Political Diary

New Delhi, 8 November 2014

Reigniting Old JD Flame

WILL IT BURNISH OR BURN?

By Poonam I Kaushish

What is it about fuddy-duddies who believe and behave like spring chickens? Is it simply a case of the never-say-die spirit or a bout of reigniting the past and reveling in yesteryear glory? Is it about letting the devil take the hindmost? A typical classic example of a politician who refuses to hang up call it quits humming abhi toh main jawan hoon!

All this and more as one stands testimony to the rebirth nee rechristening of the Janata Parivar as Samajwadi Janata Dal early next year with the merger of Mulayam’s Samajwadi, Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (U), Lalu’s RJD, Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (S) and SJP. Mulayam is slated to head the new Front due to his seniority and because his Party rules over UP. Their new slogan, surprisingly not social justice but general issues read everything and nothing.

Raising a moot point: How effective can this band of 13 garrulous petty leaders be in countering Modi? Will the SJD be able to salvage its credibility and reputation as a mature national Party capable of providing leadership? Can it rise from the debris in time for the next poll? After all, the fates of the Janata-Samajwadi regimes are alive in public memory.

Indeed, history has come a full circle, a repeat of the 1967 watershed. The rise of the Socialists on the ashes of the decline of the Congress in North India. Then the Samyukta Vidhayak Dal (SVD) meteorically replaced the Congress in the affection of the masses and just as suddenly collapsed through defections and splits.

Only to sphinx-like, emerge in the garb of a new knight donning a shiny armour in the form of VP Singh Janata Dal. Formed on the basis of a negative political sentiment under a leader it was inevitable that the Janata Dal would split, third time, its brief stint in office in 1989, amoeba-like again in 1990 Chandrasekhar, 1992 Mulayam, two years later George Fernandes-Nitish Kumar’s Samata Party, 1997 Lalu and 2003 Fernandes, Nitish and Sharad Yadav form Janata Dal (U). 

One marvels at the poverty and perennial optimism of the Indian polity. Or should one call it sadistic streak. Either way, time and again it has been singed by the same psyche of the birth of a new political identity. By more or less the same people or by their successors who doused their tattered and discarded mantle. This is precisely what happened today.

Ironically, the new avatar will continue to scrap the dredges from the political cauldron to take on challenger Modi. Paradoxical for a Party whose leaders rest on their laurels as a champion of the backward classes which comprise 52 per cent of country’s population all eyes are on who will emerge as the poor men messiah.

Two things are however crystal clear. First, its immediate impact will almost wholly be confined to Janata Dal politics in Bihar which goes to polls next year and Uttar Pradesh in 2016. More than anyone else, Nitish-Lalu are worried whether the Modi wave sweeping across will envelop them leaving them rudderless. The Lok Sabha result which knocked off all of them with the SP only winning 5; RJD 4; JD(U) 2 and JDS 2 Lok Sabha seats respectively.

Already the loss of confidence within the rank and file might turn into a gain for the BJP as the confused cadres would move towards the right-wing Party rather than stay in their  regional outfits. The trend has already started in Bihar wherein the JD(U) trickle may turn into a flood, so far as its members are concerned, the new Party looks like beginning to resemble some kind of a liabality. Hence the urge to leave.

Also, the regional satraps based their ideology of bringing about social justice in the form of Mandalisation on the nation, compelling all Parties into competitive “backwardisation”, finds themselves outsmarted by the Modi-Shah duo’s social engineering. Leaving the State leaders sans platform and sans utility --- even for appearances sake.

All failed to realize that ideology alone can never be a strong enough cementing force. Organisation is crucial. The problem is that the concept of SJD and the demands of organisational rigour are completely out of gear.  More so when personal opportunism rules the roost. In the process the concept of discipline stands heavily devalued.

The SJD amalgamation is at best partly due to its regional satraps failure to evolve each of their respective parties from a dynasty-centric unit into a truly decentralised party with a federal structure. It remains to be seen if the SJD functions as an agglomeration of regional groups with a few prominent national level leaders at the top. In organisational terms, will it recognise itself as such?

As a top Samajwadi Janata Dal leader explained: “The Party will be like the Ganga and the Yamuna. Both rivers meet at the Sangam in Allahabad. But the waters of the two rivers retain their separate colour and identity for quite some distance. How? That is when again petty politics and trivial issues will cause a rift.

The cruel irony is that the splits, mergers and splits again have been a tragic-comedy in Indian politics, with the result that the voters may not take the new Party and its regional brood seriously. The only things tragic about the continuing soap-opera it has given rise to another regional party, whose early demise too is predictable.

Unfortunately, all this is happening at a time when there is tremendous social sanction and a large space for the polities of the JD variety. But alas the new political amoeba of petty men and groups is a shadow of their original self.

The question uppermost in political circles is how will the SJD iron out egos, inter party and intra party differences. Egos, prejudices, mutual suspicions and perceived slights. These are the special genetic defects in the regional outfits. As a result, time out of number as the innumerable splits bare out internal contradictions spill out in to the open with a voluble bunch of leaders factually functioning or fighting.

The self styled Third force needs to do a lot if it has to emerge as something much more than just a conglomerate of leaders and vote banks. It has to go in for honest and brutal introspection and evolve a national agenda. One wonders how Lalu will overcome his personal animosity towards Mulayam given that the Samajwadi Chief can give him a hard run.

It remains to be seen whether Mulayam-Nitish-Lalu-Gowda can usher in a new Made in India era!  Will at least some one listen to their swan song? Or will their only salvation be in splinting up yet again? Will it be a known outfit or a Party unwept and unsung. Only time will tell. ----- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)