The coterie factor

THE word "coterie" seems to be generating a lively debated in the Congress (I) once again. To the loyalists, it is an honour to belong to this select group around the leader, to the dissidents it is a wholly avoidable evil.

"... Coteries do not serve the party. On the contrary, they encircle the leadership, insulate it from party-workers by blocking channels of communications" said Jitendra Prasada, addressing a mixed gathering of the media and partymen.

If that is so, cynics might ask, why has it taken him over a decade to make a speech on the subject? Once upon a time, wasn't he counted as a steady member of the coterie around first Rajiv Gandhi, and then P. V. Narasimha Rao?

Is it only because Mr. Prasada has nothing else to discuss that he is raising this particular issue? At least one of the members of the so-called Sonia Coterie, Arjun Singh, said so upon being informed of the above diatribe, by the media.

As a seasoned politician and commander of his band of loyalists from his native Madhya Pradesh, Arjun Singh knows the importance of coteries. He knows, for example, that elections - whether within political parties or among them - are still largely tribal affairs guided by the same atavistic instincts that inform and guide our society. To get votes, all parties must see to it that their candidate for the top slot belongs to a particular power- clan (read family or caste). Once chosen, he or she will go on to form a smaller and select girdle of loyalists. Even the Mandal doctrine, that proclaimed leveller of castes, said that power came out of the barrel of caste equations.

Actually it is time we took another look at the anthropomorphic instincts and rituals that have shaped our democracy and guided two of India's largest political parties: the Congress (I) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In today's increasingly globalised climate with e-mail and e-commerce, hardy kinship patterns and large clans with unshakeable loyalties (that once formed coherent interest groups and protective tents for Indians from Kashmir and Kanyakumari) are slowly evaporating. But most Indians are rather reluctant to accept the new democratic ethos and the loneliness it confers upon the citizens. They feel that without kinship loyalties and back-slapping caste based comraderies, no relevant, coherent and disciplined groups or coalitions can be formed: either in politics, economy or even in the bureaucracy. Thus the BJP has stuck to its Sangh Parivar and the Congress (I) leadership has had a string of famous coteries, from Indira Gandhi's kitchen cabinet to son Rajiv Gandhi's baba log ka brigade to Sonia's 10 Janpath groupies. One has only to look back at the media images of Kumarmangalam's, Pilot's or Kesri's recent funerals in New Delhi to realise how strong are clannish pulls in our politics.

From visitors to the hospitals to mourners placing wreaths on the bodies and hanging listlessly around the crematorium, what one witnessed was a form of collective tribal mourning. It was the kind of public grieving that symbolises the indissoluble bonds between the individual and collective lives of partymen. It registers itself publicly by them staging the last rites of the dead warrior as a grand spectacle, replete with slogans like - "Jub tak Sooraj - Chand Rahega ... Tera Naam Rahega?'

Unless the voters are ready to forsake their caste and tribe- based expectations, loyalties and kinship ties, we cannot, and must not expect the political parties to forsake their tribal colours. What will happen if the Congress (I) with its High Command and the BJP with its Sangh Parivar were to disintegrate suddenly today. Who do we think shall replace them? In all probability they will be replaced by those creators of a globalised virtual intimacy: the media moghuls, spin doctors and psephological Gurus who will happily rush in to fill the vacuum. But exclusive as they are, they are not the stuff of leadership for Indians in the long run. What will happen for a while is, just as news became entertainment, entertainment will become news. And when that happens, newsmakers shall become celebrities and page three stories will become front page material commanding banner headlines. From accidental celebrities, our film-stars, socialites and fashion designers will become the preoccupation of the nation, and their lives and tastes will go on to shape ours, while the economy and the polity will go on to be run by the clans of babus and corporate chiefs, who speak none of the Indian languages and communicate in Java thru Microsoft Windows.

Some may see a certain inevitability in this. Have not our politicians failed us? they say. True, the scale of not only the Congress (I)'s but also the BJP's defeats in recent years, is indeed awe inspiring. And if such anti-Congress and anti-BJP swing persists, Assembly Elections in Uttar Pradesh and Bengal are going to result in yet another buffetting of their psephological fortunes. But do the dubious babu-box wallah networks that shall replace them promise a better and more inclusive form of governance?

Actually, what the likes of Jitendra Prasada, or Uma Bharati are protesting against is not the political culture of their parties as such. Like the First Murderer in Macbeth, the coterie wallahs in big parties have, "become weary with disasters," and want to risk throwing One Great Tantrum to draw attention to their own sense of boredom and humiliation, ("I would set my life on any chance, to mend it or be rid on't.") As such, their anger must not be dismissed. They are calling out to the tribes to come to their help as all inclusive tribes, not as exclusive clubs cutoff from party workers and people alike. And you may be sure even if isolated, like Kalyan Singh, they will go on forming their own little tribal parties, till the end of their days, like mad clocks, ticking minutes and hours.

The second phase of economic liberalisation is upon us, and the globalised economy is throwing up new winners and losers everywhere both in politics and in the economy. Anxiety levels are high everywhere, as politicians, industrialists, farmers and workers all realise that change is not swift enough, nor painless.

For some time, the losers, one may be sure, will find a ready shoulder in the risk-taking rebels to cry on, but even Prasada knows that disappointed expectations can only be turned into notoriously fickle and short-lived, vote banks and coteries. He is, therefore, quick to point out he remains a committed soldier of his Party, just as Uma Bharti said, she belongs to the Parivar and Party after all has been said and done.

This is a fact both Vajpayee and Sonia (and their coteries) would do well to recognise before it is too late.

MRINAL PANDE

The author writes in Hindi and English and is a freelance journalist.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Thoughts make a man
Next     : Green tea and a peak