Sycophancy as a form of chivalry

New grammar of politics...

Political India witnesses interesting times. A toss-up of a new grammar of politics underscored by Aam Aadmi Kejriwal’s breathtaking landslide victory of netting 67 0f 70 Delhi Assembly seats. On the other, the old order of a corrupt and autocratic polity clinging to power highlighted by a new fad, constructing temples for their rajnitik deities.

Undoubtedly, Verdict 2015 is a watershed poll wherein the aam aadmi has shown his profound wisdom and maturity and voted for a new power paradigm on the wing of hope and trust. A story about a new India which promises to cross the Rubicon from being a pictogram of arrogant polity to becoming an embodiment of people’s power.

The issue is not why and how ‘David’ Kejriwal sphinx-like rose again and devoured ‘Goliath’ Modi as umpteen reams have dissected this, but the moot point: Is political India undergoing a catharsis underscored by Kejriwal’s new brand of politics?

Is he a talisman of a different and alternative style of politics without the arrogance of power? Of victory of Jan Shakti over State power! Of ridding the public weighed under the burden of sky-rocketing prices, bin makaan, bijli, paani and sadak.

Or will it politics continue to revel in the trademark grammar of our rhinoceros-skinned old warhorses who cling on to power and pelf highlighted by the lal batti cars culture, security paraphernalia, massive 5- The latest in this farcical charade of chamchaagiri is Prime Minister Modi’s photographs alongside an icon of Bharat Mata in Gujarat’s Rajkot temple by his bhakts. No matter his strong objection and anguish as it went “against India's great tradition and culture.”

True, it is too early to say whether the 46 ex-IITian engineer-turned-income-tax officer, Magsaysay award winner, erstwhile protégée of Gandhian Anna Hazare and Delhi’s youngest Chief Minister’s second coming might change the political discourse but given his brigade of young volunteers and that 50 per cent of voters comprise the 18-35 age bracket have rooted for him holds promise of winds of change sweeping the old political quicksand of power. A sweet revenge for the activist's fledgling Party post the Lok Sabha thramming and being branded as “an anarchist, naxalite” by Modi.

For starters Kejriwal is the first aam aadmi neta who dispensed established divisions. Notably, he has not only thrown the rulebook of Indian politics out of the window, (Politics is no rocket science) rewritten the way politics is done but also is setting a new political agenda which could become a tough act to follow.

Moreover, as a chastened and hopefully wiser politician Kejriwal one hopes will continue to disregard the old rules of the game of you-scratch-my-back-and-I-yours and quid pro quos, carry on in his old refreshing vein.

A prime example is AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa. Her party men not only worship her as their Goddess, prostrate before her, have built a temple and installed her idol but will brook no criticism of her.

Indira Gandhi, at the height of absolute power, brooked no nonsense and opposition from her Ministers and came to be known as the only man in her Cabinet, as also among Congressmen. She used key henchmen to carry out her dictate. Those who dared to raise even a whimper were cut to size immediately.

Who can forget Congress President Dev Kant Baruah's notoriously famous observation: “Indira is India and India is Indira” during the 1976 dark Emergency days.

It was in the same year that the then UP Chief Minister ND Tewari carried extra-Constitutional authority Sanjay Gandhi's slippers and making him slip then on at a function in Lucknow. .

Followed by her Home Minister Zail Singh who proudly asserted, “I will gladly sweep the ground that Indiraji walks upon.”

--Predictably, he was rewarded by Indira anointing him India’s President. But matters didn’t end there. In 1982 as Rashtrapati, Zail Singh broke protocol by stepping forward to open her vehicle’s door.

Other examples etched in memory is of February 2010 when ex-Maharashtra's Minister of State for Home Ramesh Bagwe carried Congress Vice-President Rahul's shoes as he climbed a platform to garland Ambedkar's statue Ghatkopar district. What others can do, UP’s Dalit ke beti Mayawati does better.

Alas, the Party with a difference is no better. In Madhya Pradesh, the Industry Minister Pradesh Kailash Vijayvargia avowed, “I will follow the order and even sweep the floor of the Party office if the Party ask me to do so.” To last month when BJP new entrant and Delhi’s Chief Ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi state, “BJP has got the world's most beautiful face with it, i.e. Narendra Modi and his leadership. After that we are just stars who are revolving around him.”

What next? There is no gainsaying that parties can no longer afford to be complacent or traditional as the young voters do not connect with historical baggage.

The task is cumbersome and steep. Given that chamchaagiri courses through the veins of our decrepit netas who have corroded and vandalized the system to feather their own nest.

Ultimately power resides with the people. Our politicians need to learn from the old Chinese story, The Emperor with No Clothes: Else like a young child proclaimed, “The Emperor has nothing at all!”

By: Poonam I Kaushish