Opinion Rootless polictics

Since our Independence,Indian politicians have been comfortable in the amorphous political structure largely fashioned by the British Crown. Many top freedom fighters such as Mahatma Gandhi,Jawaharlal Nehru,BR Ambedkar,Chittaranjan Das,Subhas Bose,Womesh Banerjee and also Pakistan’s Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan studied or lived in England. Others such as Rajendra Prasad,Maulana Azad,Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Bipin Chandra Pal came from wealthy families. So how much they understood the plight of the poor is open to question.

A childhood memory from the squatted refugee colony in Kolkata’s outskirts where I was born and raised,is a movement my father started from the 1959 food crisis in Bengal. He mobilised thousands of under-privileged people into “Sarbohara Mukti Parishad”—loosely translated as “Movement to free those who have lost everything,” in search of food,with the typical “Inquilab Zindabad” slogan,“Long live the revolution!” But the refugees would reply,“Inquilab Zhinga Bhat.” Zhinga is courgette or ridge gourd vegetable and bhat is rice. The only expectation of those who had lost everything in their forced migration from East Bengal was the basic food of rice and courgette. On hearing people shout the wrong interpretation of Inquilab Zhinga Bhat,I once laughed out loud. I will never forget how my father immediately gave me a tight slap in front of everyone,saying,“Never disrespect the hunger of poor people.”

This subject grew in my mind. Irrespective of the banner of any political party,my father’s leadership was different,rooted to people’s actual requirements. He aroused the core of society with matters of immediate significance to them. I can say this gave me a sense of relevant politics of that time and may have helped me to become a mass communicator through branding,and in ensuring end customer connect in my profession.

History shows that even if a foreign ideology is followed,countries adopt it to become relevant to their own political systems. The US has a free capitalist economy,but the G8 countries have their socio-politico-economies clearly rooted to their own soils. Let’s take Karl Marx’s communist ideology. Different nations have adopted it differently,translating it dictatorially at times,but the key point is communism was made relevant to their societies.

Bolshevik Vladimir Lenin’s form of communism was leading workers to Russia’s October Revolution of 1917. Following decades of turmoil,Mikhail Gorbachev introduced glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring),and by 1991,the Soviet Union dissolved.

Maoism is the Marxist-Leninist trend of Communism where Mao Zedong declared a Cultural Revolution in China up to 1969 to purge “liberal bourgeois” elements. Without changing its communist ideology,China has today become a world power both economically and politically.

Fidel Castro with Che Guevara overthrew Cuba’s dictator Batista in 1959 through guerrilla communist tactics. His government nationalized property and businesses owned by upper class Cubans including the plantations of Fidel Castro’s family.

The world’s first revolution against the monarchy took place in France in 1789. The Left and Right wings in politics derives from seating arrangements in Assemblee Nationale when the more radical Jacobin deputies sat on left benches. In 1905 the various Marxist parties merged. In 1934,thousands of French workers went on strike against unpaid holidays. This prompted labour minister Jean-Baptiste Lebas to provide two-weeks paid vacation each year in 1936 for the first time in the world,and a 40-hour-work week instead of 47 hours as per the ILO Convention. Since the 1920s,the UK had two large political parties—the Conservatives and the Labour Party inspired by Communism. Inspite of Churchill’s heroism in World War II,Labour had a landslide victory in 1945. Labour’s revulsion of Hitler’s dictatorial ways,and solidarity towards the anti-imperialist struggle in India eased their immediate exit from colonial rule in the world. So the change in British politics had some relevance to India’s Independence. India lacks a high level professional school for political leaders for administrative,visionary and activation knowledge to govern the country as per India’s political roots. In France,Charles de Gaulle created École Nationale d’Administration (ÉNA) after World War II. By having an academic proficiency and competitive examinations based system,recruitment to top positions became more transparent. French presidents Valéry Giscard d’Estaing and Jacques Chirac and government heads Laurent Fabius,Michel Rocard,Édouard Balladur and Alain Juppé studied here.

Leading parties in India have generally not understood that having won majority vote they now run a democratic government governing everybody. So the Chief Ministers or Prime Minister have to stand isolated from their political parties during their tenure in office. The government has an opposition in the legislative,but in a democracy the population irrespective of political parties are to be governed equally.

Anyone talking politics in India is dubbed to be in some political party. It’s difficult to be an independent,high calibre “politologue” or political commentator who can scientifically analyse and make unbiased points for the nation. What is the root cause of this situation? India’s politics is totally a medley of Western notions that do not match the people’s aspirations. Aside from voting,what is the social welfare benefit that our democratic process offers our people?

Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top management. Reach http://www.shininguniverse.com