Hilal Lone

Political ideology of the leadership of a country depends upon the aspirations of the people and their religious, cultural, economic and regional background. As we know, time is not steady for any state or country due to transformation and change in all spheres. The old methods of governance are gone. Modernity and democracy have revolutionised the world. The UN is responsible for world affairs and the protection of fundamental rights throughout the world. Globalisation has also brought several changes which have made the role of the UN more important. Political ideology thus is not just limited to the regional or national level but also determines global leadership.
As far as national leadership is concerned, it is focused on national issues. For example, during the Indian freedom struggle, in every corner of the country people were victims of poverty, diseases, illiteracy, etc, due to British rule. A few educated Indians were in the employment of the British. But as time passed, when they saw the growing brutality and ill-treatment towards Indians, their views changed on the question of loyalty to the British. Their knowledge, experience, and empathy changed them. They chose to drive the British out from their land.
M.K. Gandhi, often called “Bapu” or “father of the nation”, was a man of great wisdom and strength. Despite being a staunch Hindu, he removed the barriers of religion to unite people of the country against the British. It was the method of non-violence of Gandhi which weakened British power in India. Apart from Gandhi, there were many leaders who were jailed for years and suffered police brutality on many occasions. Their hearts and minds were full of the pain that the people of India felt. This shared pain made them the best leaders and made them ideologically against violence and bloodshed.
After the freedom of India from British rule, the Indian leadership was focused on shaping the future of the country and on establishing a sound mechanism for governance. Any narrow agenda was out of their consideration, as they came from different religions, sects, regions and cultures. The luxury of their families was far from their minds, because they had first been victims of British tyranny before growing into the new leaders of India. It took them more than 3 years of discussion and contemplation to frame the constitution of the country.
After independence the Congress was the party in power. Most regional parties supported the Congress in good faith. The Bharatiya Janata Party, originally known as Bharatiya Jan Sangh, exists since the year 1951, was against the Congress but it had little influence. The Indian National Congress had good, wise and patriotic leaders. It was because of them that India came out from the darkness of subjugation to the light of independence. It was India’s great fortune that its Constitution was written by freedom fighters whose goal was not selfishness but the highest good of the country.
With the passage of years, the generation of those freedom fighters passed away. The mantle of national leadership fell upon Indira Gandhi, who had been raised by a brave leader and great freedom fighter, Jawaharlal Nehru. Her leadership was exemplary. However, she faced tough circumstances and was killed by her own Sikh guards. Her children and grandchildren had grown up amid luxuries, which weakened their strength and will to sacrifice. It is why the Congress became weak after Indira Gandhi and the political space for regional parties widened. The Bharatiya Janata Party, a Hindu nationalist party, launched the Ram Janam Bhoomi movement in 1989 and that paved the path for it to come to power.
The BJP has been undoing much of the work that the Congress and the freedom fighters did in the years before. In conclusion we can say that the freedom fighters were the country’s real heroes as they fought for the country without any selfish motive. Those heroes shaped the country with good faith and clean minds and hearts. They understood the pain and poverty of the people. But when the pursuit of political majority became the main purpose in politics, the walls of religious and cultural differences were raised and they divided the people of the land. Leaders became selfish and corrupt. The idea of politics became limited to vote banks, instead of the vision to build a nation.

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