This Party Has Personality But Follows No Cult

New Delhi: There is a face to go with every major political party in India – Jayalalitha for All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK); Akhilesh Yadav for Samajwadi Party (SP); Mamata Banerjee for Trinamool Congress, Arvind Kejriwal for Aam Admi Party (AAP), but face seems to have no value for the preachers of alternative politics in India.

Breaking away from this practice is the newly floated political outfit Swaraj India. What we see on the inaugural logo or poster is a group of people in the background of yellow and a tinge of red.

“This was won with struggle - ours is the only political organization that does not carry a picture on its logos or posters. This is how personality cult is built, by bringing faces to political outfits,” Yogendra Yadav, the first national president of the new party told News 18.

Last year, the split in AAP resulted in the ouster of Yadav and Prashant Bhushan, who were dissenting against the “personality cult” that came to haunt AAP politics. At the heart of it was the “supremo” versus “leader” debate. Soon a new socio-political organization Swaraj Abhiyan was established, and today its electoral wing Swaraj India was launched.

Yadav said, “We have a collective leadership through a model of Presidium, which will be the highest decision-making body. There is organizational culture, where no one person is going to dominate. There are 17 other members who will have the authority to remove the President.”

Critical of the personality cult that defines Indian politics, he said, “It has destroyed institutions from within. Look at SP, AIADMK, TMC – these are fiefdoms. For that matter look at AAP – these parties are run on the whims and fancies of one person. It devaluates everyone else in the organization and one person rises at the cost of others – this is unhealthy for democracy.”

Yadav told the press that Swaraj India is the only party “to bring itself under RTI Act and has announced a public information officer to that effect”.

Also, there will be no whip on legislators but horse trading is a strict no.

Freedom of expression will be ensured at all levels and party members will not be pulled up for dissenting.

They have also created a federal structure for decentralized decision making where state and district units will have equal say, and away from divisive politics of other parties; this one has the vision of 21st century as documented in Swaraj Darshan.