Ever since the defeat of the Aam Aadmi Party in the Delhi Assembly polls of 2025, there has been a surfeit of political commentary.
Some have written obituaries of AAP. Others have attributed various reasons for the defeat: personality cult, gaps in governance, and decline in organisational fervour.
Yet most of the analyses seem skin–deep. They appear to be exercises in elaborate denial of the one glaring fact suffocating India’s public life: the disappearance of the level–playing field. The BJP’s capture of state institutions and its seizure of every constitutional device are like a malign, noxious fog. This fog, like Delhi’s infamous smog, is closing in on citizens, not allowing us to breathe. Because of this state capture by the ruling party, there is no level-playing field between the BJP and the Opposition today.
