Political headhunting to 'political cannibalism' .... Indian parliamentary democracy and political journalism - both have come a long way !!

 If 'poetry' according to Robert Frost, is -- when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words --- how should one define Journalism, especially political journalism?

Let me give it a shot. When stubbornness gets mixed up with emotions and thought becomes mixed up with ambition and your ambition is the world will change after you write few lines and paras; and after three decades you realise --- dad ( a non-journo) was right --- 'it's all like sending wild animals to the wilds'.

The phrase actually goes well in Bangla -- 'boner poshu, booney pathano' !! 

Now let us get back to the business. When I started journalism in the 1990s in the north eastern state of Nagaland -- political defections were usual. Once the regional party's (Nagaland People's Council) organisational leadership connived with the Congress party under S C Jamir and brought down the K L Chishi ministry ! That was democracy for you !  

During that era we often used the phrase 'political headhunting' .... making it politically relevant and 'sane' because headhunting is otherwise an age-old Naga tradition cherished for many years if not centuries ! Well, if that was in the 1990s and one was just in twenties believing black-beard would symbolise intellectualism and rebellion packaged as a whole. 

Now in 2023, one has crossed 50 comfortably and father of a doting daughter --- look at the manner journalism has matured. In reference to the latest round of political defection in Maharashtra, the Delhi-based journalist of Pakistani newspaper 'Dawn' - Jawed Naqvi has used the phrase 'political cannibalism'. 

Yes ! that way, Indian democracy and journalism put together have come a long way. 

Jawed Naqvi actually writes very well. "In India, this political cannibalism has become rampant," he says. 

'Dawn' link  

"The extent of political cannibalism is difficult to surmise. Key state governments would not belong to the BJP without poaching. And thus, opposition parties planning a joint campaign against Mr Modi would do well to weed out these vulnerabilities first. Without which corporate-funded ghouls, would not be averse to bleeding Indian democracy to its slow death," he notes.  

I am not referring to Jawed's piece either to suggest my endorsement for the same or to disagree with him. In fact, my quick reflex reactions to his piece is mixed -- I agree to some points and disagree to others. 

But he is certainly readable columnist. Jawed writes for a Pakistani paper but he is an Indian and so he understanding certain things in Indian politics pretty well.

Modi's politics have been enigmatic in more ways than one. There is no big deal in it as the nature of 'power-politics' should be like that essentially with certain variations here and there.

The moot point of this blog piece is that defection is a menace in politics but as the 'Dawn' article says - "The venal move is presumably aimed at foiling opposition unity. The fracture and the re-welding were neither unique nor new".

In 2016, writing on such political shenanigans in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, I had said in many ways the Modi government's functioning style was "Throwback to Congress Culture". So, in many ways, nothing much has changed under Modi since 2014, and political defections are like permanent features in Indian politics.

Now, a little more on Maharashtra's political crisis. What's really NCP (Ajit Pawar) faction or BJP gameplans? A big blow to the so-called opposition unity efforts.

This was such a game that by one stroke, like a brilliant catch or a piece of fielding saving a boundary, the Team Modi has sabotaged detractors' strategies and has practically won the next Lok Sabha elections, at least theoretically.

NCP dissident Praful Patel, a Sharad Pawar loyalist lifelong is now with Ajit Pawar, has a shocker. 

"I went to the joint #opposition meeting in Patna and I felt laughing when I saw the scene there. There were 17 opposition parties, 7 have only one MP in Lok Sabha and there is one party that has '0' (zero spell properly na !!) MPs. They claim they will bring change..." . 

This phenomenon yet again redefines the bitter truth that the opposition parties are unable to get their act together. 

There is another important version and incidentally that has come from Jawed's column. Was NCP leaders and Sharad Pawar himself upset at how things went around in Patna?

At 82, Pawar is the senior most leader in the opposition camp; and yet he was perhaps treated shabbily during the Patna meet.  

"Pawar did not figure as a major contender to lead the cluster. The unspoken toss-up was between Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar, the chief ministers of West Bengal and Bihar respectively, and Congress scion Rahul Gandhi," says Jawed. 

But to sum up one can easily say, political machinations vis-a-vis the games for 2024 parliamentary elections have just begun.

Where exactly is Indian politics headed?

The Modi camp is smart and has the huge advantage of corporate support as well as the benefits of being in power in many states and in the centre. The Opposition camp is divided and there is absence of 'unity of purpose' and elements of sacrifice. 

The Congress and other opposition parties will have to first deal with the 'elephant' in the room: an inherent sense of 'instability and non-performance' associated with coalition politics.  On the other hand, the Congress has to do with their version of the 'elephant' -- that is Rahul Gandhi.

He has failed to deliver in two elections in 2014 and 2019.  There are other ambitious lot too. Nitish Kumar himself and also Mamata Banerjee.

There is another player - a bit ambitious irrationally - K Chandrasekhar Rao, the chief of Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi. 

In the ultimate, settling partisan scores have surely become the order of the day. 

Encouraging defections in different parties and 'Abuse' of power vis-a-vis 

Article 356, had started long back. 

A few BJP leaders have tried to build up an argument that the Congress had no business to talk about constitutional decorum as the grand old party had several times dismissed and toppled various non-Congress governments across the country for decades.