How can the party system be blamed? After all it is the core concept of a democracy as inherited from the West and practised even in the US, Europe etc. So how could it be taboo in India?
I refer to the key factor that made the party system a bane in our democracy: Personalities! Barring probably the Left and the Right which are cadre based, all parties in India are leader-dependent, precluding any comparison to the US and Europe, where parties outlast leaders. How much and how often do we hear of England’s ex-PMs, not of the distant past but just the decade last? An Obama, who was unheard beyond his own State in 2004, could spring from oblivion to become the President of the US in 2008. And he would be back in history’s trash-can if not this year-end, surely in four years. The shelf life of the supposedly ‘most powerful man on earth’ is just eight years. Ditto in most mature democracies. But here?
The longevity of our leaders is apalling. Of course, this is no grudge against the god-given gift of generous extra breaths but a reference to their extended political staying power, in and out of power. Most of the leaders of today have been around in times when the bulk of the current voters was not even born. Many who are ministers, even the President now, have been in office in the seventies and eigthties too. I was five when a very rational man became CM in 1969. He was in the reckoning in 1979, CM again in 1989, 1999 and 2009 in sync with the passage of every decade of my life. And he could still be shining like the Sun in 2019 when I enter the twilight of 55! The electoral broom is ineffective against many such ‘lifetime achievers’ who just won’t go away. Indeed, we seem to have a poor track record in clearing our political garbage too! In fact we are adept at recycling the rot as staple diet.
So, how do these leaders prevail, prolong and prosper? Launching, grabbing or inheriting a party is the surest guarantee of power. The party is the unfailing vehicle that helps them traverse the tough political terrain, which is somewhat like the city street, with all its ups, downs, bumps, potholes and even craters and mounds. Take away the party and the leader would be stranded at the next ditch. Reason why, he/she lunges at, and holds on to, the controls, come what may, dumps all road rules once in the driver’s seat and takes care to disable or disembark potential drivers and back-seat drivers. En route they pick up mute passengers for the sake of inner-party democracy but with the promise of a share in the spoils. It is on this profound and sound principle of self aggrandisement and mutual back-scratching that most parties are founded.
It is possible that in such parties dissent does arise from an ambitious underling on account of, well, party accounts or an ego clash, but certainly not on principles for there are none. Obviously, these parties, built on caste or some chaste divisive rhetoric or just charisma, would not only have vote banks but huge money bags too. Conflicts become inevitable when we add power pulls and personal strains. But in such cases too, there will be no leadership change but only a split with the mentor and tormentor nurturing their own captive parties after a due division of cadre and cash. Many States are witness to such fraternal fights with power alternating and any change leading only to status quo with hints of even a clandestine quid pro quo, they having risen from the same muck. Their competitive corruption is a bigger drain on the tax-payer what with many more greedy mouths to feed. The partying gets merrier when these leaders collude in the name of coalition amongst their kept parties.
If the party is the chalise, the leader is the poison. The poison’s potency rises in sync with the egoist delusions of the leader. Invariably, these democratic monarchs are drunk in their own glory and enamoured of themselves. They probably look in the mirror first thing in the morning and say ‘hail myself’ before walking out to the chants of their minions, mainly gold-diggers, fortune-hunters and carpetbaggers. The latter have no qualms because self-interest dictates that serving and preserving their pet prima donna is the paramount priority. Such indulgence knows no bounds particularly in a milieu wherein loyalty to the leader needs to be renewed and displayed regularly, lest the paranoid leader gets into punishing mood. Also, in such a personalised realm, any slight, imagined or real, on the leader is deemed blasphemous and can lead to persecution, prosecution, imprisonment and if zealous partymen have their way, even impalement! Eclipsed by egos, governance then becomes a rare glimpse.
Really, is it not time to call a halt to the perilous party that began on an August mid-night sixty-five years ago and has dragged on through a dark, desolate night without end? Don’t we need a break from the parade of pompous personalities passing off as people’s reps under the camouflage of a party? Should we not rid ourselves of elected dictators, whimsical psychos, extra-constitutional authorities, spineless regents, super PMs and their mafias? And last, should we extend our lofty cultural imagery to political idolatory by bestowing potency and greatness on a bunch of petty parasites?
The vote is the antidote. We can begin the long detoxification process by casting it, even if it be at random, on any symbol other than an established political party’s. The resultant anarchical, but eminently democratic confusion, can only be better than the current organised loot. Now, did anyone say, ‘wake up’?
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