Indian Politics has become a level playing field for opportunistic politics. Every political party jumps into it as and when they find it feasible for their political interests notwithstanding the repercussions it would have on the overall political scenario in the country. If we talk of opportunism in Indian politics, we shall have to look back at the political establishment during Congress regime. Congress ruled this country for about sixty years with small breaks in between. And if we sum up the out-come, it is more frightening than fulfilling. Let us start from the first PM Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru. Pt. Nehru could have very easily kept his daughter out of politics instead of making her Congress President. This was the first big example of nepotism in Indian politics. The other opportunistic thing he did was to declare Teen Murti house as his official residence. Subsequently Congress party, keeping the biggest building under its direct control named it as Nehru Memorial Museum and Library which set a negative precedence in the political circles. Since then, the descendants of all ruling party prime ministers and political heroes have named their dead ancestor’s home as memorials and monuments. This is one big example of political opportunism. All so-called secular parties tried to form a potential front against rising BJP but they perhaps never knew that it is going to take a lot more political opportunism to forge a credible alliance between parties, who have been hard core enemies for decades. An alliance between Mamata Banerjee and CPM, notwithstanding, Left and Trinamool Congress are lifelong enemies in Bengal, is bound to be seen as opportunistic. Their tall claims to democracy, secularism and religious pluralism is nothing but the most opportunistic appeasement of all non-Hindus.
It is clearly the dominating fear of a resilient Modi and BJP that has forced these so called secular parties to be together. Even Mamata’s call for a secular front to fight communal forces in 2014 election was a complete failure and in fact back fired on them resulting in Modi’s thumping victory. His model of prosperity and development highly influenced the young voters to vote for BJP. At a time when voters are demanding quality of life, pro-active political will and a dynamic government at the centre, the secular-communal rhetoric sounds hopelessly outdated. And now a very recent political opportunism has surfaced in the union capital which has contaminated and hijacked the whole Kissan Aandolan. Every political party wants to take political mileage out of this Kissan Aandolan, which is not only unfortunate and unethical but is also based on an anarchistic philosophy of opportunism in politics. The unwanted intruders have hijacked the movement by entering the agitation with malafide intentions and are firing the gun off farmers’ shoulders. And if we look at the latest scenario of this Kissan Aandolan, we will find that Congress has taken the reigns of agitation into its own hands through. Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Rahul Gandhi, while addressing the media at the venue of agitation, pronounced that Kissans are not going to budge from the place where they are agitating and that India is fast going towards a very dangerous state of affairs and that in India, there is no democracy at all. In fact he questioned one of the media personnel asking which country is he talking about when he talks of democracy and that democracy must be in his imaginations. Now how far Rahul Gandhi has damaged the Image of his own country that only he can answer. And how far this statement relates to political opportunism that we leave to the readers to decide. Government at the centre and Agriculture Minister himself has stated that they are ready to discuss the issues at length with the representatives of the farmers and logical amendments could be incorporated in the farmers’ bills. Home Minister, Defence Minister and a number of other Ministers have made it amply clear to the agitating farmers that doors are open for a progressive debate and necessary amendments thereafter, but it is so unfortunate that farmers are showing a tremendous resentment and are bent upon prolonging the agitation, thereby posing difficulties for the Government and common man as well. Prime Minister himself has came out with open arms and addressed the farmers to understand the credibility of farmers’ bills, which guarentee the security of farmers all over the country. All we can hope is that farmers agree to a fruitful dialogue with the Government and bring this agitation to a logical end.
Manmohan Dhar
