Elections make parties revert to form
Old habits sure die hard, much as the protagonists might protest too much to the
contrary. As the much-awaited elections approach, the sense
of nervous urgency is
showing up the old faultlines in our major political parties.
Take the Congress; the oldest charge against the party is that it is, well, just a family, mainly. And even as heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi goes around mouthing admirable phrases about reinvigorating the grand old entity with inspiring infusions of youth, one just can’t help wondering whom exactly he is referring to.
Can a prince, one might ask, really become a commoner? Then, there is the BJP, it tried, it apparently tried so very hard to camouflage its links and roots with the RSS. It even put on moderate mukhotas and, for a time, managed to give the vibes of statecraft having re-engineered it as a centre-right party.
It also gave out the impression there were a few hardliners, and then the somewhat-softies in its ranks, and it was the latter that would prevail in the end. But behold, we now have the prime ministerial candidate, right after the party president, affirming that they ain’t yet giving up their colours.
Out come the old ‘pseudo-secularist’ formulas and the reinvoking of divisive issues. Strongman Modi even goes as far as to stress, independently of all investigative agencies, that the Mumbai attackers had local help.
And no one seems able to suggest that such a statement helps Pakistan exactly the way it wants. It’s election time folks, and all is fair game.
Not that other parties are any better. Say, that self-professed champion of minorities in UP, the Samajwadi Party. It is just, well, ‘friendly’ with the man who helped, self-confessedly, bring down a disputed structure.
What’s a harmless friendship got to with cynical caste mobilisation? And everyone can be a friend anytime, anyway, it’s just about timing.
To suggest that the personal can be quite political is just an alien idea, impractical in our complex land. To achieve contortionist complexity with relative ease is our tradition. And we do love our traditions, no?
_Truly Copied
contrary. As the much-awaited elections approach, the sense
of nervous urgency is
showing up the old faultlines in our major political parties.
Take the Congress; the oldest charge against the party is that it is, well, just a family, mainly. And even as heir-apparent Rahul Gandhi goes around mouthing admirable phrases about reinvigorating the grand old entity with inspiring infusions of youth, one just can’t help wondering whom exactly he is referring to.
Can a prince, one might ask, really become a commoner? Then, there is the BJP, it tried, it apparently tried so very hard to camouflage its links and roots with the RSS. It even put on moderate mukhotas and, for a time, managed to give the vibes of statecraft having re-engineered it as a centre-right party.
It also gave out the impression there were a few hardliners, and then the somewhat-softies in its ranks, and it was the latter that would prevail in the end. But behold, we now have the prime ministerial candidate, right after the party president, affirming that they ain’t yet giving up their colours.
Out come the old ‘pseudo-secularist’ formulas and the reinvoking of divisive issues. Strongman Modi even goes as far as to stress, independently of all investigative agencies, that the Mumbai attackers had local help.
And no one seems able to suggest that such a statement helps Pakistan exactly the way it wants. It’s election time folks, and all is fair game.
Not that other parties are any better. Say, that self-professed champion of minorities in UP, the Samajwadi Party. It is just, well, ‘friendly’ with the man who helped, self-confessedly, bring down a disputed structure.
What’s a harmless friendship got to with cynical caste mobilisation? And everyone can be a friend anytime, anyway, it’s just about timing.
To suggest that the personal can be quite political is just an alien idea, impractical in our complex land. To achieve contortionist complexity with relative ease is our tradition. And we do love our traditions, no?
_Truly Copied
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