The Numbers Back AAP

Being a banker, I always go by numbers. And, whatever people might tell you, the numbers back Aam Admi Party.

The data on this is pretty clear. AAP says it will reduce electricity tariffs by 50% immediately after it is voted in to power. Along with that, it will give 700 litres of water free. That will mean a saving on both my electricity and water bills.

Now, I took out my electricity bills for the past 12 months and added them up. I have spent one lakh and three thousand rupees on electricity in the past one year. That means, if AAP comes to power, I will save about 51 thousand rupees per year.

Seven hundred litres of free water per day will mean a monthly saving of at least 600 rupees. Project that to the entire year and I save about seven thousand rupees on water.

If I add the two, I get a net saving of about 58 thousand rupees per year if we get an AAP government in Delhi. That’s not an amount to be scoffed at.

Of course, the gains from what I pay for water and electricity might just get offset by direct financial losses and the indirect opportunity cost of an honest corruption-free administration.

For instance, when my driver jumps a red light, we pay about 50 bucks. When he parks in a no-parking zone, we pay 150, instead of 600. It is, what we call in management, a win-win situation. Traffic cops gain, I gain. No one is harmed. An honest AAP government might upset this symbiotic relationship.

But these are minor financial losses. The bigger problem could be if AAP’s honesty makes it difficult to use ‘pull’. Unfortunately, I have grown accustomed to using pull. It makes my day begin. Its ups and downs are second nature to me now. Like breathing out, breathing in.

I use pull to get my air-conditioner fixed. I use pull to get a water tanker on those odd days when the water supply is affected in our neighbourhood. I use pull to get past the queues in the passport office. I am so addicted to pull, that I use it even in places where I don’t need to.

It saves time, it makes life easier. If AAP stops the wheel of pull from turning in the national capital, I will be seriously discomfited. The opportunity costs of standing in queues or waiting with others for everyday things is going to be quite huge. It might wipe out the 58 thousand rupees I will gain from saving on electricity and water bills.

But the latest stings on some AAP luminaries have left scope for hope. There could be nothing better than a government that will cut tariffs and also allow the machine of power to function uninterrupted. I am betting on AAP to do both, simultaneously.

As I said, the numbers back AAP.