is privatisation and not cartelisation. What we need is privatisation free market economy but not crony capitalism. So, this has to be debated internally within the AAP because AAP itself is very new.
I am sure they are going to bring in a lot of debate internally because one of the reasons why I am also supporting this party is that you have got too much of high command politics in all the parties where once the member of Parliament (MP) is elected, they mortgage his body and soul to be high command and high command decides and votes blindly, whatever the high command’s dictates are. So AAP, I hope that brings about internal debate.
Q: Would you reconsider your decision if it seems like what we have seen happening in Delhi, where we have seen subsidies being given out as far as vote and power is concerned, we just heard Arvind Kejriwal saying that liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices should be capped by the government as well, if AAP will stand for that kind of economic ideology, will you reconsider your decision?
A: More than reconsidering the decision, you support a party, there are lots of issues you may agree with them and on some issues you may not agree with them. Even internally, that is a kind of debate that should be possible in the four walls of the AAP because if the AAP in a party democracy is stifling, it is authoritarian, I am not going to continue. This has to be debated. So it is a larger debate, which has to be looked into.
If I am going to be stifled, if I am not asked to speak my mind, definitely I am going to reconsider - everybody should reconsider in whichever party they are in, but in most parties once you join, you go along with the high command and I am sure, I am not going to go along with the high command. I hope there is no high command in the AAP.
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