50 Shades of Socialists vs BJP

(Kumar Ketkar is a senior journalist, political commentator, globe trotter and author. He has covered all Indian elections since 1971 and significant international events. He is a frequent participant on TV debates.)

So far, at least, there is no research done in the field of the genetic traces of political parties or politicians. There will surely be such a discipline introduced under the auspices of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).   

The Sangh feels that stem cell research in ancient times is alluded to, because without it, how does one explain the birth of Karna? Also, without advancement in genetics, and test tube babies, 100 Kaurava brothers could not have been born. The minimum biological requirement would have been of at least 115 years for a mother to give birth to so many children. The oldest among them would have turned 100 when the last Kaurava was born. But they were almost of the same age. This in itself proves that India had made great strides in genetics and biology millions of years ago.

Shri Krishna's ethnicity or clan identity was that of a Yadav. Even today, "Yadav-kuleen" clans dominate the politics of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The RSS's science think-tanks should research the origins and influence of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav.

They are planning to form a front along with Nitish Kumar to challenge the Bharatiya Janata Party. But the first battle will be fought in Bihar, with the election next year at around this time. For that, Lalu and Nitish have begun to mobilize forces under a common banner, a kind of reincarnation of the Janata Party. Actually, the "mother gene" is the "Janata Party" whose various strains have populated a vast political space in India since 1977 - the Janata Front, Janata Dal (United), Janata Dal (Secular), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Samajavadi Janata Party (SJP), Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Samajwadi Janata Manch and so on.

There are cousins like the Samata Party, Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and so on. Interestingly, even the Bharatiya Janata Party is a fall out of the original Janata Party. All these parties, factions and politicians have come together so many times and have disintegrated so often that only bio-anthropologists could have been able to keep track of their break-ups.

If one goes back in their genome map, it shows that all of them have one common "grandmother gene" and its name is "socialists". The first socialist faction was born and broke away from the Congress and called itself the Congress Socialist Party (CSP). That was in 1948, four years before the first election in the country. Within four years, that was split and a new outfit named Praja Socialist Party was formed. That was split again and a simple socialist party was created. But then they decided to end all such factional formations and created the Samyukta Socialist Party or SSP. But even that could not remain "Samyukta" for long time and new splintering began.

All of them came together under the leadership of Jay Prakash Narayan to form the Janata Party in 1977 to fight the Congress led by Indira Gandhi. The fifty shades of socialists then united with their arch rival capitalist friends in the Swatantra party and Syndicate Congress. Their Janata caravan was also joined by the kulaks in the Bharatiya Kranti Dal (BKD), who also were otherwise sworn enemies of the socialists. But the real horsepower to the Janata Ashwamedh was provided by the RSS-led Jan Sangh (the earlier "avatar" of the BJP ). This hydra-faced political animal was not part of the natural evolution process and so within three years the Janata Party was split.

Ironically, the Janata government was brought down by the socialists who questioned the loyalty of the Jan Sangh leaders to the Janata Party. They had demanded that the leaders/members of the Janata Party must conclusively break their relationship with the RSS. There was no way to prove the loyalty this way or that way. So the Sangh-led Janata faction became the BJP and others became autonomous planets in the political universe. But even those planets were hit by freely-wandering ambitious comets. Comrades like George Fernandes, Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh, who had forged emotional and political bonding in jails during the Emergency, began to pursue their own political ambitions.

There was not enough political space for all to become Prime Minister. So the only relatively more organized faction, the BJP, remained strong. Now, Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar have taken an oath to remain together and not repeat the Janata farce. Easier said than done. If the BJP gets shaken from within, it will be again because of the RSS trying to create a state within a state, or at least a party within a party, thereby opening up new Byzantine chinks in the Modi Armour!

The coming together of RJD and JD(U), followed by all earlier Janata factions merging with each other, will surely pose a challenge to the Modi-led BJP.

Watch out, though. The history of evolution shows that such an artificial animal doesn't have a long life!

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