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Sikh PM AGAIN?
Elections
Over, Real Fun Is On; Also On Is Shameless Opportunism
Gian Inder Singh
Indian elections
are over, and the real fun is currently on. Exit polls are laying
out spread charts and pie diagrams for you, and psephologists,
banned by the Election Commission from carrying out these exit polls
till the last the beeps was heard from the Electronic Voting
Machines, are totting up numbers declaring who possibly will get to
rule India.
The trouble,
unfortunately, is that it is not clear whose numbers are to be added
to whom. Younger generations of Sikhs brought up in western
countries would have little idea how the idea of democracy in
India
swings between booth capturing, money-mafia-muscle propelled voting
and post-poll wheeling-dealing. As for the poor common man, the much
hyped ‘Aam Aadmi,’ he loses all control over the exercise being
played out in his name after his finger is smudged and a beep is
heard from behind the make-shift cloth curtain in a dingy room in a
panchayat school.
Little does it
matter to the politician that the school where he cast his vote had
been crying for a teacher for years, or the dispensary next door has
not seen a doctor in years. The hoopla over casting your vote and
exercising your right has been hyped to a great extent by not just
the politician but also the media, as if the entire notion of
democracy rests on the idea of balloting. The democratization of
every aspect of life, of institutions, of the body politik's
functioning has been made reductive by the middle classes and
limited to the idea of "Jaago Re and Go to Vote."
In Punjab, the
Akali Dal has tied up with the BJP, and among its star campaigners
was Narendra Modi of the Gujarat riots fame, refused visa by one
after the other country, including the United States, for his role
in the public massacre of Muslims. This Akali Dal-BJP alliance is
fighting against Congress which tried to sell the idea of a "Sikh as
PM Again". Unfortunately, among the many politically correct noises
that Manmohan Singh made was also a very shrill note. He asked the
people to move on from the issue of 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom,
forgetting that it is exactly what Narendra Modi tells the Muslims.
Move on from 2002 killings.
 Surely,
the Sikh community has every reason to feel let down. It has been
let down by the ruling Akali Dal, which has turned into a
"mainstream" political party in the worse sense of the term and
entered into an unprincipled alliance with the BJP. It has been let
down by the Congress for years and now let down by a Sikh PM on the
one issue that has grabbed the community's focused attention.
Post-poll, of
course, most Indian voters are bracing themselves to be let down.
Political parties are racing against the deadline to re-jig all
principles, known stances, old anti-pathies and promises to dump or
pick up any new ally. India has been hanging itself by a long rope
for many years now, and its Parliament will have a hung verdict once
again. The entire media’s attention is focussed on permutations and
combinations, and little on why the hell do people ‘hang’ this
Parliament every time they are get a chance.
 Ask
the Sikhs, or the Tamils, or the Dalits, or the Tribals, or the
internally displaced people (IDPs). Ask anyone who is not a part of
the entrenched brahamanical power lever system in this country. The
failure of the Indian electoral system and political parties to
address regional aspirations has thrown up SAD, TDP, AGP, AIADMK,
DMK, TRS, JD(U), SP, BSP and sundry other forces which should have
made the writing on the wall a font size 360 for any political party
with any serious aspiration to carry along the will of the people.
But when myopia is
organic to the nature of the dominant political parties, then the
regional forces will have little option but to break their vice like
hold. Unfortunately, even as the BJP, which is explicitly for a
strong center and hardly a votary of autonomy for states, and the
Congress, which makes politically correct statements but has a poor
‘on the ground’ record, flounder for legitimacy, the fact is that
both have been reduced to a position where they cannot even dream of
forming a government on their own. The regional players in turn were
becoming camp followers of one or the other group.
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In
times like this, the Sikh community needs to think for itself
the larger and deeper questions about the community’s quest for
bigger aims and its location in contemporary
history. Beware of thinking within the paradigm set by the
vested interests. Why hang like Parliament? |
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This seems to be
changing now. Various smaller players are playing off one against
the other. Both Congress and the BJP are assiduously running after
these regional parties, and the latter are rightly extracting
maximum benefits for their own people. The TRS for example fought
elections in Andhra Pradesh (which is also having Assembly polls)
with the TDP but has gone and joined the BJP because it has promised
formation of a separate state within 100 days of coming to power.
Nitish Kumar is pushing for special package for
Bihar and is
being wooed by both sides. So is Jayalalitha. Navin Patnaik says for
him Orissa's interests are top agenda, government at the Centre is
secondary.
It is the Akali Dal
where the story continues to be sad. Parkash Singh Badal is not even
calling it a political alliance. And he talks of unconditional
support to LK Advani as possible PM. Clearly, the understanding is
based on a continuous dilution of the panthic agenda, zero
opposition to highly provocative statements like consigning the
Anandpur Sahib resolution to the dustbin of history or claims in
Advani’s book about claiming credit for Operation Bluestar. Besides,
the understanding BJP leadership has had little problems with the
ascendancy of Sukhbir Singh Badal or complete autocracy within the
Akali Dal since it only makes the Advani-Badals tie up less
problematic.
In
times like this, the Sikh community needs to think for itself the
larger and deeper questions about the community’s quest for bigger
aims and its location in contemporary history. To be lured into
thinking within the paradigm set by the electoral players – a Sikh
as PM, etc – will be akin to hanging oneself by a long rope, just
like the Indian Parliament.
Let’s not go
hang ourselves. Let’s hang on. For a better, engaged, thorough
understanding of where we stand and where should we go from here. In
the age of alliances and coalitions, let’s strive to multiply forces
with the marginalised, the grassroots, the left out, the have-nots,
the larger greater majority. Indian electoral math calls us
collectively ‘minorities’. Let’s turn the tables. Who will be PM is
irrelevant in the larger scheme of things. But till then, we will of
course keep a watch on who will be, and how this Parliament ‘hangs’
itself. Happy Hung Parliament!
13 May 2009
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