A Few Words for BSY and BJP: Time to Switch from Top-Down politics to Bottom-Up politics!

It looks like that the pussy, cry-baby from Karnataka, B S Yeddyurappa, fondly known as BSY or Yeddy, is at last going to roar like a lion in the month of December. Until the roars have happened, we do not want to be sure or believe that they indeed are going to happen. However, for the sake of argument, we can tentatively assume that they might happen.

For the BJP, it will be (it has been already) a crippling blow. The only southern state where it has wrested power for itself, its supremacy might be going down the tubes! Thus both the BJP, and BSY are at a critical juncture at this moment.

For an outsider, the case of BSY is plain and simple. He has been a 'disciplined' RSS-man, he built the party from grass-roots level. He was made a victim of BJP's high-command arranged regional marriage, just as Kalyan Singh was victimized to favor Hajpeyee's sister Mayawati, with H D Kumaraswamy, himself the son of the infamous opportunist H D Devegowda.

As we have mentioned earlier, most political parties in India operate (or gravitate towards operating) like the Congress, where the "high-command" dictates the lowly soldiers. Every incompetent and sycophant (remember the poison-filled Arjun Singh?) prides himself about being a devoted-and-disciplined soldier of the party; whwrein the party is always the "high-command".

We would also like to clarify that we are not commenting about the dynastic politics in India. So long as we keep singing glories of universal suffrage democracy with the result that big money keeps playing the key-role that it has been playing, the money-keeper will always be the one running the dynasty. It is not difficult to perceive India's democracy as an hierarchy of dynasties. Also, we are not criticizing dynasties per se. Dynasties are not bad in themselves. However, nasty dynasties indeed are bad. The problem is not dynasty; but bad dynasty! However, let us skip even that for the moment.

The systemic problem in India has been that of over-centralization (this is vaguely related to being a bad dynasty!); and high-command domineering has been a prime factor both as the cause as well as the manifestation of that. However, all bad things come towards their end too; and therefore as our Central Powers are slowly crumbling, Regional Assertions (smaller dynasties with their satraps!) are slowly gaining.

And this is surely natural and hardly illegitimate. Nevertheless, there is a BIG catch: Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai, or Patna etc. no longer want to be centrally controlled and micro-managed from Delhi. However, they conveniently forget that equally naturally, Darjeeling, Mysore, Nagpur, or Arrah too do not want to be centrally controlled and micro-managed from Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai or Patna, as the case may be! This is where the DF-ery of these regional satraps lies. They oppose over-centralization by Delhi; but they want regional reins to be completely within their hands. In short they want to become local Delhies! And this will NOT work.

Thus a more comprehensive solution will be to introduce effective de-centralization, down to the smallest units. And, tentatively speaking, the guiding principles can be Voluntary-Centralization and-or Least-Centralization. And in order to implement it effectively, we will have to appreciate the idea of Bottom-Up politics. However, all of these points need to be debated comprehensively and details for optimal performance need to be worked out. So what happens to the promised few words for BSY or the BJP?

BJP will have to go Bottom Up. It was SO in the past. Despite all their follies, leaders like LKA et al did climb the ladders putatively starting from grass roots. However, after they reached the top, the game changed! They had their own blue-eyed boys, or surrogate children if you will, who were groomed for their respective thrones. And bad dynastic practices began. Remember that even during dynasties, the king had to pick the best among his children (usually sons) to be the heir-to-the-throne. The prince too often had to climb his way up; first controlling small rebellions and then winning medium sized battles and then wars and so on. This is completely unlike the present situation wherein neither Rahul Gandhi, nor Akhilesh Yadav, nor other such aspiring heirs, have any demonstrated abilities in running the show. For example, A Yadav is in fact running a pretty bad show! And yet!!

Compare this, on the other hand, with, say a Mamata Banerjee, who without any 'Godfather', without any 'family connection' worked hard from bottom-up! Needless to mention that despite all the brouhaha about his mass appeal Mohandas was a Top-Down phenomenon; while Loknayak Jaiprakash Narain, notwithstanding the early failure of the Janata Party experiment, created a Bottom-Up movement!

So BSY must be given his due, whatever that may be. Politically there may be bargaining, so the exact details of what a putative compromise would be, can scarcely be second-guessed. However, one thing is absolutely clear. Exactly like what the the Congressman from MP said: Those who sit in AC rooms have a disconnect from those in the field; the BJP (or any party for that matter) can ill afford to ignore the message from Bottom Up except at its own peril. BJP has already burnt its fingers by adopting under the guidance from high-command use-and-throw policies in the cases of Kalyan Singh and Uma Bharti. It is matter of open perception that it has hardly recovered from these blunders. Under such circumstances, if it again betrays political wisdoom, it will be finished for the foreseeable future.

For BSY, our recommendation is that he must guard against falling into the trap of being 'disciplined soldier' etc., to be merely exploited by the high-command. He must assert himself, and never allow himself to be ill treated. But that will not be enough, though much easier. In addition, he must also remember to practice accordingly towards his own 'sub-ordinates'. In abstract terms, even Narendra Modi will have to work out something similar if he wants to be capable of doing a good job of being PM, should he become one someday. He himself is risen Bottom-Up, and he will have to identify about fifty more Narendra Modis, and so on.

Most importantly BSY must position himself relatively much more pro-Hindu than the best in the BJP. BSY must strive to be, so to speak, a Kalyan Singh from the south (Not in getting exploited by high-command, but in taking a firm stand in favour of Hindu causes). Always remember, be a disciplined soldier of Sanatana Dharma, not merely your political party or its high-command.