|
POLITICAL DIARY
Crisis Of Leadership
WHERE ARE THE NATIONALISTS?
By Poonam I Kaushish
New Delhi, February 19, 2008
Remember the famous Roman saying: Nero fiddled while Rome
burnt. So true of India today. See how our netagan contrive
while the country burns. One look at Maharashtra says it all.
The State stood mute testimony to three days of gory violence
against all non-Maharashtrians unleashed by a small-time neta
Raj Thackeray’s and his outfit Maharashtra Navnirman Sena.
Even as the Centre and State Governments vacillated
shamelessly for 13 days before going through the arrest-bail
charade.
It would be easy to dismiss Raj Thackeray’s diatribe of
wanting to rid Maharashtra of all North-Indians as a case of
competitive populism at its crassest best. Or that it’s all
about supporting regionalism. But, the tragedy of the episode
is two-fold. First, how dare the MNS Chief cock a snook at the
law and order and be allowed to get away with it.
Second, where was the Iqbal of the State? Its roab? Which
allowed a piddly local outfit to run riot with India’s
Commercial Capital and made its leader a national hero. When,
in fact, Thackeray should have been told to shut up. That he
wasn’t tells us the asli rajniti story. Of a ruling Congress
leadership, which wanted to play both ends against the middle.
One, counter ally NCP’s Sharad Pawar’s clout over Maharashtra
and, two, use Thackeray’s new stature to eat into the Shiv
Sena base and, eventually, benefit the Congress.
Exposing as never before, the acute crisis of leadership and
paralysis of governance the country faces. Of pygmy leaders
with small minds masquerading as giants. Bereft of any sense
of nationalism who willy nilly abet competitive populism and
vote-bank politics to batter down all semblance of leadership
and chip away at established democratic institutions.
Leadership today is all about political survival alone.
Looking for genuine leaders is like looking for a needle in a
haystack. Ask them about the nation. What nation, they ask?
Think. Isn’t it ridiculous that a country as vast as India and
boasting of a billion-and-growing population is swinging like
a yo-yo between hope and despair, thanks to the fracas between
the ruling coalition partners, its adversaries and
friends-turned-foes or vice versa. All bogged down by
tantrums, one-upmanship and clash of egos. Especially in a
scenario where polarization is now based on vote-bank politics
and unbridled lust for power and money --- not on values,
ethics or national agenda. Forget good, clean governance and
national interest.
Look at the inexplicable configurations of the UPA. The
enemies and friends are all rolled into one. The Congress and
the Left parties, which account for 64 seats in the Lok Sabha,
are arch rivals in three States: West Bengal, Kerala and
Tripura. Both have been fighting each other tooth and nail in
every election since Independence. Yet they came together at
the Centre simply to keep the “communal BJP” out. The Congress
and RJD are arch rivals in Bihar and Jharkhand and the NCP
cannot see eye-to-eye with the Congress in Maharashtra. Ditto
the case down South with the DMK & Co. Can Governments be
formed and held together merely on the negative and
ill-defined premise that my enemy’s enemy is a friend?
Today, the Left continues to have the Congress-led UPA
profusely sweating over the Indo-US nuclear deal. Wherein
Comrade Karat has once again threatened to pull the plug if
the Government goes ahead with it. Making plain that the Grand
Dame of Politics should be ready to go to the polls if it went
ahead. This eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation between Manmohan
Singh and the thorny Left has pushed the country into
suspended animation.
The basic issue is not the Indo-US nuclear deal or whether the
UPA Government stays or goes. Or, who is to blame and why. But
it is the sad spectacle of today’s polity exposing their
hollowness and hypocrisy of political commitment and
subordinating national interest to personal egos and gain. If
the Congress feels so strongly that the deal is the best thing
for the country why doesn’t it call the CPM’s bluff and face
the consequences? Sadly, as oft is the case, power breeds
arrogance and absolute power breeds absolute arrogance.
Again, look at the Party’s relationship with the UP Chief
Minister and BSP supremo Mayawati which swings like a
pendulum. First, the Congress High Command read Sonia, tried
very hard to have a pact with her prior to the State Assembly
polls, failing which it decides to humour Mayawati and let her
get away with outrageous anti-Congress diatribe. Now suddenly
Sonia has woken up to the BSP’s electoral threat and has
decided to deride her. But, when the Dalit icon dares the
Congress to take action against her in the Taj corridor scam,
the Party backs off.
So unlike the Congress leadership during Indira Gandhi’s time
who epitomized the stuff leaders are made off, including the
capacity to be a butcher when the need arose. Hailed as Durga
after India’s victory in the 1971 war with Pakistan she was
the only man in her Government. None dared oppose her and if
someone did he would be cut to size in no time. Remember, like
true leaders she gambled her political career by taking on the
powerful Party Syndicate of senior leaders.
But more than that she was a true democrat and nationalist.
True, she imposed Emergency in 1975 after the Allahabad High
Court set aside her election, but she was uncomfortable with
it. Recall, she not only lifted the Emergency but called for
elections in 1977. After her defeat, she gracefully demitted
office.
Sadly, her son Rajiv, who took over the reins, converted the
Congress into an organization of ‘yes men’ who were loyal only
to him. Pure sycophancy. Thus friends and rudderless leaders
were handpicked by Rajiv to form his coterie and propelled on
to the centre-stage. His wife Sonia carried the family banner
forward and has perfected sycophancy and loyalty into Brand
Congress. The most unpleasant aspect of all this is the
withering of internal democracy.
The BJP too is on the decline. Vajpayee has been replaced by
Advani, who may talk tough but lacks the charisma and oratory
skills to weave a magic spell. Surrounded by ‘hot-house’
second rung leaders who trot around with an all-important air
but are incapable of wining even a single municipal election.
The Party President Rajnath Singh and his “coterie” of junior
and inexperienced ‘yes men’ play the cat and mouse game with
Advani. Knives are even out for Modi who just resurrected the
Party.
Gone are the days of Brand BJP---collective leadership as
opposed to individual control. Its reputation of being a
highly disciplined cadre-based faction-free party is in
tatters. Its killer instinct, that its leaders so assiduously
described, has been killed by the vicissitudes of power.
What about the regional parties? With a mohalla mentality they
lack a national perspective. Worse, with the national parties
losing their clout with the electorate there is a very high
premium on these parties which get traded and horse-traded
many times over. The trading is made easier by the total
collapse of the moral fabric of all parties in their naked
lust for the gaddi. Unfortunately, the national parties have
been caught in a web of their own making. By pandering and
giving in to the blackmail of these regional vote banks. They
have created a Frankenstein over which they have no control.
What next? India today once again is facing a Hobson’s choice.
Gripped in the vicious tentacles of a petty power-at-all-cost
polity the time has come to throw out the scoundrels and
replace them with true nationalists who feel, think and
breathe India.
A people, no doubt, get the leaders they deserve. But, at the
end of the day, are we going to mortgage our conscience to
“fair-weather fliers” and “hot-house leaders”? Are we going to
allow leaders without nationalism to recklessly play havoc
with India’s future? The moot point: How long are we going to
continue to look for giants among the pygmies and allow the
latter to ride-roughshod over us? Time for people to look for
real leaders. ---- INFA
(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)
E-Mail :
newseditor@sarkaritel.com |
