Why are our political parties jittery?, Political parties, politics, Indian politics, Youth in politics, Youth, latest and breaking news.

Why are our political parties jittery?, Political parties, politics, Indian politics, Youth in politics.

It was in the packed hall of St Stephen's College, among a barely-out-of-adolescence crowd, that I had a bit of an epiphany.

Listening to writer Amitav Ghosh talk about 25 years of his novel The Shadow Lines and watching girls toying with their smart phones, I realised our political parties seemed to be at the same kind of crossroads as this 18-to-21-year-old crowd.

For this crowd, an existential crisis for identity was a natural step towards adulthood. Our political parties are in an awkward phase, dithering between their traditional outlook, wanting to live up to what new India supposedly wanted from them and also terrified of letting go of their past pretensions.

Out with the New

Look at the Samajwadi Party (SP), prototype A for those with an identity crisis. The SP's longest calling card has been its pro-Muslim, socialist image nurtured by patriarch Mulayam Singh who wrestles down any suggestion of change, be it in the aspiration for English or in the use of computers. Then, around two years ago, his son takes over and turns around that identity on its head.

Akhilesh tells us things have changed not just by his own Australian education but by also launching a scheme for laptops. We don't hear anything about Muslims in his speech, just about hope and employment, and we start to think, yes, the heartland is changing. We forget that Akhilesh was failing to deliver on his promises and Daddy was still the boss.

The SP still projected the new identity that was spun by Akhilesh and his IIM buddy and cabinet colleague Abhishek Misra. Akhilesh spoke in Hindi, sure, but his wife and, why, even veteran Ram Gopal Yadav gave interviews in English.

We were all getting used to this new mantra of the SP when last week, suddenly, Akhilesh pops up on our TV screens wearing a skullcap. It could be that he was just seeing off Haj pilgrims in Lucknow and media caught him there for his comments on Muzaffarnagar. But it could the identity politics of old.

Finding the Rout Cause

Recently, at a brainstorming session in Agra, SP-wallahs voiced their angst. Older voices like Abu Azmi urged the party to forget laptops and dole schemes and go back to their roots. A newspaper reported them as saying, "We want the old SP where Muslims felt safe."

Akhilesh, young but not so fresh any more, had nothing to say. The SP is trying deal with the Muzaffarnagar riots, even though its culpability extends to allowing the riots to happen and doing little to stop it quickly.

What about the Congress? Throughout the UPA regime, we've heard that it runs a pro-development, growth-oriented government led by economist Manmohan Singh. Its spin doctors threw high GDP figures in our faces and talked about the potential of the great Indian middle class and youth. Today, there's a serious identity crisis brewing.

Talk to a Congressman about 2014 strategy and you'll hear echoes of Indira Gandhi's "Garibi hatao" campaign, "The poor person will know that at least we are supplementing their meal, that at least one daily meal is on the UPA."

The new — actually, the old — Congress identity is clear from the new Bharat Nirman ads: catering to deprived people, offering identity cards and cash transfers. From being the party that liberalised and opened up the economy, the rhetoric is back to the mai-baapstate of the 1950s-70s. The throwback to the 1970s and garibi references become specially stark in Rahul Gandhi's recent speeches.

He not only improvises some old slogan about "eating one roti" but makes it very clear who he represents, "We promise that our government will be a government of the poor, Dalits and adivasis." So, the CII address was just a gimmick?

Turning an Old Leaf

Between those going back to their Muslim vote bank and those claiming to be "soldiers" of the poor, lies the identity crisis of the BJP. Just like the SP's modern face was stripped away in Agra, the RSS men emerged after the two-day meeting with BJP to clear any doubt about who calls the shots in the political party.

The party attacks the UPA on the economy, talks about governance, but in its internal meetings, it's only Hindutva that matters. India Shining didn't work, and without a clear vision, the Temple is the only fallback.

In Parliament, it looks angry, disrupts sessions and then helps the Congress pass all its vote-getting Bills.

Here's another dimension to the BJP's crisis. Its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was always known to shun appeasement politics: his fans loved that he didn't pander to minorities like other politicians and his men wouldn't even bother to campaign in Muslim-dominated constituencies.

But in the last conclave, Modi told his men to reach out to Muslims, "If 25% of them in Gujarat voted for me, why not in 2014 elections?" Just like a college kid desperately looks around for a career choice to get his parents off his back, our netas are desperate in this uncertain moment before 2014. And they're nervous, as they look for an identity that has "one size fits all" written all over it.

source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

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