THE BLUE LINE APPROACH OF INDIAN POLITICAL PARTIES
Blog by RAMESH.V.NAIVARUNI
From the state of Anarchism which in a literal sense of terms means “Stateless society”, as it promotes individual interest and syndicalism promotes individuals with ego centric approach the rule, The next form of Governance is Monarchy which is a rule by a King and his council of minister with absolute and conclusive Statehood and a unwritten rule book. Here the succession is through the blue line or lineage, the third in the line of political reform is Oligarchy which in simple terms means a rule by few, could be a group or from the members of a Family again this is just another step of statehood where only few holds the key to the Governance, communism which is a all inclusive approach to share people wealth or what we could call a rule by a Party to which all must agree approach, Finally democracy is a rule by the people and here the will of the people will rein supreme and absolute and refined form of Governance which is the most powerful and accepted method of Governance . It was in 1213 AD the Mangna carta was signed by the British crown transferring power to rule from him can be said to be the beginning to the process of democratic governance.
India is one amongst the finest example of this practice and it is the first country ever to practice democracy beginning at Lichavi where panchayat comprising of people would decided what should be done and majority approval sought and such proposals or projects gets the sanctioned which according to me is the ultimate form of democratic traditions practiced anywhere in the world.
Having said this the free India also adopted Democratic traditions with a well defined constitution and during its journey the governing parties mixed the Blue line approach of succession beginning with Pandit Nehru, Indira Gandhi, Rajeev Gandhi , Sonia Gandhi and now the heir apparent Rahul Gandhi .
The Congress party can be said to have left this bad precedent which does not augur well with the basic tenets for democratic Governance and practices.
The rule by succession or by the blue line has not ended with Congress, but has gained a firm ground with other national and regional parties embracing such blue line method to promote self interest and family rule which defeats the very reason why we should have had democratic form of Governance . Our leaders have wilfully fooled the people in believing ,that they are the champions of democracy ,while practicing pseudo-democratic practices which in fact in India borders around the earlier rule by the Kings with respective Kingdoms .The only difference between the two is that now they are called States instead of Kingdom.The ascension to the throne is by the heir apparent and this is prevalent today in most of the States barring few with leftist rule.
The de-generation of popular mandate and internal democracy can be traced backed to the times of Mahatma Gandhi, who unknowingly favoured his candidate Pathabi Sitaramiah against the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose for the presidential election of the congress at Tripuri in 1939 .
The Mahatma made a blatant statement that “ Sitaramiahs defeat is my defeat” which brought in a situation where Mr.Subhash Chandra Bose had to resign, as Mahatma who was very popular had polarised the congress with his followers like Pandit Nehru who is even today itermed as Mahatma’s successor. It is because of Gandhiji persistence Pandit Nehru became the first Prime Minister of India and rest of the succession is the by product of this tragic episode.
While we could see Indira Gandhi with Prime Minister Nehru during his soujourn abroad as Prime Minister we really can fault Nehru of promoting Mrs Indira Gandhi to take over from him. It was people like Kama raj in 1967 who put the rule books to winds and paved her way to the Top Indian Job as Prime Minister ignoring the popular leader like Moraji Desai.This lead for dynastic successions thereafter, thus reversing the tenets to democratic approach to Governance.
We have Rahul as well ,in the line of succession waiting for his time ,to stake his claim for Premier ship of India, the leadership craved congress ,will ready accept even his wife or his son in future as well thus making the election slogan of the 1980’s true which was “AFTER INDIRA IT WILL BE SANJAY, THEN RAJEEV, RAHUL AND THEN IT WILL BE POSTERITY.
During Indira Gandhi’s period when Mr.Rajeev Gandhi dated Sonia it was his personal affair, but today congressmen has made her the president of Congress. They were wanting her to adron the chair of premiership of India , it is because of the factured Electoral verdict she gave up in favour of Mr.Manmohan Singh. To be fair to Mrs.Soniaji it was a sacrifice and let us give her the credit. Our late leader Rajeev Gandhi was also not interested in politics as such let us consider the entry of the Itialian Sonia co-incidence. Todays we are told that Mr.Rahul is having a affair with a Spanish Girl who is a faceless character as far as todays politics but what about tomorrow will our children be asked to accept the face less lady as our leader by the future Congress leaders which will put to shame 120 crore people of India to shame as we are not able to churn out one single individual to rule us. The fault does’nt lie with either Mr.Rajeev or Mr.Rahul and according to me both of them are innocent, the cardinal of Congress or the Kitchen cabinet who is soley responsible for such sycophantic approach to embrace Gandhi house hold. While there is no question about how competent they were, in fact I would regard Mrs. Indira Gandhi as one of the greatest leaders of the free India and I would rate her above Pandit Nehru and it is only the way there were put into the top jobs at is questionable.
while we haven’t come across such practices in other National parties like Left, & BJP so far. The regional player like RJD,TDP,DMK,AIDMK,BJD,JD and samajwadi parties are few glowing examples of Blue line culture. Everybody Leader has their heir apparent to take over from them when they retire.
In Tamil nadu the DMK has gone to such an extent that Dr.Karunanidhi decided which son will be the next Cheif Minister and which one will be the Central Minister. His daughter will be Rajya Sabha M.P, it looks like the entire State of Tamilnadu is being distributed to his family. He reminds me of our Joint family patriarch approach to ancestral property and as a Kharta of the family, he has done his part to distribute Tamil nadu amongst his clan.
The second leading party in Tamil nadu AiADMK is no different, the Late M.G Ramachandran was succeeded by his wife Janki Ramachandran and thereon, his one time favourite screen pair, Ms. Jayalalitha also claimed his legacy and ruled the State.
In Karnataka the dynastic politics was initiated by Mr.Deva Gowda the former Prime Minister of India, this willy politician wanted his son Mr. Kumaraswany to become the cheif minister and he even paved way for his ascension by asking his son to join hands with BJP who he terms “Communal”. Even after this episode he wanted the people of Karnatakato believe his party is secular and he is the champion of the minority. The moment Mr.Kumaraswamy’s terms of 20 months concluded he ensured BJP did not get the chance to rule for the remaining 20 months.While he had said he could not do a thing when Kumaraswamy took away the legislators, but when it came for his son to hand over the Mantle to Mr.Yeddurappa of BJP he was in total control over his son and the party. This led to the dissolution of the Assembly with more than 20 months to go and there by causing a loss to the exchequer..
In Andhra it was the Son-in –law Mr.Chandra babu Naidu who was the strategist behind emergence of TDP which encased upon the face value of legendary actor N.T.Ramaroa, ensured the very persona who is the cause of TDP to come to power was thrown out and ascended the throne of Andhra Pradesh.
The Indian political scene is incomplete without the mention of Mr.Lalu Prasad Yadav who rose to stardom through the student route during the emergency days after he was indicted on the fodder scam,he ensured his otherwise reculant house wife Mrs.Rabri Devi succeeded him. The people of Bihar had to accept this housewife as their Cheif Minister till the next elections.
The Indian political parties and its leaders has made commendable effort to erode and efface the tenets of democratic governance and the casuality is the democracy itself. This has lead to the paradigm shift in people perceptions of democracy and this perspective value is the reason for low voting averages .Over a period of time this degeneration will lead to total collapse of this form of governance and people will definitely want a chance and the change must be for better. For the moment the Indian Political Establishment has put our democracy into a comatose slumb and if corrective actions are not taken now, it will go into a coma and we will not be able to revive it and it is better that we act now. We need to relook into our Constitution and enhance the scope of Riight to recall the leader under representation of People act and might it more rigid which will ensure that the elected representative behave themselves.
However cynical we are about our political parties yet we as people of this country, have a huge responsibility, to reverse this de-generationg by throwing out people and parties by using our fundamental right to vote. This will ensure proper people with clear views comes into politics. Hence we should not allow the politician to bring in the blue line approach and if anybody tries we should make it loud and clear that this is democracy & ‘WE WILL NOT ACCEPT THE BLUE LINE APPROACH” ANY MORE.
HERE THESE WORDS FROM LORD KRISHNA I FEEL IS APT.
“KARMA, DHARMA, SWDHARMA AND YAGNA KARMA ARE VARIOUS NAUSIANCES OF WORK,
KARMA IS INDIVIDUAL WORK, DHARMA IS GROUP ORIENTED WORK, SWADHARMA IS GROUP ORIENTED INDIVIDUAL WORK AND YAGNA KARMA IS ‘EGOLESS, SELFLESS GROUP ORIENTED WORK.
BHAGAVAT GITA PREDICTS PREDICTS PEACE, PROSPERITY WHEN SOCIETY ENGAGES IN YAGNA KARMA.”
All these are embedded in the psyche of all of us, all that we need to do is to refresh them and remploy them and communicate a healthy work culture and values.
RAMESH.V.NAIVARUNI
16TH FEB 2011
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