Bhubaneswar: Gone are the days when political parties were considering the candidatures of leaders who have sacrificed a lot for the party and stood with the organisation during adversities. There is, however, a swift change in the scenario, if 2024 election is an indication. Ideology is put on the back burner insofar as the criteria for handing over tickets are concerned.
Now, a candidate’s power (both money and muscle) is weighed before awarding tickets while turncoats are having a field day as part of revenge politics. At a time when corporate financing of elections through electoral bonds has become the order of the day, what matters the most is performance in the battlefield. Electoral bonds scheme functions based on quid pro quo relationship and companies dole out thousands of crores to various parties and expect favour from the party in power or to be in power. Therefore, it may not be wrong to say that corporate financing is a precursor to political parties becoming full-fledged corporate entities. Days are not far when parties would turn into limited companies. Parties and candidates calculate profit and loss while taking any significant decision without caring a fig for the ideology they have long cherished or their true role as people’s leaders. In Odisha, many retired bureaucrats, police officers, corporate honchos and industrialists have forayed into politics while film stars, who are no more in the scene, are trying their luck again this time.
However, the million-dollar question is whether a retired bureaucrat or an ex-corporate employee can touch the lives of people at the ground level and help the government schemes reach them seamlessly. Can a retired administrator’s performance statistics or an ex-corporate employee’s achievements be the yardstick for a good politician, who can understand the plight of the underprivileged? Likewise, an industrialist may not bother about the basic issues people face. He would rather focus on what he would gain or lose. The country, as well as Odisha, has seen the performance of actor-turned-politicians which needs no further elaboration. On the contrary, a person, who has been with the people at the grassroots level and has worked for the party for a longer period without any craving for power or money, feels neglected when he/she is denied a ticket. This results in dissent and resentment. To sum up, politics nowadays is driven by market forces and has turned into a game of people wielding power and position.