For most part, Political Ideology in India is a ruse
Political ideology in India is dead. If someone makes you believe otherwise, you are most probably being fooled.
Not a day goes by when we don’t hear of terms like right wing, leftists, socialists and whatnot. While they sound fancy and proprietary, in reality they mean nothing as far as the nature of political ideology in India is concerned. A party headed by a man who claims to be principled and scrupulous comes in power with the help of another party credited with jungle Raj; after a while he dumps him to get into power again with the party with whom he had parted ways just 2 years back, supposedly on charges of communalism and authoritarianism. Interestingly, he had left his present ally due to ‘differences in principles’ and has joined it due ‘convergence of interests’, the interest being the so-called development of his state.
But amidst all this hullabaloo, is there really an ideological backing to all this? Do all (or at least most) political parties in India are guided by their principles? Apparently not.
Take the ruling party, for instance. While they claim to be a ‘party with difference’ much of their act has a precedence in Congress party. While they espouse the ideology of right — with pro-capitalism and (hyper) nationalism at its core, in essence they continuously try to subvert the established convention and try to promote themselves as a pro-poor party with an egalitarian worldview. While they try to show to the world that they are all-inclusive and tolerant, in essence they are extremely conservative, dogmatic, intolerant to liberal ideas and at most time, quite bigoted and jingoistic as well.
Globally, the right wing is usually associated with an economic policy that is expected to favor the business class. But in essence that’s hardly the case. The fall in fixed investment, decline in export, fall in consumer confidence, rigid and often convoluted business laws, rising debts are some of the economic indicators to show at the end of 4 years of our own right wing ruling party.
But that doesn’t mean that they shy away from making ‘tough’ decisions. It’s just that these turn out to be populist with little to no economic-sense at its heart. Demonetization in India and tariff barriers by Trump on some Chinese exports is proof of it.
So, in reality, the ruling party is not strictly a right wing ‘with difference’, it’s a sort of extreme right wing with only religious fanaticism at its core.
From that, let’s move on to a center (left or right?) party of Indian National congress. While historically they have been associated with progressive thinking and socialist economic policies, in essence, their history after the demise of first few leaders in independent India has been marked with corruption, appeasement policy and an economic policy dogged with backwardness and inflexibility. It’s no wonder that world over, the ‘center’ parties are ceding their space to left and right ones.
The proof to this lies in the emergency of 1975–77, Shah Bano Case, 1991 BOP crisis and numerous corruption charges not mention their aversion to progressive and liberal policies like rights to same-sex gender, free press etc. it’s only now that they have warmed up to some liberal ideas.
Despite that, they have shown remarkable ability to adapt. From time to time, they have taken some policy decisions that almost defy their pre-disposed ideology like the liberalization policy of 1990s. But then, is that not the whole point of this article? (Political Ideology being a ruse).
Similarly, the left does no better. Given their present status, it’s almost impossible to believe that they were the first to challenge the dominance of congress. Since then, they had split themselves into almost 200 different factions, all equally defunct. But while a big chunk of left has still stuck to its ideology, it has in many ways not worked to their advantage. In places, where they have tried to change themselves with time, it hasn’t worked their either. Look like they got a systemic problem.
Singur Land controversy, politically motivated killings in some left bastions has cast deep aspersions on their so called classless philosophy. The idea of proletariat deciding its fate has already been thrown out of the window. The little remnants of left ideology that remain are the ones which involve individual propriety of some of its leaders.
Elsewhere, we have got a dozen of recognizable political parties which as King Lear said, “Ebb and Flow by the moon’’. They go in the direction where the wind blows. While they don’t forget to take the moral high ground occasionally, except for ones in south India, most of their bluffs have been called on. They form an alliance on one pretext and break it on the other. Who can forget a regional so-called Dalit centric party which allied with a dominant upper caste Hindutva (with communal clientele) party in 2000s and then abandoned them on the verge on next election on the pretext of secularism? 10 years on, they are in alliance with the same party. It’s said that they are the only party who have never sat in the opposition. There’re hundreds if not thousands of such cases.
Despite this, it sounds almost funny when these parties come out in the public to portray themselves as an incorruptible, pro-poor, pluralistic, secular and all sort of modern egalitarian euphemisms that can be attributed only to a liberal. Political ideology in India is dead. If someone makes you believe otherwise, you are most probably being fooled.
