The BJP appears to have divested itself of religious ideals and now focused on politics free from religion. Leave religion – nouveau “politics” – to other parties and to social organisations – that is what we are hearing wherever party meetings are hosted. With regard to the “religion problem,” which on a political platform may be called a quiet problem now, and one which fastidiously directs itself to more than a few ears – even to those ears it has now turned out to be more of a problem than a clarion call. There is an awakening that religion has served its purpose and can now be disposed of like an old worn-out garment.
The few of the nouveau “politics” who still stick to it out of habit, are finding themselves singled out as sore thumbs, and we have a prominent sore thumb in the North East – and in a few other states as well. But for a majority of the partymen, the type that support non-religious doctrines in politics, and who are sceptical of mixing religion with politics, a new beginning has dawned – especially to the partymen in the North East – the ascending ideology of global technology is their call. The fresh enrolment in 2024, by virtue of this renewed image, has drawn record numbers.
It can be taken for granted that for most of the partymen who see themselves as progressive, as developers and promoters of a better society, a society free from corruption – or as free as possible from corruption – for them the formula for a better society is based on tackling corruption at the political level.
Religion has failed miserably in damning the corrupt individuals, in fact if reports are to be believed there is a greater deal of corruption in religion than in politics these days and therefore a politician will be well advised to steer as far away as possible from religion – or to be more precise, to steer as far away as possible from mixing politics with religion.
A religious leader will always find it impossible to divest himself of corruption, religion doesn’t pay well enough to live stylishly hence the priests cannot be as truthful as they would like to. But that is not the case with a politician – politics pays well – in fact too well if all the perks are taken into consideration. And so, if the politician is “truthful” the entire community can be freed from the cancer of corruption. That is what the BJP is saying. The root of the word “truthful” is derived from the word ‘good/brave.’ Truthful or good politicians are what we need if we are to ever be able to penetrate the nature of politics in Meghalaya, because the good are almost totally absent – only the bad are prevalent.
If there is any good left in Meghalaya’s politics it is badly transmitted, whoever among the current lot, who may try to imitate, or act like a “good” politician, walk among specimens that are from the other extreme of good. Therefore, good politicians have become too rare and difficult to find in Meghalaya. They’ve been absent for too many years now. The gap between the time when we had a good politician in Meghalaya and now is only found in history books and not in our memory. The politicians of today hardly have eyes in their head when they stand among the great politicians we boasted of in our better days.
No matter how much they try to conceal their true intention, these splendid money seeking politicians of today are trying in vain, because what cannot be concealed is their intention to pose as “good” when the truth is that their confidence has increased in leaps and bounds since the law can do nothing to them, neither the voters whom they consider as parasites. “What are these parasites to me” they say, “may they live and prosper; I am strong enough for that!”
As I have said, there was a gap, a break in development; and it happened so suddenly that the only inheritance which might have revealed the meaning of the days when politics meant development and progress and prosperity disappeared so fast that it has either been totally forgotten or not known at all, to the brood of politicians we have today.
Coming back to the national scene, the belief which every political party in the recently concluded national elections had – namely that it would win, believed that it had the key that would secure victory by showing political favour to one dimension – viz unity; the result was that it didn’t do the party much good though the campaign trail spanned the entire country. Only the BJP continued its promise to bring about development, not only that, it even turned its back on an organisation that it formerly depended upon. It may have lost some seats due to this doing but on its own it was still the single largest party – and the number of seats it lost weren’t too many.
People usually honour acts of commitment towards the country or the people, whenever one is given the opportunity. In this way the love of country and people is heightened when advancement and prosperity is there to be seen, and that is what is very distinct in the BJP today. No more was there any religious rhetoric in the speeches of the partymen, and those that relied on religion received a drubbing. That was very evident. The BJP made it clear that it had had enough with religion and now that it had been in power for two consecutive terms, that confidence which was lacking all along was evident in the way it went about canvassing for its candidates.
Any political party driven with a will to win should have nothing to do with religion, it makes do without using the religious and morality card and focuses instead on its achievement and progress. Thus, the partymen, unlike their opponents, who were nothing more than complete cads bent on regaining power at any cost, found that their ambition to regain power was not appealing to the electorate.
Examine minutely the history of how the Congress came to power and stayed in power for many terms till it exhausted itself of anymore focus on religion to win votes and lost, and how in recent times the BJP came to power using religion, and barely two terms in power, and the BJP has divested itself of religious means, and has established its credibility to rule the country on genuine political agenda alone, free from any religious support.
If we compare the Indian National Congress with the Jan Sangh (the former BJP) with reference to the spirit the two parties had in the fifties and the sixties, we shall see that the Jan Sangh was at a disadvantage for the basic reason that it did not possess a passionate history of achievements to establish its credentials, though it did seek to promote a business oriented culture for India, and thereby, in a sense the people were not led to expect from them any passion for the task at hand or the ability to deal with catastrophes, or crises, or famines, or wars, or financial crunches which were the order of the day.
The response of the Jan Sangh at that point in time, to any situation would have been essentially a response totally lacking of any historical experience, but in the case of the Congress their response always was a description and a reflection of a character that was habituated at meeting such contingencies. We must not forget that the Indian National Congress (INC) was conceptualised and founded by a Britisher, Allan Octavian Hume ICS (Retd) in 1885, while the Jan Sangh only came about after independence, in 1951. From then till the mid-seventies, they (the INC) were the natural choice. The situation has since altered in every sphere.
In comparison with the mode of life which prevailed in the 1960s, young men and women of the present age are living in a very different set up – morally, politically, and technologically, and the bulk of the present-day politicians are of the younger generation. The power of custom and tradition has been virtually eliminated or weakened to such a remarkable degree that the sense of morality is so confusing between people of ten-year age groups that one might almost describe morality as amorphous.
For the elders, the youth of today are latecomers, so to say, and so they have difficulty in inculcating the fundamental concepts of the origin of what their elders consider as morally correct; and even if they did obtain it, their words of explanation would stick in their throats – so coarse would they sound if they dared to utter it.
Morality in general is nothing more nor nothing less than an obedience to customs, and customs have been thrown to the dustbins in the present age of human rights and the intervention of this rapidly progressing technology which we have to adapt to if we are to stay abreast with what’s happening elsewhere around the globe. The younger generation is naturally left with a barren sense of inherited customs and traditions. Where there is no tradition there is no morality.
Here is a word in repudiation of the attempts that have been made to seek the origin of morality. It cannot be denied that customs are no longer the basis on which morality is defined, and the elders know nothing apart from customs. In all this confusion, can there be a tradition to follow? a unity that binds citizens of different age groups? The answer is an obvious “No.”
Therefore, a change in our politics is also necessary which apparently the BJP has understood and amalgamated to perfection on an all-India basis, because the only reason for anyone to vote a party to power at present is development and progress and prosperity and an impelling motivation to keep abreast with international standards of technological applications, and it should come as no surprise that every Indian wants to be at par with their counterparts in other countries, even excel them if possible. That is the BJP’s agenda.
In this aspect, we in Meghalaya still have some catching up to do with the Indian mainstream, because for now the old principles are still the predominant guiding force for one generation, while technology is for the other, and in the process those in power concede to neither, and are in it for themselves alone.
We need a new approach. Modern restlessness has taken hold of the youth of Meghalaya just as much as it has in any developed country. In essential respects, the elders are still the same men and women as those of the time before India became technologically savvy; how could it be otherwise?
But the fact that the elders no longer demand for promoting the triumph of their opinions distinguishes them from elders of an earlier age which indicates that the present generation of elders belong to a culture that assimilates instead of demands. They may still be transfixing themselves in religious dictates but they do not impose that way of living on their children. There is only one thing they are insisting upon…bring an end to corruption in Meghalaya, not by bringing back the old ways, but by bringing in a national party to run the State, preferably a national party that is in power at the Centre.
