The Importance of Having an Ideology
An experiment has come to a logical yet tragic conclusion in India. After being in power for a decade, AAP was booted out of Delhi by the BJP. AAP had this coming for quite some time, and it surprised no one other than ardent supporters of Arvind Kejriwal, if he has any. Middle-class cynicism makes most of us think no political party has any ideology, and everyone is opportunistic. While there may be some truth in the effective use of opportunism and amorality for staying in power, only a political party that stands for something can survive in the long run.
When AAP was formed, it promised corruption-free governance and exploited the public anger against an inept Congress government of that time. It also helped that Congress had forgotten what it stood for and had already become a rack shack assembly of fortune hunters and sycophants by then. For nearly twelve years, AAP managed to cling to power in a critical but tiny state of Delhi by offering some ground-level reforms like Mohalla clinics and government school reforms.
All the lower hanging fruits were harvested quickly, and soon, the party ran out of ideas. The problem with attempting to give good governance is that it makes people more aspirational and wanting for more. A fresh coat of paint in a neighbourhood clinic or a PTA meeting in the school won’t satisfy them anymore. BJP used every trick in its trade and a few out of syllabus to choke AAP at every juncture.
However, this was to be expected. Every political party in India has faced hostility from whoever ruled the central government right from the first ministry of Nehru. For all the preaching and exhortations about democracy, it was Nehru who inaugurated the game when he summarily dismissed EMS Namboodiripad’s Left government of Kerala.
After that, it has only been downhill in this route, and to expect the BJP to be any different will only show a lack of political acumen. Only those who could play this game of total amorality and match it with equal dexterity can expect to survive in the jungle raj of Indian politics.
It isn’t the love for democracy of the ruling party at the centre that has allowed other opposition-led states to survive in states like Bengal or Tamil Nadu. Every political party has survived and flourished fighting such political battles, once against Congress and now against BJP, when they are ruling the centre.
One can see a pattern in the rise or fall of any political party in India. Only the parties that stand for something have survived and flourished. One may agree or disagree with its agenda, but if a party has an ideological mooring, it will find adherents to its cause in a country of one hundred and forty crore people. Kejriwal’s and Rahul Gandhi’s mistake is that they don’t stand for anything.
Many state-level political parties like Trinamool or DMK survive by giving the public an impression that they stand for the respective state’s pride, whatever that means. They take the mantle of crusaders for their state culture, at least theoretically. Voters may see through their farce, but at least there is clarity on what they stand for.
It also invokes the instinct of tribalism and thus caters to an essential human trait. The BJP plays it at a bigger level by painting themselves as the protectors of the majority religion. There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind on what BJP stands for. The Left in Kerala has strong ideological moorings, at least in theory. Many of the caste parties in the Gangetic belt also leave no doubt in anyone’s mind who they represent.
In contrast, take the case of two parties, who could have given a real challenge to the BJP at the national level but are floundering as they don’t know what they stand for, nor do the voters. They flip-flop on ideology, swinging from left to right and often falling on their face in the middle.
While fighting the Kautiliyan machination of the BJP at one level, AAP was busy painting itself as a soft Hindutva alternative for some time while acting like fanatic Left in between. The winning of Delhi MCD was the last nail in the coffin. On the one hand, it couldn’t solve many of Delhi’s nagging issues; on the other hand, it was fuzzy ideologically.
The Congress has long past its heydays, and the present leadership is equally confused. Its leader is Janeu Dhari Brahmin, proud of his Hindu ancestry on odd days, and is an anticaste, anti-Hindutva warrior on even days.
It baffles me to think that in a country that has more than 80 crore dependent on free ration to survive, there is no one to speak for them. The space of Hindutva, hyper-nationality, and capitalism has already been claimed by the BJP. You need to either ‘out-hindutva’ BJP, which will place you among the fanatic loonies on the fringe, or you need to counter the BJP by claiming the other side and refusing to engage on agendas set by the BJP. There is a vast space left in Indian politics for taking an ideological stand opposite the BJP.
AAP could have done that by standing firm with the majority living in poverty, but it floundered its chance. Congress could do it by reinventing what Indira Gandhi did through her iconic slogan, Garibi Hatao. Though in practice, most Indians remained and remain dirt poor even now, as a political slogan, it was dynamite, and it blasted the opposition at that time. She conveyed that she was ideologically (though reality was different, but politics is optics) with the poor, and it struck a chord. Now, the stage is open. There are political parties to speak for Hindus, Muslims, caste groups, Bengalis, Tamilians and so on.
There is no one to speak for the majority of Indians and raise genuine issues. BJP is a tremendous political force, with strong ideological moorings and sauve political leadership. It is ruthless, hungry to win, and is a master of the game. It is a mark of a great political party. For democracy to thrive, we need an equally strong opposition that can potentially become the next ruling party. You can’t outdo the BJP by reluctantly imitating them in what they are masters. You have to invent your own tactics and game, and there are almost 80 per cent voters for your picking if you get your act right.
Anand Neelakantan
Author of Asura, Ajaya series, Vanara and Bahubali trilogy
mail@asura.co.in