Opinion Welcome to the party
New recruitment drives can revitalise the organisational structure of political parties
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, party president Amit Shah in Delhi. (Source: PTI photo)
Out of sight of the mainstream media, BJP president Amit Shah has adroitly used a routine membership campaign as a powerful tool to rebuild the BJP from the bottom up when all is going well for the party, redefining political recruitment. For the BJP, there could not have been a better time to reach out to the people and try to create a mass base from the reservoir of goodwill that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been able to create for himself. Modi has successfully brought an end to the climate of frustration and cynicism. This has helped restore popular confidence in democratic governance.
Not long ago, the centrality of political parties in a multi-party democracy had prompted political scientists to describe democracy as “partycracy”. But few parties realise their own importance. The world over, political parties are finding that people are losing faith in them. However, knowing that people have no choice but to select one or the other among them, parties ignored their organisational health.
There were few efforts to set their houses in order, especially in countries like India, where there are over 1,300 registered political parties, many of which rarely make their presence felt when elections aren’t due. Most parties continue to confine themselves to electoral contests. As a result, their occasional noise-making is seen as an attempt to assert their nuisance value. Propagation of dynasty being the basis of a majority, parties continue to experience an acute crisis of purpose, giving a fillip to the tendencies of machine politics.
All this has, over the years, contributed to the degeneration of parties. For many, politics became a full-time business and winning elections, more of a technique. The dominance of money, muscle, caste and arbitrary and non-transparent candidate selection processes has contributed to the technique orientation of electoral verdicts. In several cases, electoral victories were more about the party’s dexterity in mastering this technique than about the ability to win a popular mandate. Consequently, building a robust party organisation became secondary, making parties “empty vessels”, as The Economist put it. The twin motivations of gaining power and continuing to wield it became the central agenda of political parties, making competitive compromises the order of the day.
After the end of what political scientists refer to as the third wave of democracy, the phenomenon of the “end of ideology” proved to be a great leveller, gradually doing away with the cleavages between different political parties. Little wonder then that the ideologically motivated party worker has become an endangered species, and most parties see a seasonal flood of stormtroopers, and leader loyalists rather than party faithfuls. These factors contribute to the institutional degeneration of political parties in most democracies across the world, and India is no exception.
Seen in this context, the importance of a massive recruitment drive by the BJP under Shah cannot be overstated. There are a number of remarkable features to this campaign, the first ever conducted via cellphone. Technology has made the process highly democratic, inclusive, and extremely easy and seeker-friendly. The BJP has demonstrated how joining the party no longer depends on the recruiter’s discretion. As a result, this has redefined party recruitment in a way that suits the modern era.
The BJP has called this campaign Sashakta BJP-Sashakta Bharat (Strong BJP for a Stronger India). Besides, the campaign slogan, “Saath Aaye, Desh Banaye (Come Together, Build the Nation)”, also aims at restoring respect to the act of joining a political party, something people are uncomfortable with. The BJP’s ambitious plans to register crores of countrymen till March 31 will be followed by a campaign to connect with the new recruits and later, conducting largescale capacity building programmes all over the country. Engaging with the emerging aspirational classes in a productive manner and ensuring their participation in developmental and community activities remains a challenge, albeit one that is not too daunting for a cadre-based party. The BJP seeks to induct fresh energy in party cadres, paving the way for a total organisational renewal. If things unfold as planned, it may restore the institutional primacy of political parties in a democracy.
If democracies are to deliver good governance, they need to have smart drivers in the form of organisationally healthy political parties.
Democracies without political parties are unimaginable. Hence, empowering them through the path of greater institutionalisation is the only solution. And obviously, the way towards that is via recruiting new members, infusing new blood and promoting new ideas. New politics, after all, requires fresh approaches to the way politics is conducted.
The writer is national vice president, BJP
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