Hardly any political discussion at the Jaipur Literatur Festival went by without mentioning the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), or Common Men’s Party, whose members surprised everyone (maybe even themselves) when they managed to grab 28 out of 70 seats in the Delhi assembly elections, and are now even forming the government.

Nobel laureate and Harvard professor Amartya Sen was “inclined to cheer” at the Aam Aadmi party’s success. “It was wonderful to see that a party could appeal to the grievance that has gripped the country and sense that we need something different,” he said.

But, he added, some of the measures taken were not well thought of, clearer ideas were necessary. Cuts in prices for electricity for example are not reasonable, he argued, as one third of the people of Delhi doesn’t have power. “All you achieve is that the room temperature in hotels sinks from 17°C to 14°C.”

And the party really should ask itself: “Who are the ‘aam aadmi’?” Mr Sen advised. Are they the ones that need cheaper power and cooking gas and diesel, or the ones that don’t have access to these amenities at all?

Some of India’s 1 billion or so Aam Aadmi

Dipankar Gupta, Director of Centre of Political Affairs and Critical Theory at Shiv Nadar University in Noida, pointed out that the AAP “is still a movement, is in the movement phase even now”. So far they came out with just one or two goals – fight against corruption and cleanliness and accountability of governance – but for being a party they need more substance.

But, Gupta adds, the new party changed the political campaigning. “In the past, elections were always about cast, religion, language. This time it isn’t. This time the parties talk about delivery to the citizens, delivery of things they demanded – rightly so.”

Gupta sees similar movements like the anti corruption protests, from where the AAP comes from, all around the world. Simple slogans that seem to make a big difference have mobilised people, he says, like “I’m Anna”, “We are the 99 percent”, or “indignados”. “These people say: ‘We are the citizens, so listen to us'”, explains Gupta. The feel they have to do something, as the current politicians can’t deliver, their ideologies don’t work anymore.

Aam Aadmi party workers also assembled at the Literature Festival and rose their voice there

Sunil Khilnani, professor of Politics, and director of King’s College in London, sees “great achievements”. The AAP has exercised great pressure on both the big parties to look into corruption, he states. Also both Congress and BJP now have to listen more to the common man. “That’s a huge shift, because in the last twenty to thirty years, politicians went away from the ordinary people.”

He also likes the fact that people now feel motivated to take action. “After Kejriwal asked the people to film corrupt bureaucrats, the sale of mobiles with video cameras went up – that’s great, people are taking it into their hands.”

Essayist and novelist John Ralston Saul thinks what the world, and India, needs, is not good management, but a revolution. “People are looking after new ways of becoming part of the system, they want to participate.”

Navin Chawla, former Chief Election Commissioner of India, said the AAP is putting two djinns back into the bottle: money power and muscle power.

Former Indian ambassador Neelam Deo sees a “broad frustration with the incumbent governments”. The AAP is challenging the system, as the campaign differently, got their financial support differently, are acting differently once elected, are expressing frustration differently (dharna). “Howsoever the saga of the AAP will go, it changed the discourse of the upcoming elections.”

Yashwant Sinha, a BJP member of Parliament and a former finance minister and foreign minister, felt like he had to defend himself and bragged that he didn’t come with police escort, supporters or driver, but “all on myself”. Back in the days, when he was an IAS (Indian administrative service) officer, he even went on the motorbike to work. “We all tend to set standards.”

“The elephant is a big, gentle creature, eating grass, eating bamboo, and fairly peaceful most of the times,” said diplomat Neelam Deo when she opened the discussion titled “Elephant in the room – India and it’s neighbours”.

Bangladeshi writer and columnist K. Anis Ahmed believed that even though India is a big elephant, it has not come to it’s own sense as a super power, as it always acts defensive in it’s relations with it’s neighbours. “India is diluting it’s potential by these defensive policies,” he said. In Bangladesh, relations with the big neighbour are by now less front page news than, trade with the EU and US.

Bhutanese politician Lily Wangchhuk spoke about the connection to another small neighbour in the Northeast: “Until now, the relationship was considered sacred and unquestionable.” But when India interfered in the elections by withdrawing gas subsidies, there was criticism in quite some part of society, she said.

Speaking about his homeland Pakistan, columnist Ahmad Rafay added: “India remains engaged in the security establishment, but has yet to make inroad into society.”

How India perceives it’s own appearance in the region and what it really is, are two very different things, said Aunohita Mojumdar, editor of Himal Southasian, the only regional magazine of Southasia (that, by itself, speaks volumes). Rafay lamented that a lot of conferences and other events, where South Asians could gather, had to be held in Dubai or London, because visas for all participants for these cities were easier to get than for the region.

He also deems it a huge deficiency that there is no legal treaty, or even initiative, between India and Pakistan on who is allowed to extract water on both sides of the border. There is only the Indus water treaty which deals mostly with the question if India is allowed to built damns. “This is the area where India and Pakistan have to start talking, and not again get into the gna gna gna, like children,” Rafay said. He also finds it strange that both sides have an army on the Siachen Glacier, “a region that is uninhabitable”. And because the soldiers are there, no scientific research is possible in that sensitive region. “But sense doesn’t go beyond 15 000 feet.”

All panelists concludes that it’s high time for India to promote good neighbouring, and change it’s present policy. “In recent years, India’s relationship with it’s neighbours was largely unfriendly,” Wangchhuk said.

Whereas some saw SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, as a good platform for that, others disagreed. “I sometimes think SAARC was set up to bury the idea of South Asia,” Mojumdar said. Ahmed added for consideration, that strong regional cooperation like the EU and ASEAN are functioning because they started with similar sized and similar powerful countries. “Here India is just too big, and therefore thinks it’s interests are better served in bilateral treaties.”