AAP leader Kejriwal is abused all day long on social media by supposedly educated folks. An army of journalists are out there gunning for him and his party 24×7. The central Home Ministry is sitting on over 15 laws passed by the Delhi government. While no one finds fault with the PM or his government for it, when Kejriwal dares to speak up about it, he is berated by all and sundry for pointing fingers at the PM.
It’s clearly an uphill battle for AAP. Yet what started in Delhi is now spreading to Punjab, as even the most biased surveys are forced to admit. AAP’s recent foray into Goa has everyone in the BJP nervous beyond belief. Reportedly, Gujarat is on the radar next!
With no money, no corporate backers, and little media support, how do you explain AAP’s growing pan-India influence and appeal? The answer lies in the platform vs. pipe business model, popularized by Sangeet Paul Choudary, startup advisor and expert on Internet business models. In the traditional pipe model, firms create stuff, push them out and sell them to customers. Value is produced upstream and consumed downstream. There is a linear flow, much like water flowing through a pipe. Platforms, on the other hand, allow users to create and consume value. (While a lot of Sangeet’s theories apply to software applications, I am going to disregard tech as I adapt the concept to AAP’s politics).
To read the rest of this post please visit the Economic Times website where it was first published.
Pakora Korner 