Real Power is always with the Regional Leaders
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Look at this chart. This is the 2004 election results.
Congress........145
BJP.............138
State Parties...159
The regional leaders have always been powerful. It is a big surprise; all these years, how did both Congress and BJP manage to hide this fact; how come those regional leaders fail to realize this basic truth.
That is the power of Information and Media.
During freedom struggle, everyone knew about the leaders from all the regions. After independence, the local politics was predominant; the people knew only the leaders of their regions.
But during and after Emergency, the people of India got to know the leaders from other regions too. The people of Tamilnadu got a chance to know about leaders from the northern part of India and the regional leaders started taking active part in the Central Government. That was the beginning of the Federal kind of government at the center. That was the end of the big party government at the center.
Had the Congress understood this truth, they could have continued to maintain their power at the center. Congress could have been more powerful, by empowering the regional partners. Congress could have just focused on retaining the Prime Minister, Finance, Defense, Commerce and other important portfolio and just delegate the total responsibility to the regional partners to bring the number of MPs to the Parliament.
If you look at successful global enterprises, you will understand the way they run their business. One global car company don't even have a factory. All they do is, get the work done by others. For instance, it should have been Karunanithi's responsibility to bring 40 from Tamilnadu; it should have been Lalu's responsibility to bring 40 from Bihar. Congress could have just done that.
When Karunanithi is getting stronger then switch to Jayalalitha. In that way, Congress could have the regional leaders busy with their local fight. Then the regional leaders would have never challenged Congress at the center.
More over the fact is, leaders from Tamilnadu never visit Bihar; and leaders from Bihar never visit Tamilnadu; only Congress leaders visit all the states. That was the power of Congress. But the leaders of Congress failed to realize that strength and did the mistake of expansion. At the regional level, there is no room for any expansion. So they are forced to fight against their own regional partners. When you are riding on a space shuttle at the center, why do you need to focus on running auto-rickshaws in the states.
Another important fact is, when the regional leaders are empowered, the crisis is localized. When the issues are localized, it can be resolved easily and it will not spread to other regions. The regional leaders Jayalalitha and Chandrbabu might have had issues with seat sharing; but they resolved at the local level itself. But the national parties didn't empower their regional partners. They wanted to be present all over India. That was the reason, the seat sharing issue with Mulayam had been spread to Bihar and other regions too.
That is exactly we need to do with the government setup too. The Federal Government at the center should empower the State Governments. The State Government should empower the City Governments. Then the local issue will be localized and resolved at the local level itself.
Now, the Information and the Media is the main reason for the current change. People of Tamilnadu know about leaders Lalu, Pawar, Mulayam, Mayawati and many others. Similarly, in other states too, the people know Karunanithi, Jayalalitha. That is the power of The Media and the Information. And the regional leaders also got the skill and the confidence to run the country from the center. That is unbelievable.
The regional leaders always have the power. They always have more strength than Congress and BJP. They didn't realize it. Now they do. In 2009, the regional leaders will emerge more stronger.
Another important fact is, the regional leaders are not ideologists; they have no ideology; they are very practical. Congress follow the ideology of Gandhi and Nehru; BJP's ideology is Hindustan. Because of this strong ideological differences, the Congress and BJP can never come together.
That is not the case with those regional leaders. They don't hesitate to join hands with any other regional leaders.
By all means, the regional leaders are emerging strong and powerful.
It is still not too late, if the national party leaders understand the current challenges, crisis and may come out with a strategy to face the current situation. But if they assume that the business is as usual, soon they will see the truth.