The world of politics is “an unweeded garden, /That grows to seed”. Hamlet would have found much in the Indian political scene familiar and as rotten as the state of Denmark. Three ministers in Karnataka, who had to quit following what has come to be called Porngate, only hold the mirror up to a world where “things rank and gross in nature” prevail. But the issues that the incident illustrates go beyond individuals or parties. The real issue is the political parties’ reluctance to clean up their own houses. That leads to a situation in which deviants prevail, thanks to the indulgence of the party bosses. Thus, the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party are hesitant to throw the three former Karnataka ministers out of the party. It is the same mindset that stops the leaders of the West Bengal unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) from taking action against errant members such as Lakshman Seth and Sushanta Ghosh, whose strong-arm methods should have embarrassed their party. If local satraps of the Trinamul Congress run “syndicates” of terror in the Rajarhat-New Town area of Calcutta, they can do so only because of the protection they get from their top leaders. Congress leaders, too, grapple with this problem and are just as unwilling or unable to act.

There is much about communist China that India must steer clear of. But Mao Zedong provides a remedy to the ills that afflict Indian political parties. India needs a cultural revolution that will prompt political activists of all hues to “bombard the headquarters”. Mao may have had his own sinister agenda in launching the upheaval in China, but his cultural revolution, like Leon Trotsky’s permanent revolution, is what political parties in India need to rid themselves of base elements. The BJP cadre may do well to train their guns on the headquarters of the party or of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. An uprising from below and targeted at Alimuddin Street is what the CPI(M) in Bengal needs in order to get rid of bad elements in the party and also the leaders who nurture and protect them. To rebel against such leaders is, as Mao told the Red Guards, “justified”.

The upheavals are needed, not just for shaking the parties out of their inaction, but, more importantly, for the sake of a civilized political society. If the political leaderships cannot keep their own houses in order, they can only harm the interests of the polity. After all, the leadership of any party is only a coterie that captures and exercises power in the organization. No matter what its power is, its numbers are insignificant in comparison to the numbers of people they claim to represent. But how the leaders conduct themselves is important for the image and the substance of a party. It may thus be necessary for party rank and file to rebel against leaders every now and then.