Habit is a very persistent thing. You remove the ‘h' in it, ‘a bit' remains. You remove further the ‘a,' the ‘bit' remains. You remove the ‘b,' ‘it' still remains. You remove the ‘t,' ‘i' remains. It is the ‘i' that is the most troublesome part. Practically, none of us is self-critical. All of us have so much ego that none of us will give up our habits — even when they are wrong.

As was to be expected, in the recent State elections, several parties lost. Will any of the losers introspect and check what mistakes they made, and further enquire how those could be corrected? For instance, will the Congress party agree that the concentration of power in the high command and its coterie is a handicap?

Will the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accept that by confining itself to Hindutva it may never get a majority? Will the Bahujan Samaj Party accept that corruption is a disaster? Will all parties agree with the critics who have been shouting hoarsely that what people want most is honest development and not caste-based politics?

Will every party accept that giving seats to corrupt candidates — on the ground that they are winnable — ultimately costs more than the hoped-for benefits?

No lessons learnt

All these changes or none of them appears likely. In Goa, Mr Parricker, the BJP leader, went off tangent and invited Christian candidates to contest; both they and he won decisively. Will the BJP accept that a similar policy in other parts of the country would help it better? None of the BJP leaders has stated that they made a mistake in not giving Muslim candidates a fair share. Nothing can be said of the biggest loser, Ms Mayawati — she still does not accept she made any mistake.

The Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh was the biggest, and to many a surprise, outright winner. Its leader claimed that it will no longer indulge in hooliganism or let its members indulge in anti-social acts. Even at the time he was making the statement, his party workers were running rampage, blocking a national highway and threatening journalists only because their candidate had been declared as lost. The party representative repeated the much-abused slogan that “the law will take its own course;” the party leader too was defensive — he would not condemn such behaviour.

Evidently, neither the losers nor the winners have learnt a lesson. The more the things change, the more they remain the same.

Servile Congresspersons

A retired general told me how our Constitution was being corrupted from within. First, by the threat of guns or by manipulation, a violent or a corrupt group gets control over a set of people. Then, it enters into an agreement with a political party to deliver the votes the group controls. Then, it insists on nominating its own candidates.

Finally, it takes over the state party. That he said is the story of the North-East and what is being attempted in Kashmir. Is that happening elsewhere, too? Are our parties slowly and inexorably getting controlled by violent and/or corrupt groups?

I once asked an economist who was an important member of the Congress party why Congresspersons were so subservient to its President. He said: She does not speak much; she listens and then gives her decision which we all accept. It looks nice to have a leader whom Plato would have approved.

However, she would have seemed better, if she had let the party vote and decide what is best. Unfortunately, from the days of Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress had this weakness for a strong leader. In those days, newspapers would report that there was no consensus, and so the party would leave it to Mahatma Gandhi to decide.

Will the party rethink whether it is truly democratic? It may do better by adhering to democratic principles and making decisions on the basis of the freely cast votes of its members — instead of continuing with authoritarian decision-making by its leader?

Democracy within the party appears most unlikely. Not one of the luminaries of the party would even whisper that it has to re-look into its leadership. Habit is possibly as permanent as death.

Parochial bjp

Hindutva is the BJP's greatest strength but an insufficient one. It is also a dwindling one. As the electorate gets better educated, Hindus are slowly and inevitably losing their adherence to the cult of Hinduism. More and more of them are questioning old beliefs. Unless the party follows Mr Parricker and inducts more and more non-Hindus into its fold and gives them opportunities to exercise real authority, the party will lose not only elections, but also the real essence of Hinduism, and why it has survived as long as it has: its inclusiveness.

Will the BJP introduce many more Muslims and Christians into its fold? That too appears unlikely. It has succumbed to many corrupt persons in several parts of the country; it does not know how to get out of their clutches. In Uttarakhand, it did remove an allegedly corrupt Chief Minister but did not punish him any further; it even let him contest on its behalf. It lost the State possibly because the new chief Minister did not have enough time to correct mistakes.

Will the BJP agree that it almost came back to power in Uttarakhand because it did bring back an honest person, or will it revert to accepting allegedly corrupt persons who merely want to feather their own nests? Will it accept that it is better not to encourage anyone who is known to be corrupt?

Let us not blame politicians alone. Everybody, be it bureaucrats, business persons, scientists and teachers, all suffer from addiction to habits.

(To be continued)

(The author is a former Director, IIT, Madras. Responses to >indiresan@gmail.com and >blfeedback@thehindu.co.in )

This is 323rd in the Vision 2020 series. The last article appeared on February 11.

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