KOLKATA MESSAGE: KHICHDI SARKAR

Hate is a corrosive emotion, harming the hater more than the hated. Last Saturday, all those who hate Modi with a rare passion came together on a stage set up by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Bannerjee in Kolkata. A huge crowd was corralled into the famous Maidan, the way the CPI(M) did for over thirty years before Mamata replaced them. She has leant well to ape the Marxists. The Trinamool Congress cadres are as violent and intimidating, if not more, as were the Communists. One reason ordinary people find no escape from the ruling party bullies could be that a vast number of the CPI(M) street thugs have overnight switched loyalty to the Trinamool Congress. Anyway, numbers-wise the rally was impressive. But politically, we doubt, if it achieved anything other than baring the overpowering obsession of the overcrowded podium with Modi. If there was one cardinal message that emerged from Kolkata, it was that the prime minister has come to pose an existentialist threat to every politician who is not in the ruling party now, or though a member of the BJP, was denied a share in power and, therefore, has taken to wailing incessantly against Modi. The three in this category, namely, Arun Shourie, Yashwant Singha and Shatrughan Sinha were prominent on the stage. We can sympathise with their state of irrelevance and have come to take their fulminations against the present government with more than a pinch of salt. But, what about the others? Leaders, or rather, owners of as many as 23 parties, big or small, regional or national, had one common theme to flog: Modi is anti-democratic, he is dictatorial, has destroyed institutions, has done nothing for the country, farmers are in great distress, there are no new jobs, corruption is rampant, etc, etc. And, of course, it ended with the rallying cry: Modi Hatao. However, on each count if Mamata or Malliakarjun Kharge, a self-invited guest player, Mayawati, who sent her factotum, S C Mishra, Akhilesh Yadav, Sharad Pawar, Chandrababu Naidu and others paused to ponder their own record , they would find that that they are far more worthy of that critique than the prime minister. Authoritarian, Mamata said. Who can be more authoritarian than her. Resorting to every stratagem to deny the opposition its legitimate right to protest and propagate its message. Or that pretend-crusader Arvind Kejriwal, the Delhi chief minister. In his little sphere of influence he is no less dictatorial. Corruption? Aside from hatred of Modi, what seemed to be common between the assembled galaxy of politicians was that they all seemed to be tainted with the big brush of corruption. From DMK leader Stalin to Naidu, Pawar and Mamata, Kharge and Ajit Singh, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, they had all grown enormously rich thanks to politics, the only profession which requires no entry level qualification.

Of course, aside from the common anti-Modi lamentation, the much publicised event revealed no common ideology, no programme, no clue how they would behave differently from the way they had when they themselves were in power not long ago. Merely removing Modi for the sake of grabbing power is unlikely to impress voters. Because the voters have experienced first-hand how corruption and misrule had ruled the roast when they were in government. Reducing the antiModi cry to a mere game of aggregation of anti-BJP votes does not convince anyone. Such omnibus gang-ups against a popular leader have failed in the past. Remember 1971, Syndicate versus Indira Gandhi. This, when Syndicate boasted of a galaxy of well-known freedom fighters from Morarji Desai to Kamraj, Rajaji and a host of others. Unfortunately, not one leader on the stage last Saturday in Kolkata can match the standing for integrity and public service of a Morarji Desai or a Kamraj or a Rajaji. But if defeating Modi is as easy as Shourie, that mealy-mouthed fake crusader, makes it out to be, all that the 2019 gang-up has to do is to ensure a one-to-one fight against BJP. This is patronising, nay, insulting voters. People are far more aware, far more alive to the substance and spirit of their franchise to be misled into heeding the plaintive cries of the regional chieftains. As for Rahul Gandhi, it is a public secret that nobody is ready to see him as prime minister, at least not as yet. Unsurprisingly, the stampede of leaders on the Kolkata stage boasted of several wannabe PMs. In unison, they ducked the vital question: Who is mahagathbandhan’s prime ministerial candidate? All and none, is the only answer possible. Which was clearly implied when every speaker said that question can be settled after the polls. Yeah, knives will be out, should, god forbid, there is another weak and quarrelsome khichdi in 2019.