Part 1 : AAP vs BJP+CONG is actually Michael Porter vs Clayton Christensen

I do not prefer to mix business with politics or politics with business although both are mixed with each other everywhere in the world. Sometimes even it’s hard to understand whether politics is mixed in business or business is mixed with politics. Politics is a bad word for all who believe in doing business – honestly, inventively and progressively. In fact it was a bad word before ‘AAM AADMI PARTY’ (AAP) came into existence.  Anyway if you are not supporter of AAP still it makes a lot of sense to read this article as I am not a member of AAP either.

Why I call fight between AAP and CONG+BJP a fight between porter and Clayton’s theories because as per porter AAP shouldn't  exist today. To understand this in a better way, let’s understand porter’s theory first. Chart given below summarizes Porter’s theory -

All curious souls can read about Porter’s theory here.

Porter’s theory is interesting and it defines quality of an industry for profits. If above model is applied to Indian political context, we can map different stakeholders as following – (Here public welfare is real profit for a political system)

1 .Rivalry among the Players – Political dons

   Abraham Lincoln apply described democracy – “It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they have, thus far, so nobly carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Democracy heavily relies on rivalry among the political parties. Implicit assumption in democracy is that political parties will fight so much that they will expose misdeeds of each other in such a way that there won’t be any evil left in any political party. Thinkers of democracy never thought that Indian political parties are going to undermine this basic principle. Political parties in India behaved as dons and hardened criminals to protect each other. They also behaved like cruel killers for any newcomer. No new party can survive without in principle accepting shoddy ways followed by other political parties. All political parties became cartels like drug dealers who protect nothing but the business of cheating and deceit.  They monopolized funding. They changed rules to protect each other. They killed anybody who challenged them.

Over all Indian political parties defined rivalry among them in a new way. They were best friends among themselves and worst enemy for any new comer or anybody who challenged their way of functioning.

2. Bargaining Power of Suppliers – Businesses & Elite Class

   Here suppliers of power and money were businesses and elite class and they were so much terrified by dons of power that they couldn’t muster courage to question political masters. All scholars fulfilled their duty by criticizing on surface and supporting these political parties from within. There are many examples when critics joined the same party which they were used to criticize. If there were some voices against political established, dons used their dirty tricks to silence them. 

  

3. Bargaining Power of Buyers – Poor, Illiterate public

   Buyers of this feudal democracy were 1.2 billion people. More than 60% people are actually very poor and actual literacy among people is definitely less than 50%. Government data points are different but if you decide to trust Indian government, you should better trust all conspiracy theories of the world. Public was not able to grasp the game played by political dons. Public became toys in the hands of BJP+Cong. Other parties were poor imitation of these parties. In realty public had no real choice and their choice was monopolized by political dons.

4. Threat of New Entrants – Who wants to die

   After above points, you can understand that there was no space for truly new force. CONG+BJP were ready to kill every new force that challenged them. These dons were so confident of their corrupting capabilities that they were used to challenge Arvind Kejrival to form new political party and fight election.  So threat of new entrants was almost absent.

5. Threat of substitute products – get labelled as naxalites

Come on, there is no substitute for democracy. If you will try anything new/creative, BJP+CONG will silence you by calling you naxalites, terrorists and guttersnipes etc. These parties made sure that no alternative force/system can come into existence.

As per Porter’s theory, there was no space for new force in Indian political system. All above discussion can be summarized in following picture –

As per above analysis there is no space for a new force and a new force can best survive for a niche segment. Then how come AAP won in Delhi? I will discuss in next post how AAP is a live example of Clayton’s  disruptive model and why they are going to win across the country?