NEW DELHI, 10 July 2004 — The issue of leadership in India has taken on a new intensity and added dimensions as the media keeps an ever-closer eye on the country’s leaders. The chaos that resulted during former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s deliberation over Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s political past and future in a recent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) conclave is a mild reflection of this fact. This raises the question — is India slipping into a phase of leadership crisis or is it moving out of one?
Recent elections have confirmed two points. Firstly, the hype over Vajpayee and L. K. Advani’s national leadership lacked credibility and secondly, the BJP-led coalition has been pushed out of power with another coalition taking its place. However, the latest elections have not produced any national leader to take the helm.
Certainly, Sonia Gandhi played a major part in reviving her party’s political fortunes, but Congress is still a long way off sweeping the Lok Sabha polls on its own strength. Strategic planning, by Congress, aligning with like-minded parties and targeting BJP on issues that appealed to voters at the grass roots coupled with anti-incumbency factor, shaped the present Lok Sabha.
When Indian politics is not overshadowed by a larger-than-life image of any single leader or party, it stands stronger.
This political reality is partly supported by the increasing importance of numerous ethnic and regional parties. The possibility of these parties marginalizing their own identity to merge with larger ones are as good as non-existent, at least in the near future.
No matter how supportive Lalu Prasad Yadav may be of Congress leader Sonia Gandhi, he would rather retain his identity as RJD chief than agree to become a Congress leader. The same can be said of Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) association with the BJP.
The majority of parties are bound by domineering force of a selected leader (or leaders). Where will these parties be, once these leaders lose credibility or appeal? The BJP is passing through this phase at present. Stunned by the failure of Vajpayee’s “India Shining” campaign and Advani’s nationwide tour, the suggestion that the two make way for younger generation leaders is probably an acceptance of a gnawing reality; a leadership crisis.
At present, Congress does not face the same crisis. There are young and competent leaders in the ranks and a new set of youthful leaders are being groomed. But if Sonia Gandhi decides to step back, where would the party be and who will take over the reins?
The same can be said about the overwhelming importance held by Jayalalitha, Mayawati, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Sharad Pawar, Lalu Prasad in their respective parties. To a degree, this weakness does not prevail to the same intensity in Left bloc parties, which include largely committed party workers with their respective ideologies deeply ingrained into their thought.
With the Indian political spectrum never devoid of active politicians, every party’s fate could well be in the hands of other parties or groups. New parties too have mushroomed and they too can take the place of established parties. Many small parties have gained importance because of their leaders’ political appeal to select classes.
If the Samajwadi Party, of Mulayam Singh, and Bahujan Samaj, of Mayawati, parties owe their prominence to support from certain Hindu classes and Muslims, Shiv Sena owes it to primarily right-winged Hindus.
The Gujarat-carnage helped BJP return to power in the state’s assembly elections, but, following a rout in the national elections, where will it place the BJP in two years’ time?
A basic test of any leader’s credibility, from the people’s angle, is his or her pledges. Are they in line with people’s needs and desires or do they bear stronger characteristics of leaders’ whims or the party’s agenda? Whenever leaders accord greater importance to promoting and, while in power, imposing their own agenda than that which is shaped by people’s rationality, it amounts to setting the stage for their own downfall.
The electoral verdict has confirmed that the phase of Indian voters being easily fooled by rhetoric has passed.
The collapse of the rhetoric strategy is an aspect of the current leadership crisis, which only enhances the credibility of Indian democracy.
