Act 1: Different shades of Red
Tokyo needn’t worry’. This is what the CPI-M government in West Bengal had to say on the Gurgaon Honda incident when police and workers had a bloody confrontation last week. And this when the comrades elsewhere have been kicking up a lot of dust all over the country over the ‘anti-labour’ measures of Honda, a Japanese company. Did the resourceful Communists not check notes with each other? Rather, this double talk has become a necessary tactic, a matter of expediency. WB is a major destination for Japanese FDI. But are not the comrades major, rather, sole, champions of the proletariat? So what happens when a donor becomes a tormentor of your vote bank? Play black sheep and pull bags full of wool over all, the japanese masters, the proletariat dames and us, the little men on the street, or shall we say, lanes, in keeping with the rhyme. So, while one part of the forked tongue is busy spitting venom on the liberalisers and their MNC sponsors, the other half is singing lullabies to calm ruffled Japanese feathers.
Act 2: Stains on Saffron
For almost two decades, Advani has been the political face of the Hindutva movement, what with rath yatras, Ram temple campaign et al. But suddenly in Pakistan, somehow, he got possessed by the Jinnah ghost and sang a different tune, to the horror of not only the parivar but also the Congress and the entire nation! After all, India still officially holds Jinnah as the mastermind behind the bloodiest chapter in its history, Partition, an event that haunts both countries till date. Whatever happened to Advani, a champion of Akhand Bharath and a campaigner against cross-border terror? Having baited and berated the pseudo-seculars all his life, the bug probably bit him too! The doctor himself getting infected is no news at all, but the doubt that has crept into the parivar mind is news indeed: Was the doctor a qauack from day one?
Act 3: White Lady’s burden
The grand old party of Gandhi and Nehru that drove away the foreigners is now faring no better under a, ah well, foreigner. So when a PM praises the British Raj in Britain or when once-detested sainiks walk into its fold, there is nary a stir in the Congress. Here anything goes. The party had committed ideological hara-kiri long ago. The partymen come alive only when Sonia is under attack but there is not a whisper when even their professed principles come under daily fire from the Left, right and centre. Little wonder that the principal opposition to the Congress comes from its allies! The UPA’s common minimum programme (CMP) is only one part of the equation. The other part, ‘ =0 ’ has been glossed over by a clever sleight of the ‘Hand’. Or should it have read: CMP = Sonia? Here, barring the leading lady, everything else seems negotiable!
Act 4: Black turns Yellow & Green
Closer home, in the land of Periyar, all his pet themes like rationalism, self-respect and atheism have been given the boot by his political progeny who now seem to have adapted quite well to sycophancy and yellow towels instead. Though everyone knows that the Periarisms did not get them the votes in the first place, there was at least some lip service through noisy rhetoric. Even that’s gone now. Not that it is a big calamity, rather the original ideology was. But the amnesia is quite startling. While both the principal Dravidian parties have alternately broken bread with either the Congress or the BJP, the scene looks quite open for yet another realignment, nothwithstanding the mud they had very recently slung at each other. Here opportunism is sold under the label called rationalism. There are also tiger-riding parties here who are with the UPA today, were with the NDA yesterday and would figure in whatever —A that comes to power tomorrow. It’s win-win, always for their likes.
So what’s happening to all these parties? In any case, no one was expecting high moral standards from them, so what is the big fuss now? Well, never has the incompatibility between power politics and ideological convictions been more stark as at present. All politicians and political parties are facing, some with guilt and some without qualms, an inner turmoil wrought by the sheer impossibility of marrying the pursuit of power with following professed principles. The head on collision between power and ideology was something waiting to happen but it is happening all of a sudden, everywhere. And clearly ideologies are getting run over by politicians in a reckless rat race to reach the corridors of power.
Principled politics and people’s problems are the last thing on their minds. For them, idelogical pronouncements were always a gloss that hid the crusty self-interest inside. Now, they do not even find the need for covering up their true colours. It is not that they have all become honest as to shed pretensions. It is just that they know the people have little choice when they trek up to the polling booths to seal their’s and the nation’s fate for next few years. And curse those EVMs, we get the bad news the same day, with the gap between the exit of one devil and the entry of the same or another next to nil. Earlier, we had two or three precious days whence we used to watch politicos crawl around in tension, their fates hanging. They have been spared even that.
But, wait! So what if all those vested with serving public interest and upholding morality have abdicated? There seems to be someone who is driven only by ideology and is beyond the lure of personal interest or pelf. That’s good news. Aah, but the bad news is that his name is Osama Bin laden!
Ideology, anybody?
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