[Reader-list] The VHP, Luxury Cars and Identical License Plates

[Rakesh Iyer]

Dear Shuddha

I can't agree with you on that primarily because of the following reasons:

The reason a party gets voted to power may not necessarily lie with the
terminal state it finds itself in. For example, just because Manmohan Singh
may be considered a 'weakling', or because Advani is a 'weakling', doesn't
mean that their respective parties would or would not get voted to power.
And there are many reasons for it:

a) First of all, the voting percentages are never 100%. At the best of
situations, they reach about 70-75% of voting (notwithstanding some
exceptions). So by that figure, about 25-30% at a minimum doesn't even
decide the fate of candidates standing in elections, albeit for various
reasons. This figure further slides to about 40-50% of voting for
Parliamentary elections, the higher figures being observed for Assembly and
Panchayat elections.

b) When one votes, he/she doesn't vote for a
Modi/Mayawati/Advani/Sonia/Manmohan/Mulayam/etc.One votes for the local
candidate, be it the Panchayat Sarpanch, the local MLA or the local MP.
Therefore, to attribute a vote to the local MLA as vote to the BJP or
Congress (or Manmohan/Modi/Advani) is quite wrong. There can be many
examples to this.

Sonia Gandhi and other members of the Gandhi family win quite comfortably
from the Raibareli and Amethi seats in Lok Sabha elections, but the same
magic doesn't work in the Vidhan Sabha elections. Also, Narayan Rane was
first in the Shiv Sena when he won his first Assembly election in his life,
and when he defected to Congress, he still won the same Assembly seat.
Therefore, those who voted for him voted for Rane, notwithstanding the party
he belonged to.

c) When we vote for an individual, there are different factors to be kept in
mind. For example, the caste of the individual, the individual candidate's
religion, his work in the past (as previous MP/MLA), his image, his ideas,
his illegal acts (involvement in crimes or acts of violence), his actions
(in the past, which may have helped people or troubled them) etc. etc.

Therefore, to even attribute that a party got the votes or Modi (or anybody
else) got the votes for that individual, is to completely underestimate the
potential of the individual, which in my view is wrong, and should not be
done.

d) Most of the candidates win by less than 50% of the total votes polled
(and this when 100% people dont' vote, thereby meaning that in many cases,
you have less than 50% of the total electorate having actually voted for
you). In states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and even Tamil Nadu, we see
phenomenon of candidates winning just 35% of total votes polled to win
elections, which is highly dubious, thereby stating even majority of those
who voted are against the candidate who 'won'.

e) Most importantly, politics is never fought on Sarai and internet lists
but on the streets and heartland of India. The BJP may seem very weak on the
national scale, but go to even Bhopal and Indore (or even Nagpur), and you
will see a completely different picture. The BJP is as powerful as one can
see. The RSS and BJP are completely linked in that state, and one can see
actual connection between workers on the ground and ministers, though on a
factional basis, trying to strengthen the roots of the party. The BJP is not
out, and infact it's the states and the leadership there which is the basis
of its strength.

Even the Congress, is actually turning into the similar way. The winning
'formula' of Sheila Dikshit and Y.S.Rajshekhar Reddy has ensured that they
have become state satraps, and while loyalty to Gandhi family would be still
important, these satraps in turn would look to delivering seats for the
party in return for rewards for themselves, which is still going on and will
continue.

Even the SP and the BSP will still be voted back to power or thrown out
alternately leaving space for the other. So too for the other political
parties. As I see it, parties are not going out.

Now comes the idea of bankruptcy of ideology. The fact is that Indian
politics has no ideology, except that politicians always look to earn money
through dubious means, in as many ways as they can. All do it. The Congress
does it, the BJP does it, the Left does it, so do the others. They are
bankrupt of ideas, but where is this 'new order' we are all talking about?
Nothing doing. There is no order, or if it is there, it's among the great
elites and middle classes.

The political parties being talked about as dead and failed are actually
alive and kicking in the states, and we are all celebrating through PIL's,
through discussion forums and other ways (things which Jinnah may approve of
as 'parliamentary' and 'legitimate ways', as he used to state his own part
during the 1910's and 1920's freedom struggle), rather than going out on the
streets and fighting and struggling to show what these parties are, and
actually trying to tweak and twist the system. (The only twist I keep on
hearing are in songs: ' We twist' from Love Aaj Kal and one Manna Dey song:
'Aao twist karein')

We are a part of the system, whether we like it or not. We can't always be
aloof from the system and hope that it will get better on its own. We have
to play a part. And this celebration of bankruptcy of higher echelons of the
parties like BJP, Congress, SP and BSP is not going to help. If anything, it
will still be a disaster as these parties will still keep getting re-elected
back into power, and with no ideas in their heads, we will be further stuck
in our goals of development and well-being of the society.

Which is why I felt sad that BJP has come to this passe, because the idea of
cornering the UPA govt for its failures is lost. Entertainments are good,
but I too know the BJP is not out. But this will only mean loss of focus
from important issues, which is not what should happen.

Regards

Rakesh