Politics of opportunism vs idealism

Prof. Govind ji Pandey

The recent elections in two states of India, Haryana and Maharashtra, once again proved that, a democracy is not by the people, for the people and of the people. Democracy has become a sacrosanct concept and is being used by the dictators of many nations from North Korea to China, where the concept of democracy is practiced in a completely different manner. In North Korea, the dictator claims that he is an elected president.

The Peoples Republic of China has people and republic both the elements required for a democracy in its name and an elected head of the State as well. But if you ask the people of China you will get the feel of democracy practiced in China.

The idea of democracy in India is also very vague. It is merely related to organizing the elections every five years and one party or another will replace the government. But the democracy in its true sense never practiced in India. It is visible in the recently concluded elections, the no matter how corrupt a politician is, he will be given a warm welcome by all the national parties if he happens to have some numbers in Loksabha or Vidhansabha.

The recently concluded elections in Haryana and Maharashtra is a great examples of politics of opportunism as compared to the politics for the nation or people of India. The aftermath of the elections saw a rat race to grab the support of independent MLA's by both Bhartiya Janta Party and Congress Party.

Both the national parties were trying to get support of the independent MLA's where one Gopal Kanda was booked for a very serious crime and spent some time in prison as well. But the Manohar Lal khattar government which was just six steps away from forming the government, got the support from both independent MLA's and Jayant Chautala's Party.

Congress which is now a visible loser was also trying its best to get the support of both Chautala and Independents but they fail to garner support form them. The visible reasons are BJP being the ruling party can offer more, and we all know that the Indian politicians always go by the philosophy of " ye dil mange more" .

After loosing the battle of support to the BJP, the obvious response of the Congress was to criticize the alliance, which they also tried their level best to forge. But this corrupt practice is not a reflection of leaders sitting in the stats or willing to become Chief Minister, It reflects the values of central leadership of their respective parties.

The same story is repeated in Maharashtra also where BJP is having alliance with Shiv Sena. The alliance partner for the last five years never missed a single chance to criticize BJP government in Maharashtra as well as in Center. But the greed of power keeps leaders to remain silent even in a situation where someone with high moral values will never accept it.

The visible differences between BJP and Shiv Sena leadership is not a question to be tackled at the party level but the focus is on bull's eyes i.e. Government. Every political party is keen to form government because they know that the road to wealth comes from having a supportive leadership.

Shiv Sena , a regional party with an ambition of establishing Aditya Thakre as their next generation leader will go to any extent and this is know to the BJP state as well as center leadership. But they are not saying a single word against the Shiv sena fearing that they may take the other route to form the government in the State.

We all know that in India regional leadership played very important role in the politics but we can not compromise the interest of the nation for simply forming the government. The onus is more on national political parties to establish a politics of great values so that the regional parties are forced to follow it. Until and unless we move towards the broader objectives the politics of opportunism will rule the Indian political landscape.