AAP is scaling up not just nationally but across the borders as well. Hours after Prashant Bhushan said on a television channel that there must be a referendum in the Kashmir valley to decide whether or not the Army should be deployed to deal with internal threats, thousands of Pakistani youth from Lahore to Lyalpur, Karachi to Peshawar, are eagerly seeking out AAP offices to join the fledgling anti corruption party.
The upsurge of goodwill for AAP has now emboldened self appointed AAP rajguru and former Rahul Gandhi advisor, Yogendra Yadav, to launch an international membership campaign in Pakistan and gear up for the Pakistani elections due in four years. “If I had my way, I would have postponed the Indian General Elections by a year and clubbed it with the Pakistani elections,” Yadav told The Unreal Times. Since AAP is anti all political parties, Yadav clarified they will not tie up with PPP or Muslim League and will instead build bridges with Pakistani naxals, i.e Tehreek-e-Taliban. “If mainstream parties offer us unconditional support, that is a different matter. We have experience in dealing with the Congress along these lines,” Yadav winked.
Yadav pooh-poohed the fast emerging contradictions of his party’s politics: a core support base that is right wing but is helmed by leaders that are staunchly left of center. “As long as we market Arvind as the quintessential aam aadmi who accepts and then rejects posh 5 bedroom apartments, such differences including growing popularity in Pakistan over our stand on Kashmir or more quota based reservations in colleges can be papered over,” mealy-mouthed Yadav said.
Arvind Kejriwal has meanwhile ruled himself out as a candidate for the Pakistan elections which has fuelled speculation that he may indeed be in the fray. Yadav added that it is his moist dream within a dream to one day see Arvind Kejriwal as US President as well and AAP will fight US Presidential elections in 2016.