A desperate madness, doused with rapacious greed for personal power, has overwhelmed India. A frightening distortion of political combat, a mutilation of what should be sane and effective democratic dissension, an inability to see what is good for the country and much more have invaded the public and private space, crippling our lives, poisoning our minds.
The most recent instance of this insanity was when Mayavati, who claims to be the behenji of the large, lesser privileged masses, ordered Section 144 to be invoked at Rae Bareli on the day Sonia Gandhi decided to visit her constituency. It was a diktat that made one shudder, bringing home the stark and disturbing reality of the misuse of the tools of governance meant to protect citizens and maintain law and order. This arbitrary and dictatorial stance, petulant and laced with shades of personal vendetta, has aggravated the breakdown of dignified, civil and clean democratic politics.
The various potentates ruling different states within India are flexing their muscles, misusing the powers vested in their administrative bandobast by disregarding the Constitution, finding parochial explanations for many a gross misdeed, indulging in active divisive politics in an effort to usurp whichever throne they can for however short a period. This unreal spectacle, which symbolizes the immaturity and intellectual lacunae that have come to define Indian politics at the start of this new millennium, is being viewed by Indians across this benighted land.
Striding forth like a female Mussolini, with a battery of escorts both from her administration and from the protection forces, the chief minister of India’s largest state rides rough shod over all she wants to crush. Having been elected with a majority, she has the mandate to behave in this undemocratic fashion till she is voted out.
An extreme age
She has the tacit backing of the Left, led by Prakash Karat. After all, the Left has a grand legacy of following-the-leader blindfold, with no questions asked and no dissension permitted. Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong killed thousands of dissenters to gain power. Hitler did they same when he propagated his extreme ideology. The United States of America followed that principle too as it aggressively entered sovereign countries because of ideological differences (Vietnam), and threat perceptions (Iraq). These are only two examples, which are part of a far more complex colonization process.
Dictatorship seems to have become the belief and mantra of the two extreme political formations, the Right and the Left. Riding on the back of caste politics, Mayavati has mobilized a huge following in her own community and even enticed other caste configurations to join her in the division of spoils.
How are Karat, Mayavati, Mamata or Modi different from each other? Their aspirations are the same, their political operations and methodology are also similar. Maybe the time is ripe for a coalition at the Centre that will have no serious ideological differences — a third front made up by the Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Bahujan Samaj Party, Biju Janata Dal, Telugu Desam Party and others who want a share of the pie. It could be a formidable grouping of contemporary potentates and India would have the opportunity to experience the rule of this grand alliance without having to depend on the rhetoric of these individual parties. We need to sample the governance of Mayavati, put her to the real test and not permit the Opposition to be merely disruptive.
The Congress should opt to sit in opposition, cleanse itself of all the accumulated horrors that have beset its system, try and purge the dead weight on its shoulders and attempt a reinvention.
