Indian politics has seen many flip sides of democracy. Even if we pride ourselves being the biggest democracy in the world, unquestionably few flaws are glaringly easy to highlight. A lot of people point out the victory of Donald Trump as president exhibited a loophole in the American system touted as the strongest democracy where a huge difference of popular votes sans electoral college courted controversy. In India, emergency imposed by Mrs Gandhi had highlighted our own democratic shortcomings. However, some flaws are not exhibited once in a blue moon but patronised owing to its beneficial aspects to political leaders. When tall leaders fail to occupy corridors of power and that necessary coveted chair, they push a righthand man Friday to the said position for maintaining control and exerting influence. And invariably, proxy rule comes into the picture.
When we talk about chaos in Tamil Nadu following the ensuing aftermath of Jayalalitha’s demise, the embattling factions of the AIADMK are now captained by their respective proxies.
The legacy of Jayalalitha represented by O Paneerselvam known as OPS is now fighting Sasikala Natarajan who has fielded E Palaniswami.
As the Supreme Court convicted Sasikala in a DA case, her dream of occupying the CMs chair was muzzled forever. Installing her crony and seeking disqualification of OPS and other rebels invariably was an attempt to centralise and take over the party. Nevertheless, the audacity to do the needful inspite of being jailed for corruption is more akin to Mafia dons continuing their gang activities from prison. Unfortunately enough, her follower in the form of E Palaniswami has ensured her sway in the party and she will most probably rule the state through this man from behind the thrones.
Installing proxies is not new but a very common tactic utilised by leaders to stay in power. When Laloo was convicted for multi crore fodder scam, he put forward his wife for the CMs post which ensured the state was in his cahoots. This step not only helped him neutralise aspiring rivals from his own party but also sort of gave him power without responsibility. This is the biggest attraction in such a scenario where you can run policies and keep things at stake in the name of the puppet you have put affront. This is exactly how the position of PMO was manoeuvred into its compromising ransom owing to proxy rule imposed by the UPA chairman then.
Sonia Gandhi may have been prevented from being the PM owing to her foreign origin issue but the arrangement that ensued as a fallout from the same on the contrary helped her galvanise power more effectively. Anything significant like even a populism measure or a program was credited to her and any calamitous disdaining situation was nicely blamed on the PMO. Although PM Singh was handpicked by her, any advent of a monumental scam quickly was absorbed by the PM which distorted his image. Perhaps putting a puppet may be more sort of a radical proxy making process but it fine tuned with Mrs Gandhi’s political aspirations. Dubbed as two centres of power by Digvijay Singh, there cannot be any bigger example of how proxy power can be so damaging.
There have been other examples in the offing in the realms of Indian politics. Bal Thackeray, deceased Shiv Sena Supremo too had maintained a symbolic ‘remote control’ which indicated domineering over his CM and other party leaders. This again resulted in dual power structures and a perception was clearly created that face on the podium was one and the hand behind it was another.
When Nitish Kumar and the BJP plunged themselves into a bickering political crisis, he had to resign as a fallout from the process. Anyways, Jitaram Manjhi was brought in to replicate the same aspect which was masterfully crafted by Laloo Yadav. Unfortunately for Kumar, the move backfired and the night watchman CM Manjhi imbibed his own ambitions for the same.
Proxies become more prominent in dynasty and one individual centric parties as evident with respect to Congress or AIADMK and RJD.
With the situation in Tamil Nadu continuing to slide into instability, it’s important to note the fact that parties with a robust internal democratic system can actually weed out the same although there is no guarantee it cannot happen there.
Politics in Chennai has become like mixed doubles proxy game between Jayalalitha’s legacy and her proxy OPS taking on Sasikala’s treachery and her proxy in the form of E Palaniswami. This proxy war is expected to continue for sometime now and push the polity of the state into more inglorious uncertainties.