The Aaya Ram Gaya Ram culture is being most talked about nowadays as leaders defect from their parties after poll failure. Sending shock waves across political circles, a week ago, Telugu Desam Party members, former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha MP Sujana Chowdary along with C.M. Ramesh, T.G. Venkatesh and Garikipati Ram Mohan joined rival camp BJP.
Some netas have no qualms in defecting and joining the ruling political party, for personal benefits. But for public perception, they say “they want to serve the people.”
Interestingly, TDP supremo Chandrababu Naidu was the political guru of Sujana Chowdary and C.M. Ramesh, both of whom benefitted a lot in their respective positions after they were offered Rajya Sabha berths. Sujana was made minister too in the union cabinet. But they wasted no time in deserting the party after it lost in the recent polls. Now they say they are joining rival camps ‘to serve the people’!
Sujana Chowdary strongly denied rumours of him joining the BJP when he was quizzed about it a year ago. “Me? Joining BJP? It’s ridiculous! Maybe it’s the Opposition’s tactics to spread such rumours about me,” Sujana had said.
Cut to the present, he jumped to join the BJP and vehemently defends his decision. “I feel that the country’s development can go to great heights under Narendra Modi’s leadership. So I have joined the BJP!” he said.
C.M. Ramesh, known to be one of Chandrababu Naidu’s close aides, also jumped sides. Both Sujana and Ramesh, who have the CBI and ED probing them for financial irregularities, had Naidu’s support all through. Perhaps they felt, a defeated Naidu has no clout at the Centre to help them out of their cases.
Expressing shock over her Parliament colleague’s exit, MP Thota Sri Lakshmi says, “Sujana was present in the party meeting that was held just a few days before he joined the BJP,” she reveals, adding, “Ethics and morality have gone for a toss in today’s politics.” She further clarifies that although it’s the leaders who are switching parties, the cadre remains loyal and strong.
Mohan Guruswamy, former Chief Economic Advisor to the Government of India, lashes out at politicians who are switching loyalties. Dubbing it as a ‘culture of careerism’, he states that the Constitution has failed to address this ‘defecting issue’ with the parties. “Politicians have no shame! Political parties have to be duly constituted and have to function according to the Constitution. But nothing is happening as such. Politicians always want to be in the ruling party to make money and get patronage,” says Mohan Guruswamy.
He further mocks, “While the President of India was addressing the nation on corrupt practices in the morning session, the Vice-President (Venkaiah Naidu) was welcoming a corrupt politician (Sujana Chowdary) into the BJP party in the evening. So character is not an issue for these people.”
Switching loyalties not only sets a dangerous precedent in a democratic set-up, but also kills its spirit. Political analyst Bandaru Srinivas Rao recalls how Chandrababu Naidu (who was in Congress in 1982), denied the rumours of him joining TDP (which was floated by his father-in-law N.T. Rama Rao), but switched loyalties promptly after he lost the election.
“I was present in a press conference in which Chandrababu said, ‘I will never ever join TDP and shall stay in Congress’. But after he lost the elections, he joined TDP,” recalls Srinivas Rao.
However, he welcomes the decision of AP Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, who said that his party would invite leaders from other parties only after their resignations.
While it is a public secret that leaders hop parties for their personal gains, the current scenario is only a testimony to changing times.
Reflecting on how times have changed, former Minister Geetha Reddy reveals how her mother, Eshwari Bai, a former MLA from the Republican Party of India, never shifted loyalties in spite of getting offered ministerial berths. “Values and political morality are fading out,” she says, adding, “But not just in politics, that’s the case across all walks of life.”
