(Aunindyo Chakravarty is senior managing editor, NDTV India and NDTV Profit)
Such was the fear of Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili, that three years after his death, at the 20th party congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Nikita Krushchev could still not name him when he spoke of the "cult of personality" that had overtaken the USSR under Djugashvilli, popularly known as JV Stalin.
The concept of the Cult of Personality is, of course, older than that, but it is Kruschev's usage that is believed to have made it popular. Since then, it has been used to describe many political leaders, whose larger-than-life personas have overshadowed their organisations.
Personality cults have become even more effective in our age, dominated and "produced" by TV news and social media. Times of economic crises also become fertile ground for the rise of such personalities, who appear as heroes and saviours.
The Aam Aadmi Party has been the latest - and perhaps greatest - beneficiary of the politics of the Cult of Personality. Despite being a movement of volunteers, of ordinary citizens, it has sold itself in the recent elections through one man. Its slogan Paanch Saal Kejriwal and the catchy marketing jingle Maange Dilli Dil Se, Kejriwal Dil Se were both centred around the carefully cultivated persona of Arvind Kejriwal as an everyday hero.
I found Prashant Bhushan's belief that things will then come back to normal after the elections, where the Cult of Personality will suddenly be replaced by complete inner party democracy, a little too utopian. In politics there is no such magic personality cult switch that you can switch on when you want to win an election, and then switch off when you want to have your say.
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