PACHU MENON
The denial of the South Goa Lok Sabha ticket to state Mahila Congress chief will not gel well with the women cadre in the party which has all along complained of bias when it comes to nominating candidates from the weaker gender for elections.With talks about the move to reserve 33% of all seats in the Lok Sabha and in all state legislative assemblies for women doing the rounds, there were high expectations of the ‘Nari-Shakti’ making a visible impact on the governance of the country “ if given a chance. But, even the Modi-sarkar well-known for its path-breaking legislations has been quite circumspect about the notion of women empowerment aiding the BJP much in its quest for power in the 2019 general elections as seen by the parsimonious distribution of tickets to women aspirants who intend making a mark in national politics. Barring the few female ‘stalwarts’ who have been donning the party colours and winning elections all these years on their own merit, there is nothing new to show for the grand ideas purported. For that matter, when it comes to their leadership skills, the likes of Sushma Swaraj, Smithi Irani and Nirmala Sitharaman to name a few, have been beacons of excellence. But the disinclination to deviate from set patterns makes it laborious for the party leadership to take chances.
Another trend very much in evidence in modern politics has been the nomination of celluloid celebrities and sporting personalities by political parties to enhance their ‘vote-worth’. Dashing cricketer Gautam Gambhir is the new ‘recruit’ in the BJP camp. What it all boils down to is the ‘winnability’ quotient which has parties nominating candidates who are certain of wresting or retaining the seats for the party. Nominating Francisco Sardinha as its candidate for the South Goa parliamentary seat, the Congress has once again shown its unwillingness to flirt with the unknown preferring the comforts of deploying one from amongst its tried-and-test brigade to engage the enemy at the electoral front.
Continuing a monotonous trend in Indian politics where the ‘maturity’ gained of numbers of years in the field and not ‘youthful élan’ has been the prerequisite for contesting elections, the political parties have all along functioned within fixed frameworks. Contesting elections ‘independently’ has thus become the only means for young, dynamic and deserving politicians to make forays into the electoral scenario. Regional parties too have afforded ambitious youth similar opportunities in the past. But what transpires later is anybody’s guess. It should come as a shock to the BJP which prides itself in its cadre-based organization that its legislative wing in Goa today is propped up by ‘non cadre’ MLAs.
Further reasons to believe that the saffron-party in its new avatar has been giving more importance to winning elections and hanging on to power, even if it is to be achieved riding piggyback off the opposition’s confusions. However, the decision by the BJP to keep its leaders over 75-years of age off the poll-race in this year of elections would have come as a whiff of fresh air to a nation that is embittered by the sight of ‘elderly’ statesmen who continue to tread the country’s political scenario with gay
abandon.
Nevertheless, the BJP too appears to be unwilling to take any chances on the PM’s popularity to see it through in the ensuing parliamentary elections. With the party’s central election committee burning the proverbial midnight oil to finalize candidates based strictly on their ‘winnability’ criterion, it does appear that the ‘fiat’ is a convenient tool to see off the patriarchs in its ranks. An unceremonious exit if there ever was one, it is however surprising to note that the ‘age-bar’ has not been applied in toto when it comes to considering the nomination of many such leaders who by virtue of being avowed Modi-loyalists could yet find their names featuring in the subsequent candidates’ list.
Searching for transparency and democracy in the functioning of any political party is not that too easy a task either. Factions within factions, all riddled with their own brand of power-games, give the semblance of a house-of-cards which could collapse at the slightest hint of a major upheaval within the organization. By allowing politics to dominate in matters where principles should prevail, one will agree that it is a mad scramble where every leader is trying to hoist himself on to the higher rung of power hierarchy within the party organization. However, with each passing year the need to have young and dynamic leaders coming to the forefront of national politics to charter a new course for the country is being felt now as never before. Yet the manner in which old-age has never served to be an impediment for the seasoned politicians in our country to extend their innings forever is indeed a matter of concern.
From being a means to serve the public, politics is today a career that perceptive leaders can take pride in. However, just as in other professions, politicians too should have an age-limit on attaining which they too should think of relinquishing office honourably. The politics that typifies the ‘ouster’ of leaders over the brink to accommodate the new-order is at times heart-breaking.
It is said that with every changing order there are compulsions that force the establishment to take effective steps to strengthen its base. The younger leaders in the party taking over from octogenarian and nonagenarians are expected to breathe new life into an organization thirsting for fresh ideas to take it forward. The ‘maturity’ factor flaunted so abrasively as that one ‘virtue’ which makes the very-senior leaders in the party seemingly indispensable in its order of priorities has at times made it impossible for the party to clear the dead wood. Nevertheless, very few leaders in Indian political history have shown the desire to retire from active politics before the imminent downslide starts. There are always signals, but in their vainglory the leaders who have outlived their utility often fail to see them.
