The Power Structure

As the election is getting closer, the Congress Party is working feverishly to protect its turf. They have not yet anointed the chosen ‘one’. Perhaps out of fear that they are about to get trounced in the election and they want to protect their brand, the Gandhi brand. Or maybe they have some grandstanding gesture up their sleeves akin to recent ordinance bill drama that will launch Rahul Gandhi in a positive light. Their recent maneuvers like freeing Mulayam Singh, imprisoning Lalu etc. are little confusing to me. I mean the Congress Party owns the government, they own the bureaucracy, they brazenly toy with the law and with the Supreme Court verdicts; they own CBI and they even own the media. It is really hard to beat them. If they win enough seats, around 200, then the Lalu’s and Mulayam will flock to them anyways.  Not sure what are they worried about!

Perhaps, Narendra Modi?

I always wonder how the Congress Party survives. The sycophancy, the moral, ethical and mental corruption, general lack of creativity and inability to keep up with the changing times should have obliterated the party long time ago.  Instead it got second wind ten years ago and it’s still kicking strong. The dynasty of Gandhi has been pretty successful.  They took advantage of parliamentary politics and used the dictatorial powers where necessary. Except for brief period of Shastri and Narsimharao government, these Gandhis have maintained absolute strong hold over Congress party. So much so that it is hard to believe that Congress party was the political voice of India before independence.  

How do you create a dynasty and maintain the power? First you destroy your enemies and win the ultimate seat of power. Then, you ruthlessly and efficiently weed out any internal opposition and create divisions among the rest. And finally, you create a system of favors and kick-backs that balances the contesting interest and ensure your supreme authority. Mind you achieving these targets is not easy. Especially the last part of granting favors appropriately is a very tough act. Once you figure out the balancing act, the results can be fabulous though. You have uncontested power that attracts money, which in turn, gives you more power to rule and dole out favors. The whole structure props itself up. Not a bad position to be! The Gandhis did exactly that with the Congress party.

The party of Congress soon became party of Nehru and Gandhis after independence. Jawaharlaal Nehru wasn’t the most popular by any stretch nor was he competent. But he was Mahatma Gandhi’s favorite and in pre-independence era that’s all it mattered. So Nehru was forced India as our first Prime Minster. So the first part of dynastic politics – grabbing power, was made easy for Gandhis ironically by another Gandhi.  What followed was systematic destruction of anything resembling democracy in the party. Nehru and his progenies became de-facto leaders. For example, Nehru installed Indira Gandhi as chief of Congress Party in 1958 in spite of presence of senior leadership in the party. There after the party slowly descended from party of people to private properly of Gandhis. Nehru-Gandhis became the rulers of India and Congress party became the instrument to rule.  Allegiance and prostration to Gandhi’s became primary criteria to survive and thrive in the Party. Their favors will get anyone a Lok-Sabha seat, a plum position in the government and open doors of riches for you. If you are in their good books you are sort of ‘made man’.  

Important to note here is that such submission was always by choice. No one has asked Manmohan to be who he is or to be in a position that he is. Sonia Gandhi did him a favor by choosing him as her Prime Minister over others and in return Manmohan will do anything to please her. Same applies to all sycophants from the era of Indira Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi.  The latest example is of Digvijay Singh, the erstwhile Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh. His ticket back to power is to stoop to any depths for Rahul Gandhi. His erratic, borderline anti-national statements are well planned to deflect any attention on the government failures and on Gandhi family. For his services he will be awarded at least a cabinet minister position if Congress is to come to power.

There is no wonder that these folks, the party, Gandhis and scores of beneficiaries of this structure hate Narendra Modi to the core. These people are enjoying fruits of power for last ten years. The Vajpayee era was bad for these folks, no power, no avenues to siphon money, nothing else to do. It took certain amount of luck to come back to power after Mr. Vajpayee. They ain’t gonna let power slip through their fingers easily. The systemic ways CBI was used to prosecute certain individuals while exonerating others is just the beginning. The ‘system’ will be in full force before election to ensure return of Gandhis to the power. 

Narendra Modi was never part of any system, he carries no sycophants or‘chamachas’ in his back pocket, he is incorruptible, he has no family history and no intention to establish dynastic politics. He is a shrewd politician who understands the necessities of playing dirty politics and he has huge mass appeal. In short he is anti-thesis of what Congress party and Gandhis stands for. Since he does not belong to the system, he has the best chance to beat the odds. I hope he does exactly that.