Guest Column
Mohammad Tariq Ghazi
“Ideological” parties were destroyed, rendered ineffective (through turn-coat-ism) by the Congress under none other than Chacha Nehru. Communist Party of India of Dange, Gopalan, CPI-Marxist of Namboodripad and Jyoti Basu, Socialist Party Of Acharya Narendra Dev, Rammanohar Lohia, JP and Raj Narain (and its offshoots Praja Socialist Party [PSP] and Samyukta Socialist Party [SSP]) are all dead.
Then the Swatantra Party of India formed by C Rajagopalachari, which ideologically was a carbon image of Britain’s Conservative Party.
On the contrary, Chacha Nehru mentored a young Atal Behari Vajpayee of the then Jan Sangh, sent him to the UN General Assembly as a member of the Indian delegation with instruction to the then Indian rep at the world body to help the youthful JS leader (editor of RSS journal Panchajanya) in whom the Chacha had seen a future prime minister of India.
No problem. Vajpayee had the quality to lead the nation. But so did Dange and Lohia, Gopalan and Jyoti Basu although none of them – despite some of them being Brahmins – had the privilege of grooming like Vajpayee.
In the absence of national leadership and national political outfits of any other ideological shade, India turned to parochialism, with the emergence of provincial parties in almost every single state without national stature or appeal. Another bitter fruit of this situation is the abnormal rise of political dynasties, again led by the family of the Chacha, which has deprived the country of drawing on its talent.
That is a dangerous trend. The first outcome of this policy is the emergence of the BJP as the only available national choice, and ironically the Congress is moved to ICU in a vegetative state. Its leaders, some of them highly capable like Shashi Tharoor, Salman Khursheed, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mani Shankar Aiyer, etc, couldn’t grow under the banyan tree and have lost self-confidence to lead the country on their own.
Communist and Socialist parties have lost relevance in today’s world. The current trend of hiding within parochial-dynastic cocoons will further strengthen the negative forces giving power to criminal gangs which are already in ascendance. In these circumstances, energetic visionary youth like Kanahya Kumar, Mahua Moitra, Indu Chaudhari, Alka Lamba, Arfa Khanam Shervani, Shehla Rasheed, Kannan Gopinathan, are not likely to serve as good ports unless they come together. In my opinion, such other young men and women should huddle together in a national conclave, clinically analyze the deteriorating national situation, give a new meaning and title to our political aspirations and provide a formidable national alternative.
Muhammad Tariq Ghazi is a well-known Canada based writer, journalist, and poet
Tariq Ghazi Email: m.tariqghazi@gmail.com