Bizarre politics in power game

Numbers in the legislature no longer guarantee political stability. See the way the release on parole after 11 long years of a convicted politician has upset the political applecart in Bihar. Weren’t Lalu Prasad and his men waiting for Mohammed Shahabuddin to emerge from the jail and stir up trouble for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar? See Shahabuddin’s gumption when he declares: “Where is the connection between crime and politics? People have accepted for what I am for the last 26 years.” The public discourse is becoming more toxic by the day

Our political scene is displaying the Bollywoodian “1-2-ka-4” trend with proliferation of parties and groups. More of them are coming up and are likely to be formed anywhere the elections are due. States that have traditionally had two-party dominance are now experiencing multiple pulls. It happened in Delhi and now it is in poll-bound Punjab and possibly, Gujarat.

Issues like reservation for those historically deprived – Dalits, tribals and the other backward castes (OBCs) – that we thought were settled by the Constitution and sealed by the Supreme Court are being raised with great vehemence. We have Jats, Yadavs and Gujjars agitating for reservation, even the Marathas without whom no government in Maharashtra can be formed.

Hardik Patel’s reservation campaign for his prosperous, land-owning community is a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his political backyard. His men wrecked a rally in Surat in the presence of BJP chief Amit Shah. This indicates that Hardik may float a party or front in time for the Gujarat polls next year.

Numbers in the legislature no longer guarantee political stability. See the way the release on parole after 11 long years of a convicted politician has upset the political applecart in Bihar. Weren’t Lalu Prasad and his men waiting for Mohammed Shahabuddin to emerge from the jail and stir up trouble for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar? See Shahabuddin’s gumption when he declares: “Where is the connection between crime and politics? People have accepted for what I am for the last 26 years.”

The public discourse is becoming more toxic by the day. Expulsion has not deterred senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Dayashankar Singh from repeatedly abusing Mayawati. And the latter’s followers respond with physical violence.

In a volatile run-up to the assembly polls next year, the Samajwadi government of the father-son duo, Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav, has lost far too much ground to recoup. It is already looking for an electoral ally in the Congress.

Bonhomie between the two “achhey ladke” Akhilesh and Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, who admire each other when it is politically conducive, is not new and seems logical for now. But it could be a three-legged alliance unless Rahul’s lofty 2,500 kilometer campaign through the State shows some spark.

As of now, from the way cots at its ‘khaat’ rally were taken away by the audience, the Congress finds not just the ground, but also the cots on it slipping away. It needs people on the ground to consolidate any gains.

That ground is being increasingly covered all across the country by the BJP and its affiliates. Kerala is a sharp pointer. The Hindutva grouping can no longer be taken lightly in the State that was hitherto a two-alliance political battlefield.

It would have been difficult to conceive before, but these days one sees posters on the walls across the state of Deen Dayal Upadhyay, chief of the erstwhile Jana Sangh, BJP’s predecessor, who died four decades back. Is the Hindutva Parivar projecting Upadyyay, over a long period, as a national icon and a counter to Mahatma Gandhi?

Both, the Congress-led UDF and the CPI(M)-led LDF are trying hard to counter it. The UDF has adopted most of the social reformers, while the LDF has for long adopted Shahid Bhagat Singh. The latest addition to the pantheon of icons is Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yusufzai, hailed globally for her fight against the Taliban.

Kerala went through an election this year. The UDF has not only lost power, it is cracking up. The LDF under Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, whose approach has been pragmatic, is showing promise. But the common point between the Congress and the CPI(M) that emboldens the Sangh Parivar is that both the parties are weighed down by dwindling support at the national level.

All this is not new. In the news, really and daily, is the bizarre drama in the national capital, complete with police, court and media in toe. Public that elected the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on the lofty promises made is getting tired of what it is doing to itself.

It is bizarre because a government with an invincible majority of 67 out of 70 legislators in the assembly is losing its legislators to scandals and to jail. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tours Punjab, Gujarat and Karnataka, even as the carpet from under his feet is getting pulled away.

In 20 months since AAP took office in Delhi, ten of its legislators have been arrested, one has been convicted and one has been charge-sheeted. Kejriwal dismissed one minister for having fake degree, second for corruption, third for misdemeanor, fourth for indiscreet behaviour inside his office and a fifth one for allegedly sexually harassing his sister-in-law.

Twenty-one legislators have been disqualified by the Delhi High Court for holding office of profit, annulling their appointment as parliamentary secretaries. Thus, a half of Kejriwal’s legislative party of 67 has been caught in one alleged misdeed or other. No other political party holds such a record.

There are enough indicators, if not evidence, that many of the scandals were set up by AAP’s detractors. One can discern the joint of single hidden hand of both the Congress and the BJP. The police, under control of the BJP-ruled Centre, is acting with alacrity. The judiciary is playing to the public sentiment after the Nirbhaya and other sex-related crimes. The two authorities are taking cognisance of any woman alleging against a man, especially one in powerful position. With so many AAP legislators facing investigation, whatever the truth, the public disenchantment is natural.

Kejriwal had raised the party structure in a short span of time recruiting without verifying the antecedents, integrity, strength and ability of sustained political work by those who were in queue to get in. Not only did he recruit them to the party but also sponsored them as party candidates without knowing their intents and interests in raising slogans against corruption.

This is Kejriwal’s biggest error and it is being pointed out by none other than his one-time mentor, Anna Hazare. He has threatened to launch yet another agitation, this time against AAP. The media making beeline for Hazare’s village at Ralegaon Siddhi is significant for its hidden sponsorship. This may mean his second coming on the Delhi scene.

Forming of AAP from out of the anti-graft movement was itself a controversial move. Kejriwal did not want to remain Hazare’s errand boy standing by the roadside shouting slogans to condemn those holding power. He led the group that was in a hurry to get controls without fully knowing what it would do and how.

Perhaps he was under the impression that power in his hands would be a magic wand to get things done. If his first stint in office ended with impatience and impetuousness, the second one is witnessing disarray.

He has targeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for every act of commission and omission, ignoring others, especially Delhi’s Lt. Governor. The court ruling favouring the Centre is unlikely to tame Kejriwal’s penchant for pushing the limits of a unique Centre-State arrangement.
AAP’s ambition to spread nationally is diluting the Delhi-centric focus and attention to the capital’s problems. He has yet to mark a presence in Gujarat while in Punjab, cricketer-turned-charismatic politician Navjot Singh Sidhu’s forming Awaaz-e-Punjab has been a big setback to AAP. It has failed to enlist a major Jat Sikh leader to its party’s fold so far and without that, he cannot take on the Akali/BJP combination, or cut into the Congress vote.

AAP was conceived with the idea of getting into the power-game. But Kejriwal and his group have been unable to shed the NGO mentality. These are two different, often contradictory, functions in a society. AAP may have fallen between the two stools.