Who will lead us? Who be the mentor of the various ideologies, like JP Narayan was?
Illustration/Uday Mohite
My maternal grandfather was a politician, an old school politician; he came up the ranks, from the ICS to become Home Secretary and finally the Finance Minister in Morarji Desai’s short lived 1977-1979 government. He was HM Patel.
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For me the fascination with Indian politicians, especially those in the Opposition began in 1975. Indira Gandhi, the big bad villain of that chapter in Indian history, had bunged a bunch of rebel political leaders into jail, habeas corpus had been suspended, a state of Emergency was declared, the press had been muzzled, there was a huge common enemy, who had to be vanquished—at the time there was no singular party capable of taking on the Indian National Congress. But there was a true cast of colourful characters, from many splinter political parties—my grandad’s own Swatantra Party, Raj Narain’s Socialist Party, Jagjivan Ram and HN Bahuguna from Congress for Democracy, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani from the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, Parkash Singh Badal and his Akali Dal, there were some breakways from the Congress like George Fernandes and Chandra Shekhar.
In musical terms this was a supergroup, a bevy of heavyweights, who had to first unite, then win from their individual constituencies, and finally all agree to accept portfolios in Morarji Desai’s cabinet—this was a slew of superstars (including two future PMs) in the newly formed Janata Party.
Nestled in there was the birth of the BJP, in some ways the future of India was being discussed in that period, except no one knew it.
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I love Oppositions, especially in our country, often they are rabble rousers, finger pokers, always in criticise mode, they are rarely united, but they are always colourful The Janata boys had temporarily united because of their common fury at Mrs Gandhi and her son Sanjay, flying his private jet but toying with men’s private parts with his ‘Compulsory Sterilisation’ programme. It helped considerably that the people of India were also incensed with this dictatorial attitude.
Enter the Janata Party… who critically had a mentor, Jayaprakash Narayan, he was a socialist, a seer, a spiritualist, a soothing power able to get men of differing idealogies to come together on a common platform.
The portfolios were shared between men, who were, veteran socialists, trade union leaders and pro-business leaders— such a coalition had no chance of success—and true to form, they had been so busy defeating the enemy, that when the time came to rule, they squabbled, there were skirmishes aplenty and finally they fell apart before even completing a full term.
It’s been awhile since we’ve really had such madhouse drama on the political stage—the two men presently in power have really ruled the roost, the Opposition has been silenced, or have chosen to be silent.
With the Karnataka elections… I have a faint sense of déjà vu. The Opposition has won its first victory, they have won other victories, but for some reason this one is significant, the BJP seem a tad shaken— but once again there is ego drama-Siddaramaiah or Shivakumar? That familiar sense of “will they hold the peace long enough?”
As we head into the Lok Sabha elections of 2024, we may have our most colourful election yet. Only time will tell if the two men who lead our country are still the flavour of the decade—but if history tells us, that we need a change from the saffron brigade, then the fun will begin. Who is it going to be?
Who will lead us? Who be the mentor of the various ideologies, like JP Narayan was?
Who be our cabinet ministers from this ragtag bunch of Opposition leaders?
The street fighting Mamata Didi? The serene Navin Patnaik? The South dudes? The Bihar brigade?
And finally who will lead them?
Will my namesake be able to pull off another Bharat Jodo?
Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, photographer and traveller. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com
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