Policy positions on the compass

Scored on the same four axes the quiz uses, so a result can be compared directly. These are draft interpretations of the policy record, not personality or legacy.

State / redistributionEconomyFree market
Civil libertiesAuthorityStrong central state
Social reform / secularTraditionTraditional / cultural
Federal / globalistNationNationalist

Perceived vs policy record

Common perception: Honest, service-delivery-focused alternative to corrupt mainstream politics.

Policy-record indicators that complicate that label:

  • Free electricity up to 200 units and subsidised water in Delhi.
  • Mohalla Clinics: neighbourhood health centres that dramatically expanded primary care access.
  • Delhi government school renovation and the 'education revolution': improvement in pass rates and infrastructure.
  • Free bus travel for women in Delhi.
  • AAP's founding document anchored in Lokpal (ombudsman) legislation and RTI activism.
  • Arrested in March 2024 in connection with the Delhi Liquor Policy case; governed from jail until Supreme Court bail.
  • Lost the 2025 Delhi Assembly election; AAP reduced to a minority.

Economic policy

The 'Delhi model' is a specific form of urban social democracy: free or heavily subsidised essential services (electricity, water, bus travel) funded by rationalised spending and improved tax compliance, rather than direct income transfers. It is redistributive in effect without being ideologically socialist in framing; Kejriwal has consistently described it as 'good governance' rather than left politics.

Sources: Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission orders on subsidy (2015–2022); Mohalla Clinic scheme launch documentation (2015); Delhi Budget Speeches 2015–2024

Governance & anti-corruption

AAP was founded specifically on the Jan Lokpal Bill, a constitutional ombudsman with powers to investigate and prosecute corruption including at the highest levels. Kejriwal's political identity is inseparable from this position. The Delhi Liquor Policy case (2024), which he contests as politically motivated, has complicated this anti-corruption brand.

Sources: Jan Lokpal Bill (AAP's founding legislative demand); RTI Act as tool used by AAP founders pre-political career; Supreme Court bail order, Arvind Kejriwal, May 2024

Social policy

Pragmatic and non-ideological on social issues. Made public visits to the Hanuman Mandir during the 2022 Punjab campaign, read by critics as Hindu consolidation politics and by supporters as personal faith. Has not taken a strong position on the CAA, UCC, or caste reservations at the national level.

Sources: Kejriwal's Hanuman Chalisa recitation, March 2022 (widely reported); AAP's position on CAA: abstained or gave ambiguous statements (PRS Legislative Research)

Federalism

Strongly federalist in practice: fought prolonged legal battles with the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi over control of the bureaucracy, ultimately losing at the Supreme Court (2023) before the Centre legislated to settle it in the LG's favour.

Sources: Supreme Court Constitution Bench judgment on Delhi governance (May 2023); Government of NCT of Delhi (Amendment) Act 2023

Major disagreements historians have

The effectiveness and financial sustainability of the Delhi free-services model is genuinely contested among economists. Supporters point to improved health and education outcomes; critics argue the subsidies are fiscally unviable beyond a city-state with Delhi's revenue base. The Liquor Policy case divides opinion: AAP characterises it as political vendetta; the ED and CBI maintain it was corruption. That factual dispute is unresolved and is not scored on this compass.