Politicians just don't get the point

By M H Ahssan

The fears of a backlash from well-meaning, well-heeled but utterly clueless folk receded after the polling date in Mumbai last Thursday. The melee of amateurs in the political arena presented an unseemly spectacle. The entrenched political class heaved an audible sigh of relief when the middle class protesters did not turn up at the polling booths. They found unexpected and admirable support from media professionals. It was an unholy alliance at the best of times but there it was loud and clear and in black and white.

The arguments made on behalf of the politicians were quite interesting if not very original. It was pointed out that politicians possessed the rare and essential quality of striking compromises instead of riding high on hobby horses, and that without the ability to compromise the country could come to a grinding halt. The second thing in favour of politicians was that they do not entertain fancy notions of change and setting things right, and that they have a sure grasp of what is possible.

It is hard to deny that in a large and diverse country like ours where there are billion opinions, nothing can be done without compromise. Also, however grimy and disappointing the existing system, you have to make it work instead of an unworkable, if idealistic, alternative.

It is indeed difficult to argue against counsel of sanity and realism that the commentators made with such force and clarity and won such welcome reprieve for the beleaguered politicians. Thanks to the efforts of the experts, on May 16 the old, tried faces with the old, tired phrases will return to parliament.

One of the insidious arguments made against the hapless greenhorns who dared enter the fray was that the ordinary people would prefer to trust the old devil of a politician rather than an untested angel. That seems to have settled the case against the gatecrashers.

There is a problem that remains, which both the politicians and the experts just overlooked in their eagerness and anxiety to push out the good-for-nothing newcomers who did not take care to learn the ropes before attempting to step in. That is the fact of the political stalemate that the election is likely to throw up on May 16.

The fractured mandate that has been in vogue since the 1989 election is being interpreted to mean that it is a fractured polity, that competing interests are each staking their claims. The parties are a mirror reflection of this divided polity. It is both a cunning and charming explanation, and like all things cunning and charming it does not contain much truth. The fact behind the fractured mandate is not so much of different sections at odds with each other. It is that people do not seem to trust political parties and politicians as we know them.

The fact that Congress with its hoary ideals of secularism and development is unable to garner enough numbers is not so much because there are other claimants to the same space but that the people do not trust the clichés any more. That is why the Congress is tumbling so predictably for so long. The BJP, which has wanted to ride to victory with its no-holds barred Hindutva agenda, failed to get the endorsement of the people election after election, and that in an ostensibly Hindu-majority electorate, which is quite conservative and temple-going in its own peculiar way. The communists thought that in a country comprising an overwhelming majority of the poor and the oppressed, it should be possible to get a mandate. But the poor in this country are not impressed by their rhetoric. The socialists of various hues, the motley regional parties, trip along the way all the time.

Every election, people are throwing out parties and coalitions and not giving a clear edge to others because they are not convinced by the ostensible wisdom of the political class. They are making a point, and the realists are ignoring it.