People
Globally Against Political Parties Identified With Crony Capitalism
Saeed Naqvi
Bihar results are a milestone in Indian
political history, ofcourse, but they also link up with a worldwide phenomena:
the crumbling of the world order erected after the fall of the Berlin wall. A
brief look at history to follow the trend.
Collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991
signaled the advent of the Sole Superpower which immediately embarked on a
project of full spectrum global dominance beginning with Operation Desert Storm
in February 1992.
The firepower of the world’s most
muscular war machine was for the first time brought live into our drawing rooms
by Peter Arnett of the CNN from the terrace of Baghdad’s Al Rasheed hotel.
The Iraqi army was pummeled. For one set
of global TV audience, the outcome was undiluted triumphalism. But for the Muslim
world, it came across as yet another defeat, further humiliation. The world,
divided into two distinct sets of audiences was treated to more TV fare – the
two intefadas, the daily brutalization of Bosnian Muslims and the four year
long siege of Sarajevo which agitated Turks (because of their historical links
with the Balkans) to such an extent that they brought Nekmatin Arbakan’s Islamist
Refah party to power. Arbakan’s disciples Abdullah Gul and Tayyip Erdogan,
toned down their Islamism to cope with Turkey’s Kemalist constitution.
Turkey found the electoral response to
Western provocation. Anger in most of the authoritarian Muslim world created a
space for militant schools with a ready faculty left over from the Afghan Jehad.
The world galloped towards 9/11, after which the world was enlisted in the war
against Islamic terror.
The global war on terror became the
strategic preoccupation for nations all under US auspices.
Let it be added as an aside that even as
Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi was alert to the main chance. When 56 kar
sewaks were burnt alive in the Sabarmati Express at Godhra on February 26,
2002, he promptly took the case away from the Collector, Jayanti Ravi, and
handed it to the Director General, Anti Terror Squad, Vijay Vipul. Without any
preliminary inquiry, the Godhra train tragedy was to be treated as an act of
terror. Modi was firmly on the anti terror bandwagon.
The second mantra handed to the post
Soviet World Order was “Development”. The Soviet collapse was not sold as the
victory of democracy, freedom, human rights; it was sold as the triumph of the
market.
Two party systems beholden to corporates,
linked to mega multinational corporations became the trend. These powerful
establishments, with the media in attendance, could suppress stories of unspeakable
corruption and crony capitalism only upto a point. But not for long.
The dominant reality since 2008 has been
the gradual decline of the US. Systems erected in anticipation of the American
Century are crumbling. This objective reality has given heart to the people
hemmed in by two party systems in cahoots with corrupt sources of finance.
Electoral eruptions have taken place even though it would be premature to
describe the current situation as revolutionary.
Greek Left Wing party, Syriza, came to power
but powerful countries like Germany forced it to compromise its anti austerity,
anti capitalism platforms.
Greece is only two percent of Europe’s
GDP. Spain is 14%. Syriza, before Greece’s compromise, did infect the voters in
Spain. Spain’s communist party, Podemos, made dramatic gains in the local body elections.
But a degree of demoralization afflicts Podemos as it prepares for the national
elections on December 20. This because the lesson learnt from Syriza’s
compromises that excessive Leftism may be unrealistic in Spain’s current
economic situation.
Alright, Spain’s leftism may have to be
toned down but it has already shamed political corruption and crony capitalism
to such an extent that it can never be business as usual after the December
elections.
The trend continues in Portugal where a
socialist-communist combination is in contention for power. What a far cry from
Tony Blair is the new labour boss, Jeremy Corbyn, as is Canada’s Justin Trudeau
from Stephen Harper.
Joko Widodo in Indonesia and Arvind
Kejriwal are not exactly left but they come from a similar reformist anti
corruption stable, quite as effective in corroding the neo liberal structures.
Modi came to power riding the world’s
most expensive campaign. He harvested the prevailing disgust at the time
against Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, tied to India Inc. and the
World Bank.
When Modi’s personal image was on test
in Delhi, he was decimated. Big business, Police, Lt. Governor, the BJP,
Congress and the drum beating media, simply waylaid Kejriwal from day one of
his innings. The affront to the idea of Modi and market economics in the form
of Kejriwal must not be allowed to stand. In one respect, an old Persian saying
“gunah be lazzat” (sinning without pleasure) may well apply to Modi. He has not
done for all his capitalist clients everything he may have wished to do. But the
tag of crony capitalism hangs from his neck.
And now Bihar has administered a
knockout punch. Ofcourse a singular lack of culture in the Hindutva brigade’s anti
Love Jihad and anti beef campaign recoiled on the BJP. Where will Modi recover
ground now in the coming state elections: West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Punjab,
UP?
The front page of Times of India (November
13) is emblematic of the mess Modi is in.
Asked about growing intolerance Modi told
the media in London, standing beside David Cameron: “No place for intolerance”
in the land of Buddha and Gandhi.
Above this three column story is a
bigger headline:
“Cow brigade now out to stop leather
shoe sales.”
Lower down the page is another story
about death threats to playwright Girish Karnad by Hindutva groups against
airing his admiration for Tipu Sultan. But all of this is against the backdrop of
Modi’s perceived proximity to names like Adani which tend to distance politicians
from the people.
And now that Nitish Kumar is about to replace
Rahul Gandhi’s mug shots as a would be counter point to Modi, he would do well
to remember a simple mantra: steer clear of something which is in bad odour
globally – crony capitalism.
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