PK and the illusion of political alternatives

WHAT is common between Arvind Kejriwal, Medha Patkar, Jaya Prakash Narayana (Lok Satta Party) and Prashant Kishor? All of them are founders of political parties, with no distinctive ideology as inspiration for the cadres and bereft of any long-term plans to build a solid party organisation. In Bihar, Jan Suraaj Party's Prashant Kishor is trying his luck and many political pundits predict that he may cut into the voter base of both warring alliances.

Whatever the fate of this prediction, one thing is clear — voters in Bihar should not believe his claim to be a strong and credible alternative to both the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan. This is because there is a long history of parties swearing by 'alternative politics' finally ending up with emulating established political parties. Their promise of 'alternative politics' eventually has vanished into thin air.

While PK is basically a technocrat, others — Narayana, Patkar and Kejriwal — had a clear NGO background and mistook a political party for an NGO or a voluntary organisation. Obviously, they missed the point that although voluntary character is the basis of any genuine collective activism like a political party, it can never be effective unless it is organised. This is because, to mobilise the population at large, a suitable apparatus is required -- that’s what politial parties are expected to do. That’s why shows of strength by way of mammoth public meetings and rallies has become a fashion in present-day politics.

Be that as it may, those promising 'alternative politics', from Narayana to Patkar, have failed because of three basic factors — the absence of an overarching ideological foundation; the lack of a long-term vision to build an organisation and sustain it in the face of repeated failures; and the lack of honest clarity about the very 'alternative politics’ these newcomers claim to represent.

Prashant Kishor is almost certain to be the latest in these failure stories. Narayana of the Lok Satta Party, which is mostly active in the South, has a reformist agenda, Patkar had a conglomeration of Left-leaning voluntary groups to support her and Kejriwal cashed in on the euphoria created by the Anna Hazare-led movement. All of them have failed in building an enduring political enterprise.

Those who claim to provide a credible alternative must understand what it takes to sustain a political party. First, party cadres need to seek motivation from an ideology that drives them. Over the years, secularism has become the Congress party's de facto ideology, for the BJP it has been cultural nationalism, while Communists had the goal of a classless society to pursue. But nobody knows what ideological foundations these so-called advocates of ‘alternative politics’ have.

Let's examine the Aam Aadmi Party. About the party's objectives, its website says: 'Democracy is popular self-rule, but the current practice of democracy negates this ideal and reduces the citizen to a mere subject.

(The) Aam Aadmi Party aims to restore power to the people, so as to realise the promise of Swaraj enshrined in our Constitution. There shall be equality among the people of all class, caste, religion, and gender.' It further says that 'Following the Preamble to our Constitution, Aam Aadmi Party envisions an lndia free of corruption, which is Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, Democratic Republic.'

Having experienced the AAP rule in Delhi and Punjab, who would believe in its promise of 'India, free of corruption'? And even if we forget the credibility quotient, what is that 'alternative' vision that the AAP had promised initially?

The same is the case of the Jan Suraaj. This oven-fresh party simply chooses to remain silent about its objectives, much less ideological foundations. It only talks about 'Right People, Right Thinking and Collective Efforts', leaving it to the people to decipher the real meaning of these terms.

Ironically, having written a lengthy paragraph on 'collective leadership' the Jan Suraaj website compels us to see multiple profile pictures of the one and only Prashant Kishor! Leave aside ideology, what about the second-most critical ingredient which is 'long-term vision to build organisation and sustain the same even in the face of repeated failures'?

The lack of tenacity leading to crass failure on the front of organisation-building has proved to be a great leveler. Medha Patkar and her National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) had tried their luck in several elections, including the 2014 Lok Sabha poll.

Having repeatedly failed in these attempts, the NAPM quickly lost its ground-level activism. The timeline on their website today, which lists a whopping 222 outfits as allied organisations, remains silent about its journey post 2005. The only thing that the organisation has continued steadfastly is the issuance of press notes on issues such as the '80th anniversary of Hiroshima & Nagasaki'.

The same is true with the Aam Aadmi Party, which is now more known for key individuals deserting the party than for new recruitments. From Kumar Vishwas, Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav to Mayank Gandhi and Anjali Damania, the list is unending. From the 'aam aadmi', the party is now reduced to 'ek aadmi', which is Kejriwal himself.

Down south, a section of people in Telangana had looked up to Narayana’s Lok Satta Party with great expectations. While it is creditable that even in the face of repeated failures, the party continues to talk about 'a new political culture', the fact remains that it has not been able to build any enduring organisational network even in its birth state.

All this is not to suggest that except for established parties, there is no space for any new party. On the contrary, there is ample space all over the democratic world as new generations of voters, understandably, look for fresh options.

But the limited point here is that building a credible and serious political party is far from a child's play. It takes a huge amount of investment of human and other resources, besides consistent efforts for decades together.

Hence, regardless of the final outcome of the Bihar elections, one can legitimately ask Prashant Kishor whether he seriously wants to build an alternative party or just add one more number to the long list of around 3,000 registered political parties that this Mother of Democracy has produced.