Everything to everyone : Politics of quick returns and long redundancy .

In political and social discourse , the key question is this : Who set the agenda ? Those who set the agenda are often hegemonic forces that wield political and social power at a given point in time . During pre independence era and post independence era till mid seventies , congress set the agenda for political and policy discourse and others responded or reacted . In the context of Kerala , left parties set the agenda from mid fifties to early 90s and others responded or reacted . Now the Sangh Parivar is beginning to the agenda and to a large extent both congress and the left parties are reacting to it. Hence now the contestation is between the softer or harder approach .

Thogh many of the traditional political parties are in a mode chivalric self denial , the fact of the matter is that there is a profound ideological contradiction between theory and practice on the on hand and rhetoric and reality on the other hand . This perplexed sense of contradiction in the core identity often create confusing signals , resulting in cumilative loss of core ideology and primary organizational identity .

What is the problem ? There is an increasing mix of religious discourse within the political framework and those political parties with majoritarian tendencies and sectarian identity politics often use religious discourse as a strategic tool for symbolism and as exclusive identity markers to mobilise on the basis of a particular identity .

Other parties claiming to be secular often get threatened by the symbolic use of religious discourse . Then those political parties try to outwit communal parties by playing the same card in different manner. In the end when a political party tries to use multiple symbolism and discourse to cater to a particular constituency, they eventually lose credibility and legitimacy and lose the broad based social trust .

Congress party began such game of trying to be everything to everyone . This quick wit pragamatic opportunistic approach of congress to play multiple symbolism (sha banu case and Ram Janma bhumi ) and also using Gandhi-Nehru rhetoric while pursuing neo liberal politics killed the credibility and legitimacy of congress . This eventually kille the trust of the broad constituency of Congress .

The biggest challenge of left parties that rhetorically swear by dialectical materialism are confronted with bigger hegemonic forces that use religious identity and discourse as the mode for political mobilization . The Marxist discourse and the old Marxist critique of religion is no longer working in an increasingly sectarian polity . As the project of political revolution is eternally postponed , out of sheer survival instincts , the party is trying to be everything to everybody and opportunistically make use of religious symbolism and discourse to remain a popular platform , even if it is at the cost of the core ideological conviction . This tendency to react to the agenda set by Sangh Parivar may help in the short run. But in the long run such opportunistic sectarian symbolism will undermine credibility , legitimacy and constituency . If a party or an institution is trying to be everything to everyone , it will eventually be nothing to everyone . Politics of quick retuns eventually make itself redundant .