Meet the capitalists in 'socialist' Aam Aadmi Party

Also read: Does AAP's rise pose a threat to stock market recovery?

Amid criticism of being "left of left", psephologist Yogendra Yadav, who has often been termed as the intellectual driving force behind AAP’s policy positions, in a recent interview with Economic Times, said his party’s approach was different from what is passed as “socialism” in India.

The party, he said, was not going to follow a “prefixed template” blindly and does not see the government’s role as “arbiter, regulator and service deliverer”.

But the Delhi government’s recent policy decisions may leave the several corporate bigwigs who have joined AAP in recent times with some explaining to do.

We look at those people and see if they have aired a view on AAP’s economic ideas.

Sameer Nair

The media executive and former Star India CEO, under whose tenure Star Plus reached the numero uno spot in TRP ratings, was the earliest among India Inc honchos to join AAP.

Nair was said to be helping the party in its “communication strategy” but of late, he has stayed away from the limelight.

V Balakrishnan

Terming AAP as the “best startup by an IITian ever” -- referring to Kejriwal's education at the premier institute, the former Infosys CFO took up AAP membership on January 1, a day after his last day at the tech major.

At the time of joining, when Balakrishnan was asked about AAP’s economic policies, he said “you can’t change parties from being socialistic because in this country you have more poor and you have to take care of them,” and added that the government could afford some its pro-poor policies by improving its tax collections with efficiency and honesty.

Meera Sanyal

The former country head of RBS India, who also fought as an independent candidate in 2009 general elections, has been the most visible corporate face in the AAP line-up.

In an interview with Business Standard, Sanyal said she would help AAP formulate its economic policies. “From what I have seen, [AAP’s] policies are pragmatic and favour enterprise and education and focus on decentralized local governance and grass roots accountability -- all of which I entirely agree with,” she said.

“I believe markets function freely only when competition flourishes and there is a level-playing field. Crony capitalism and corruption distort markets.”

At the India Business Leader Awards hosted by CNBC-TV18 recently, Sanyal appeared to be defending the Delhi government’s move to reverse FDI in retail.

GR Gopinath

The founder of the country’s pioneering low-cost airline, Air Deccan, who has said he has been part of anti-corruption movements for long, joined the AAP recently.

However, Gopinath criticized AAP’s move to reverse FDI in retail and said it was playing into the hands of oligopolies and encourage “crony capitalism”.

“It will send a wrong message to investors that India is an unstable country with regard to continuity in economic policies,” he wrote on his blog.

Adarsh Shastri

The grandson of Lal Bahadur Shastri quit a plush job as a sales head in Apple Inc to join the Aam Aadmi Party.

His position on the party’s economic stance is not known.

Sanju Verma

The leading stock broker, who heads Violet Arch Securities, recently announced her decision to join the fledgling party.

“This has been weighing on my mind for some time…We all crave for change but it is not often that one gets the opportunity to do something about it,” she told Business Standard.

KV Sridhar

The chief creative officer of Leo Burnett India signed up with AAP recently, and said he felt “he was joining a movement and not a political party”.