Its all about the Dynasty!

The sorry state of affairs that the Bharatiya Janta Party finds itself in at the moment is in many ways a refelection of the past.  Ten years ago, it was the same party that led by Atal Behari Vajpayee had come to power for a second term after leading a successful campaign to evict the infiltrators from the rugged terrains of Kargil. Most of us who in our school lives grew up with Vajpayee at the helm of the affairs, were definitely enchanted by his demeanor and oratory, not withstanding those long pauses. In many ways he appeared to be a natural leader of the country. But more than the country, his ability lied in keeping his own house in perfect order. He was the undisputed leader of his party and also successfully led a big coalition. Although Lalkrishna Advani had that stature within the party, his appeal definitely couldn’t go deep into the masses and he failed to build up an umbrella underneath which a formidable coalition could have existed. And that brings us to the basic question of leadership.

Politicians in India invariably fall into one of the three categories.  First are the overtly ambitious ones who fail to recognize the authority of anyone above them and are determined to get to the top through any means.  Then there are the opportunistic ones who are not driven by any ambition but are rather just committed to keeping their coffers filling in and can follow any path or ideal as long as they are kept satisfied. And then, the third cateory belongs to the enduring sycophantic ones who are happy with their own capacity, whatever that is and feel honoured in eulogizing the top bosses and dutifully carry out their orders.

The best way to distinguish between the two major political parties of the country would be to observe the fact while the BJP is full of the leaders of the first category, the Congress is full of the ones of the third category. The regional parties mostly comprise of the second category. This very distinction in the structure of the two parties has been the cause of their position as they stand now. As long as Vajpayee was the unquestioned leader, all the others worked in close co-operation that took the BJP to the unexpected heights in the 90’s. Now as the Vajpayee-Advani era nears a closure for the BJP, the fight of egos has already started spelling doom for the party. The problem is that no leader can claim to be more experienced or more qualified than any other.

This lies in sharp contrast to the Congress, a party which has had many able leader over the ages, but without pursuing an ambition of their own, they have regarded the word of the “leader” as the law. And the leader has always been someone from the “family” across the generations. However naive and inexperienced they have been, the party has been kept intact just because of this fact. A temporary phase of disintegration was quite apparent after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. While P V Narasimha Rao managed to keep his Prime Minsiter’s chair safe, after the loss of 1996 elections the clash for supremacy among Sitaram Keshri, Sharad Pawar and some other leader threatened to bring about doom for the Grand Old Party. It was not until a reluctant Sonia Gandhi assumed control that such fears were laid to rest.

While the Congress claims that it has many youth leaders, it is hard to find a single youth leader within its ranks who has risen without any family backing. In principle BJP may whine about the dynastic policy within the Congress, the truth is that this very policy has helped the latter avoid any infighting and put forth some “young” faces. Might be that BJP needs to realize soon that principles and ideals don’t work in Indian politics. If one has to go through all the rigors of grass root level politics before claiming the role of a popular leader, he or she doesn’t exactly remain young. Lucky for the youth champions like Rahul Gandhi, Milind Deora, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Sachin Pilot that they had their parliamentary berths waiting for them even before they knew anything about it. And too bad for BJP that Vajpayee was a bachelor and Advani’s daughter is a mediaperson, quite aloof from politics!