Electronic media has made Indian politics more and more entertaining. It?s beating Bollywood?s typical clich?d storylines of love, hate, fight, prison, poor man becomes rich man. Indian politics has more or less the same storylines except the love affair bit, making it Poliwood. Wonder why our political journalists are avoiding love affair diagnostics?
Actually we?ve got enough?titillating stories where politicians invoke celestial powers to get jobs done. Even animals enter the picture. De-throned Karnataka chief minister Yeddyurappa and current Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalitha had expressed gratitude by donating elephants to temples?after their political wishes were fulfilled. When UPA-SP Government won a trust vote in 2008, a Madhya Pradesh MLA sacrificed 265 goats and buffaloes, equivalent to 265 winning votes, in Guwahati?s Kamakhya Temple. Even Indira Gandhi had visited Ma Anandamayi with daughter-in-law Maneka, and Rajiv Gandhi, according to IPS news agency, had called on holymen when campaigning for reelection in 1989. A sadhu who lived in a tree placed his feet on Gandhi?s head, assuring him of success, but it didn?t work. The Congress was voted out of power. A few months ago, instead of inviting investors or industrialists, a yagna was held in West Bengal for getting business into the state. Did it work? A believer pointed out, ?Didn?t Hillary Clinton come to Kolkata last week to promise economic partnership??
Divine interpreters like swamis, bhagwans, astrologers, gurus, yogis, palmists, babas, faith healers, acharyas, numerologists dominate much beyond politics into their believers? daily lives. Several TV channels dedicated to religious pravachans have godmen dancing and singing in uncontrollable religious?fervor, their audience of thousands following suit. Reminds you of the effect rock stars in concert have on screeching fans. Some swamijis give 10 to 30 second predictions to individual disciples on live TV. Devotees kow-tow, scraping forward with folded hands, and openly discuss even intimate conjugal problems. They seem oblivious to the millions viewing them on the idiot-box, or other disciples jam-packed behind them, awaiting turns for confession or guru advice.
Politicians in different states get elected from this kind of society of diverse cultures, languages, food and religions with multiple deities. There?s no one belief system that people subscribe to, their mentality, behavior, way of acting, thinking differ radically. In contrast, cultures with one God have a principal belief system where it?s easier to get collective focus for a goal as?the overwhelming majority shares the same work ethic and worships in one direction. I?d written about how difficult Indian businesses find to extract disciplined quality work from employees from multiple god cultures (https://indianexpress.com/ news/is-quality-cultural/907947/0). As there?s no single point of adherence in a religion of multiple gods, the system can become irrational with no established point of convergence. When everyone interprets quality practices it?disrupts the laid-down business process. Just as individuals can fragment quality, can the situation in politics be?any different?
Members of Parliament get elected from their own states, and not all have a?national political background. When an MP becomes a national minister because of his/her party?s winning power or through alliance, partiality to the state of origin is obvious and human. So is the expectations from people of that state from the minister. There?s continuous compromise in the minister?s mind. The dilemma increases when he?s a minister in a government formed?by an?alliance of several parties: should he serve his own party, national interests or his constituency? This makes the entire central government system quite vulnerable, and no national leader can emerge, as seems to be the case in current Indian politics. Like a spring that stores accumulated force at a certain gravity to throw and retract its power, perhaps the monarchical political brand of the Nehru-Gandhi family has been so stretched that it?s worn everybody thin. After all, if you stretch the spring continuously, it evens out like a string and eventually breaks into pieces. Is this the situation with our national leaders today? On all issues of governance we seem to witness Bollywood-style histrionics or banana skin slips, where the banana skin can be clandestinely put in front of a politician by any of the many vested interests.
In a one party majority presidential system of government where the whole nation elects the leader there?s less of a chance for Poliwood drama. A strong personality with a supportive party can make the government stable. An interesting episode on Armistice Day, May 8, in France perhaps illustrates the strength of the presidential electoral system where control remains with the President. France has just voted Socialist Francois Hollande as president. Outgoing president Nicolas Sarkozy, for the first time in history, invited his successor to accompany him to Arc de Triomphe to commemorate the end of World War II. Sarkozy, who?d long lost people?s aspirational emotion as per polls especially in the last year, has suddenly warmed everyone?s hearts when in his May 6 defeat speech, he admitted that his personal defects made his party lose. He offered total co-operation to the new government and requested everyone to support Hollande. That?s democracy and reconciliation, forgetting the past to collaborate for national interest. It?s unlikely to happen, but I won?t be surprised if Hollande names Sarkozy as his prime minister!
In India, from being colonised by a gun-toting monarchical, British political system, we chose our current parliamentary politics. This democratic government process seems to match the diversity of our Hindu-dominated, multiple God culture where all politicians are perforce wary of banana skins, from voters and opposition alike. In trying to escape banana skins, how much attention are elected politicians paying to keeping their electoral promises? Only when the quality of politics is at a higher ground can there be better governance. Instead of giving us Poliwood stories of corruption, divisive politics, managing caste equations and allies, can we have our elected representatives resolve our many economic problems, and provide employment, education and health for the masses?
Shombit Sengupta is an international Creative Business Strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com
