From time to time, issues keep emerging that agitate public opinion – be it the temple offerings theft, the NEET paper leaks, or even felling of trees for widening of a road in Dehradun. Protests are a natural outcome, offering an opportunity to opposition parties even to take political advantage. So, why are they not succeeding in taking these agitations towards significant and positive outcomes?
One reason is that most parties are stuck in outdated ideological narratives, not having kept up with the changed socio-cultural environment. Another even greater shortcoming is that party leaders are the same old jaded lot, who have tasted, both, power and electoral defeat, but not made any kind of any positive impact during decades’ long careers. Most parties being proprietorial outfits, change of leadership and evolution of ideology has not taken place. So, when these parties rush to take advantage of government failure, they fail to excite the people. It takes an outsider like the present Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay to break the ceiling, but it happens very rarely. Mostly, it is the sons and daughters of leaders (who were themselves political progeny) that control the parties and the narrative. Mostly, they believe that the political system will go full circle by itself and oust incumbents – presently the BJP almost everywhere. So, all they need is to wait their turn, as voters have few other choices. Therefore, why take the trouble to upgrade and update their parties? ‘Leaders’ such as Rahul Gandhi of the Congress, or Akhilesh Yadav of SP, for instance, have been functioning, more or less, in this fashion. Those like Prashant Kishore, who have attempted to break the mould have had little success because of having little of substance to offer.
Part of the electorate’s lack of enthusiasm is due to the experience with the Aam Aadmi Party. It rose to power on the back of Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement, but within years succumbed to the lures of being in office. It had to make many compromises to keep its flock together, but ended up totally exposed as just another party. So, people are now wary of getting too excited about any revolutionary movement or change. The manner in which AAP and TMC MLAs and MPs have jumped ship shows how little ideology plays a role in present day politics. In a democracy, however, there always remains scope for improvement and, hopefully, a better class of leader will emerge in the near future.
