Last week, seeing faces smeared with colors during Holi and then Rangpanchami, a question came to my mind: Has our politics also become so colorful that it’s hard to recognize the real face? Earlier, people used to play with natural colors and gulal, so it was easy to identify each other. Now, with paints, tar, and sewer mud smeared on faces, everyone looks the same. You might ask, Holi is over, so why am I talking about colors? The answer, of course, is politics, where the phrase “ideology went to get oil” fits perfectly. Let’s add some pickle to the ideas.
“Ideology went to get oil” means that in politics, the ideology has lost all importance. Many people now say that if an ideology cannot achieve power, it’s better to hide it. The old idea that even if power is denied, one will stick to their ideology, is gone. Leaders have taken a new path. A Shiv Sena leader I met recently, when asked how the party is doing, replied with a sigh, “I’m with BJP these days.”
I met a leader from NCP, and when I asked about their situation, they said things are going very well. There is no other party like BJP! They said that if we do not stay in power, how can we meet the expectations of our voters? When a journalist raised the topic of ideology, the leader said, “If we sit with ideology, our youth will spend their lives struggling, what pickle can we make of ideas? Forget us.” Even Rahul ji’s close aides have left their side. Hearing this, I now wonder if before asking about someone’s condition, I should ask which party they are with these days.
Such a question cannot be asked of a leftist leader. China and Russia abandoned leftist thinking, but our country’s leftist friends have kept their ideological reins tight and do not fall for temptations! Leftists are, were, and will remain so. You may recall a time when all opposition parties agreed to make Jyoti Basu the Prime Minister, but leftist leaders Prakash Karat and Har Kishan Singh Surjit vetoed it, saying the ideology doesn’t align with other opposition parties, so Jyoti Babu would not become PM. However, one must also praise BJP’s ideological steadfastness—when the party had only two members in Parliament, BJP leaders still did not compromise on ideology.
Who can forget when Congress ruled the roost, leaders like Ram Manohar Lohia, Madhu Limaye, Madhu Dandavate, and Mrinal Gore struggled for their ideals. They did not switch sides. N.D. Patil was a prominent farmer leader and, despite being related to Sharad Pawar as a brother-in-law, remained a strong critic on ideological grounds. Indian politics has many such examples, but times have changed.
During the recent Maharashtra municipal elections, someone told me something very interesting: it has become very difficult to figure out who is with whom and who is against whom. In Mumbai, those standing hand-in-hand in one place would be opposing each other in Pune and aligned with a third party elsewhere. The elections were truly mind-boggling. In BMC elections, BJP and Shiv Sena (Shinde) contested together. NCP (Ajit Pawar faction) is part of the state government, but contested differently in BMC. Pune had different alliances: BJP contested separately, Shiv Sena (Shinde) separately. Ajit Pawar’s NCP faction aligned with Sharad Pawar in Pune, but contested separately in Nagpur. Congress, which broke ties with the Thackeray family in Mumbai, allied with them in Pune. The Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi, which contested with Congress in Mumbai, opposed them in Pune.
Even mayoral elections saw strange alliances. In Bhivandi-Nizampur municipal elections, BJP had a clear majority and fielded Sneha Patil, but Narayan Chaudhary, supported by Sharad Pawar’s NCP-led Bhivandi Secular Front, became mayor. A BJP leader lamented that outsiders are enjoying within the party while we waste our lives setting up the system. In Chandrapur, Congress was near majority, but with Shiv Sena Uddhav’s support, BJP chose the mayor. In this era, some praise Ramdas Athawale as the truest leader—clear about his ideology and stating openly who he stands with in power.
He says plainly: whoever is in power, we are with them! No ambiguity. Others, however, constantly change their colors. The face smeared today is wiped off tomorrow, a new one applied, then another. Voters are told that this is for their benefit, and they know their job is to applaud—and they do.
