By Toki Blah
Com’on let’s leave the professionals, the students and pundits of political science in their ivory academic towers. Let’s ignore the silly impractical and pompous intellectuals. Let’s not even talk of those who depend for their bread and butter on the subject. Let’s just concentrate on the ordinary Indian and what he makes of the going-ons in Indian Politics today. What does the Amm Admi see? Well frankly speaking just between you, me and that dog with a raised hind leg beneath the lamp post over there, the fact of the matter is, Indian politicians of all hues, have all got their knickers in a tight twist! Some in delighted expectation of the climax to come; some in a scrotum tightening fright of what’s going to happen next; some hoping against hope it’s their turn next to screw the nation and there are those others wandering with a dazed look of confusion on their faces.
Let’s start with the NDA. It was and still is a battle ship loosely composed and made up of odd bits and pieces of unknown floating matter. What really bound, riveted and kept it together was a glue that went by the brand name ‘Anti Congress’. The BJP of course was the hull of this NDA super structure and the others held on to it tight because of the simple realisation, that on their own they would simply be what they really are – ordinary flotsam, nothing more nothing less. The deck (exposed outer part of the hull) of this ship claimed it possessed one unique distinguishing feature that made it different from all others. It unblushingly proclaimed that saffron style discipline and order was its hall mark. A USP people were loathe to challenge till of course, the June 2013 BJP conclave in Goa.
The BJP ran a tight ship. The crew usually came from shakhas, where marching in khaki half pants was deemed discipline. The party had a seasoned, experienced and acceptable captain in LK Advani JI. He steered the NDA juggernaught with occasional rath yatra forays to showcase Hindutva credentials. It seemed to suit everyone until the Chief Minister of Gujarat decided to launch a parallel rath of his own called the Namo. It queered the pitch. Mutiny on the Bounty was peanuts compared to what is happening within the NDA today. The glue that held the ship together is becoming unstuck, fast! Major upsets within the BJP and NDA ranks are appearing daily. The creaks and groans of a sinking vessel growing louder by the hour, the split is now inevitable, causing excruciating agony and pain to some and music to the ears of others.
The appearance of Narendra Modi as the heir apparent to the NDA PMs Chair, without so much as ‘with your blessings Kind Sir’, had really set the cat among the pigeons. This brazen claim to the throne; this barefaced show of unbridled ambition does not jell well with Indian Political Culture. Indian politicians need to be two faced; forked tongue, patient, smooth and slimy and audaciously hypocritical about how they project their political ambitions. A straight forward ‘I want it and I want it now and I’ m grabbing it!” is a definite No No. Horrors of horrors. Shades of Hitler and Mussolini. The whisper among shocked elders of the Indian polity probably is ‘How can he? Why can’t he be like that well brought up boy next door, Rahul? How proud Sonia Ji must be of her son. We know he is simply drooling for the chair. But does he show it? Never! He instead sleeps on the earthen floor with Dalits. Now that’s how a well brought up budding politician should behave, Na Ji. Rajnetik tamiz ki batt hae bhai.”
If one were to go by street rumours, the gossip is that the sound of music with distinct gurgles of glee can be heard wafting gently from UPA II HQ. Memorabilia with the logo of UPA III are already on the design board. Junior UPA partners are especially upbeat about 2014. But does the major partner share the same enthusiasm? Reliable sources report that nervousness and anxiety seems to be the mood in 10 Jan Path despite the ruckus in BJP Headquarters. If naked aggressive political ambition is the woe of the BJP, reluctant political leadership seems to be the despair in the congress camp. Worried Congress workers and sevadals walk the corridors with furrows on their foreheads; biting their fingernails with the perpetual “Will He, won’t He, When will he?” prince of Denmark question on their lips. The Prince refuses to oblige. Sleeping on Dalit floors notwithstanding, such is the degree of worry that a senior functionary out of sheer nervousness was forced to blurt out “Today, Modi is the biggest threat to the Congress!” He was summarily chastised by the party for this faux passé, but it just goes to show the suffering and mental tension in the Grand Old Party.
Now these shenanigans in both the two principal camps are not going unnoticed. They are keenly being watched by the regional parties and allies of both camps. These are parties with unlimited and unending political ambition operating within very limited political space. Their only link to the corridors of power in New Delhi is through direct association or alignment with either the Congress or the BJP. In modern parlance they are known as the junior coalition partners of either the NDA or the UPA. It’s stifling, suffocating, humiliating and they don’t like it. Not at all! Checks and pulls; regulation and control from big brother are quite bothersome. Any discomfiture therefore to the major partner is grist to the mill of the smaller partners. But this having been said does not in the least obliterate the restlessness to get out; link up; partner; associate and govern with parties of equal strength. This call is powerful and compelling. It’s being touted as the Democratic answer to the Hindutva of the BJP and the Secular card of the Congress. The current Modi Blues gives impetus to this call. What better opportunity to daydream about the Third Front than now?
We did start off with the views of the ordinary Indian on the present political going ons. And let’s be candid and frank with each other. The ordinary Indian, the amm admi is viewing the above developments with alarm if not as yet with panic and horror. (But that will come sooner than later, don’t worry!) He’s had enough with the non performance of UPA II; its Singh is King slogan which does not mean a thing; its unkept promises and its scams and he is growing increasingly suspicious of the ability of the reluctant prince to deliver. He is scared of NDA II, wary of fundamentalist ideologies, scared of Modi, his hidden agenda and his ruthless naked ambition; but he is more worried over the likelihood that NDA II would in no uncertain terms finally end up the NDA I way, which everyone knows, did no one any good. Then there is the final scare of the common man. The Third Front with Mamata, Mayawati, Amma, Mulayam, Navin and the Left, a hotch potch mixture of intended do gooders, who have done no one any good anytime and with still no clue on how to do it. ‘Do Good’ to anyone that is, please don’t get me wrong! The emerging view from the common man – God, what have we done to deserve all this?
And so dear reader that is probably how most of us, you, me minus the wise dog beneath the lamp post will be greeting the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. We’ll still be wondering what to do. The electorate will be bombarded with multiple choices for both the candidate and the party to vote for. Take away the sheen from the posters; the rhetoric from the idiot box; cease listening to the lies and the bluster; stop listening to your pocket and your heart; keep the money, goodies and promises aside and what do you have? The answer will be quite pathetic- most of us will realise that many of the most attractive candidates are actually unfit to represent us and the poor dog in any forum whatsoever, let alone Parliament! The question of the Aam Aadmi “God, what have we done to deserve all this?” then assumes validity and relevance beyond everything else. Friends, Fellow Indians and Country men, don’t lend me your ears, I have two of my own already, Thank you. What is needed is the ability to think before deciding. So please think before you vote in 2014. You have a mind- use it. Don’t vote blindly!
Author is the President of ICARE and organisation that focuses on issues of governance.