DISATERS IN POLITICS OR DISASTROUS POLITICS?

 

Disastrous Politics:

Against the Backdrop of Cockroach narratives that took off from the Chief Justice of India,  NEET and CBSE issues raised a serious question on the manner in which the government is handling the situations.

It seems the North Block could not reinvent the  integrating mechanisms of the political integration of new generation communication systems for the chaotic public order shaping in the country. When alliances encounter failures for more than one occasion, unpredictable eventualities are bound to happen. Those who are at the helm of affairs handling various sensitive segments of governance had loyalty towards their political affiliations out of power. The designs can be to the extent of merciless  public injuries to sensitive issues that can create unrest in the younger generation,   Trade and business establishments of identical nature will be affected at several pockets that may look as if accidental local accidents, but in a chain reaction it will have an overall  devastating effects in the economy.

The ruling political party , if it adopts Manmohan Singh policy of cooling heals when the public ire fumes, it would be a sign of overconfidence, leading to self-destruction .Before dissecting  the Cockroach Janata Party,  the political observers should look at the  real picture of the two major political parties of the day.

Congress elected a Party President two years before the 2024 General Elections as it did prior to 2019. Sashi Tharoor in his late sixties  and   Octogenarian Mallikarjun Kharge became ceremonially contested to democratise the electoral process. 

Kharge had at times felt uneasy over the indiscipline among the audience at his turn.   Though he is the Party President, what matters is the voice of Young Gandhi's. Mallikarjun Kharge had a long political career in his home state Karnataka and at the Centre. He was a Cabinet Minister and Leader of  Opposition both at home and in the Rajya Sabha. Even if he is ceremoniously holding the post of Congress President, he is a known figure in the National Capital and rest of India.

The projected Prime Ministerial Candidate Rahul Gandhi  has been vigorously campaigning against the ruling BJP and throwing his ire straight to the people. His thoughts, dialogue and action is nor so far synchronised with the mindset of the people of the country in order to uproot  both BJP and the Prime Minister along with the soil they stand on. 

On the other side, BJP  became reduced to one and only central figure Narendra Modi. If an average Karya Karta is asked about the   President of the party- majority in the country hardly knows.  The pattern follows from  the takeover of the Chair from Rajnath Singh  by Amit Shah. Till Rajnath Singh, BJP presidents had a proven track record and working experience in Parliamentary politics and strong presence in the central politics. The shift to Amit Shah was seen to assert the control and authority of the Prime Minister in the Party and Government.  His successor JP Nadda was  drawn from Himachal Pradesh, and was moulded into the fold of the Modi -Shah camps.  As the National President of the ruling party at the centre, he could not use his cult to save the party from a big loss in the 2022 elections in  his home state.   Elevating  Nitin Nabin , from remoteness of localized politics to  chair the party at the national level, sounded  as if the BJP is rolling  out a  Sand Box Experiment in leadership strategy.  

Power Behind the Throne has been an unquestioned  political mystery of India, so far could not be properly reconstructed. Beyond doubt. The concept  has roots in the political manoeuvring that emerged from the spying over the movements of  Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in Germany. The political fate of India changed from the Indian Information Bureau and the concealed Soviet interventions of  Stalinist regime to opt for Socialist political leaders of independent India. The model was duplicated in 1965 by the “Goongi Gudiya” and culminated in the 1969 split in congress. “Goongi” to “Goonga” followed the course of disintegration of the order in Congress. Then, the  Power centre of India looked as if in a Trapped State which resounded 7 Race Course Road  as more or less  an identical phenomenon near to the  Asymptotic Theory in Physics.  At that point of time. any Political Party surfacing with a  leader who has a powerful voice would have run over the electorate  to emerge as the Prime Minister.

Emergence of Narendra Modi cannot be attributed solely to Hindu Consolidation or mandate for Hindutva, instead , it was  a frustrated India that  brought him to the helm of affairs.

 Rahul Gandhi, nicknamed  Pappu, launched Academic Lectures abroad  following the course of   Lecture Tour campaigns of  his grandmother. .

Irrespective of the strings pulled by the media alignments what matters would be the  reciprocal behaviour of the leaders of various parties.

A new beginning was set into motion when the Congress Party took a dramatic step to  the leadership from Sita Ram Kesari to Sonia Gandhi, soon after the general elections of 1998. The poor performance of the Congress party was a serious setback. The party went by the general notion of Popularity of the Party President as the key factor in electoral dominance. Atal Bihari Vajpayee emerged as the NDA leader and took over as the Prime Minister within four days after the leadership change in the Congress Party. In the next elections, BJP projected LK Advani as the Prime Minister material pitted against the Congress President though the party kept silence over the  Prime minister  if the Party cleared the deck. There were certain deep rooted regional sentiments in the influential states that was inherited during the Pre independence days, which decided the fate of BJP.

The Vajpayee Government was one of the best governments  till then,  and had put India into a new track and orientation in economic growth,  international relations and conflict management. Yet, the defeat of the party was not properly assessed.

It would be improper to agree with the political observers  on the consolidation of Hindu votes as the key factor  for the mandate of BJP.  From the nearly 25% vote share in 1998,  within the next   12 to 13 years, Manmohan Singh Government created a frustrated Indian Public. A weak Prime Minister and   Force of Power presented political weakness  and suffocation, with corruption and modesty of women  rising public disorder.

The Congress had to fight back. The party failed to read the colour  change in the societal fabric. An adverse campaign in 2014 opened up the dialogue between Hindutva and Hinduism. Unprecedented assertions by Manmohan Singh send a different message. If the projected BJP candidate Narendra Modi had won, the reaction of  a generation would strike the chord and mainstream India would fall into the fold of Hindutva. 

Again, the Congress returned to the 1998 strategy of changing the President of the Party. Towards the end of 2017 , Rahul Gandhi was elected as the President of the party., He sounded  a new dynamism to counter BJP and the command Narendra Modi enjoyed in the country and abroad. “They defame; we respect and defend” idealism of Rahul Gandhi could succeed to reinvent the Congress as a “grand old young Party” is a different aspect of Indian Politics.

The Party elected an Octogenarian as the  President, Mallikarjun Kharge.  However, situations did not end up  as with that of Jitendra Prasada who gave a challenge to Sonia Gandhi in 2000.  She continued for  17 years till  her son inherited the position, with no rival candidate. He vacated the chair after the party was decimated in the 2019 elections.   However, it can be said that Rahul Gandhi too  has adopted Manmohan Singh -Sonia Gandhi relations  in his relations with Kharge. The old school theory of reclining politics surfaced and Rahul Gandhi made an effort to draw the party workers and sympathisers back to the streets and formed a new political front. Though the 2024 elections could make some difference, the I N DI front remained as a leadership folly with no mass base, a repeat of VP Singhs Janata Dal experiment of 1989.

The 'Love Shop" of Rahul Gandhi may be mocked and decried. The reality is that the love shop has sold  candies of hatred against Narendra Modi and Amit Shah. From a massive mall, the trading of love finally became reduced to Kiosks and in small pockets/  The cry of loss of jobs, opportunities and large-scale migration abroad  has become an antagonistic campaign against the Modi Government. His sharp  attacks on the economic situation of India cannot be taken as an amusement piece for the ruling BJP.  It trickles deep into the unsatisfied and unemployed youth who cannot look for anything beyond  “Service for Jobs”.  In between the frequent attacks on Theft of Votes- Vote Chori sounds as a sweeter candy thrown to the public.  His words are finely crafted and calculated as he calls the situation an “Economic Storm”.

It is time for the BJP to  keep their feet firm, watchful of the overall situation. Every mechanism operated by the opposition could not overthrow the government or score in the election. India has a reluctant population prone to self destruction with enough potential to create chaos at any point of time. So far the impact could create disruption in some states for different issues. Every effort is made to bring it to the fore on a national agenda after the success in Nepal and Bangladesh. Only  road block against such an experiment is the presence of RSS.  Situations like that of Hathras. Immediately after BJP gained power, a weakened congress,  secured the background settings for radical Muslim outfits ton exploit the space created by the Dalit Consolidation. At the time of the 2024 elections it was clear that  “Continuity for a third term has a lot of intricacies. It cannot be a straight election. Big powers are opposed to India having a powerful political leadership. The decisions of Narendra Modi in the matters of Defence Preparedness, Make in India and most importantly, the change in the mindset of the upcoming generations is unprecedented and is not welcome for those who envy the economic growth of India. Narendra Modi - JP Nadda combine seem to have a campaign strategy to overcome the  stake of international interests in the political decision making of India. The Cards are open in the game plan. Will it make it difficult to have an anti BJP Front in reality? All parties will try to keep their score intact , rather than throwing the mantle to Congress.” (FB 11 Feb 2024) .

Choice of Party Presidents , Key Functionaries and Chief Ministers and  Cabinet Ministers holding key portfolios  should  be based on popularity and their affluent language to address the crowd. As and when they handle serious and sensitive matters,  general public and the  opposition party leaders should get a sense of gravity and grip in their words, Convincing the people even the wrong as the right, buying time and  douse the fire and rage of a provocative situation has to be the calibre of the Ministers in any Government. If the Chief Minister is to take the call for every matter and the Prime Minister is the only one who the people would like to hear,  such political leaderships would be nothing less than power centric.

In the NEET and CBSE issues, the Union Minister of Education could not be convincing. Transferring CBSE  Head and ordering high level investigations are routine ways of handling by a frozen inactive government . The Ministers have to be bold to ask the people to proceed on leave and suspend them, adopt corrective measures and physical presence to the concerned offices for verification are anticipated by the people.  It is where a senior Party President steps in and if needed ask the minister to step down and recommend the matters to the Prime Minister. The situation here is that after Rajnath Singh  , BJP do not seem to have a proactive Party President.

On the Other side , the Congress High Command , that was the hope for the party in a crisis time proved to  be fatally indecisive. The decision on the Chief Minister of Keralam was delayed for more than what could be expected . Rahul Gandhi  failed to  assert his command to appoint his trusted aide KC Venugopal. It was said that Priyanka Gandhi had intervened and she decided on VD Satheesan as the CLP leader. Other side of the emotional wave sent across was the involvement  of Muslim League. Rahul Gandhi abandoned Wayanad Constituency and is in his ancestral bastion playing a safe card. Priyanka is from Wayanad and she has to listen to the large mass base of Muslim population of her Constituency. Whether the realities are the same or not , the rumour mills have its own impact.  

Immediately as the situation in Keralam  was put to rest, the State of Karnataka came under political turmoil. The twists and turns finally saw the elevation of DKS to the stage.

The Ruling BJP government need not have to ring alarm bells on the virtual reality of a digital political venture. The second term of Narendra Modi Government was not at all palatable to the Opposition parties. There should have been certain cautious steps, measures and changes within the party and its top leadership. The signals were strong for an innings defeat of the Modi Government in the 2024 General elections. The return of Narendra Modi to stay back at 7 LK Marg marked the beginning of a new political  engineering to  raze down the splendour of the Prime Minister as a nationalist and his agenda of Economic transformation as global leader.

Any political  leader of a third world country  ventures to formulate an economic design that poses any threat to the stability of the Super powers, all those leaders will be either brought down or eliminated. There are only a few leaders who challenged the Supremacies and survived, but all cannot. IF BJP failed to understand the basic Doctrine interventionism,  it can only be said to be “unfortunate”.