Pink panthers

Pink is in. It is salvation. It is compassion. It puts society above the bazaar and offers McDonald8217;s to Marx. Stretching from Tony Blair to Lionel Jospin, it is an idea that continues to be in power at the cost of tired conservatism. The evolutionary tale of the European socialist is the 8217;90s most fascinating study in surviving in the age of globalisation by changing8217;. Now, come down to the Indian socialist. He is certainly evolving, and entertainingly so, though society is moving away from his ism. Socialism with Indian characteristics is no longer a counterpoint to the imported dogma of the communist, it is not even an ideology of justice. It has come a long way from the romance of Ram Manohar Lohia to the pragmatism of George Fernandes. Fifty years ago, it was a protest as well as redefinition. In the beginning, it sought to renew India by repudiating the class theory of the communist and recognising the defining relevance of caste in Indian society. Its Indianness raged against English and celebratedthe grassroots nativism of a caste-ridden society. But the Indian socialists failed to win Indian society. They couldn8217;t even win themselves 8212; it was a permanent saga of unity as a prologue to disintegration. Even JP8217;s total revolution neither total nor revolution, really which culminated in the Janata Party in power couldn8217;t stop the socialist8217;s in-house splitting revolution.

Today the historical wrecker 8212; of his own house and the guest8217;s 8212; wants to be the Great Unifier, he wants to revive the Spirit of 8217;77. Actually George Fernandes, once a streetfighter and currently a responsible cabinet minister no more Baroda dynamite but nationally enriched Pokharan, is the right person to do it. And who are the ones he is going to place under the socialist umbrella? Chandra Shekhar, Mulayam Singh, Om Prakash Chauthala, Ramakrishna Hegde, Ram Vilas Paswan, Maneka Gandhi8230; All great socialists whose socialist contribution varies from wasted padayatra to value-based pretense to Mandalised social divisionto animal rights to8230; The living, scattered versions of the Indian socialist have immortalised themselves as people who can handle power only as divisional managers. They are the lost leaders who continue to preserve their relevance by wrecking the possible and talking the impossible.

Naturally, George Fernandes sees a great opportunity here to play patron saint. His idea of a grand BJP-led coalition can be strengthened only by a pink push. Well, Minister Fernandes has been strengthening the BJP-led government since day one. And his singular effort has played a remarkable role in necessitating this election. Is his grand coalition an act of repentance? Socialists don8217;t repent. There is always another day to correct it all, to smash it all. This time the object of demolition is not a Coke bottle but an equally undesirable foreign entity called Sonia Gandhi. The concept of Sonia Gandhi may provide the disparate socialists with a typical socialist cause: foreignness plus anti-Congressism. The question is notwhether Sonia Gandhi will survive the assault. If they come to power, will the BJP survive the spirit of the Indian socialist, whose greatest legacy is not a smashed Coke bottle but internally sabotaged governments?