Leaders of various parties should introspect on the way the country’s politics is being conducted, says thinker

Thinker, columnist and former aide of Atal Bihari Vajapayee, Sudheendra Kulkarni, said in Dharwad on February 8 that leaders of various parties should introspect the way the country’s politics is being conducted.

“Given current political developments, leaders need to reflect on the direction our democracy is heading,” he added.

He was speaking at a program organized by YS Patil Memorial Trust at the Karnataka Vidya Vardhak Sangha auditorium. He called for renewed efforts to preserve democratic values ​​in India.

Mr. Kulkarni, who served as special advisor to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, said leaders of political parties need to undertake serious introspection in the face of far-reaching changes taking place in India’s political environment. He shared his experiences of working closely with Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani. Mr. Kulkarni observed that the Congress of the pre-Independence era no longer exists and the Jana Sangh (now the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)) of the 1960s and 1970s has also undergone a significant transformation. “

“I think the path followed by some leaders of the BJP is very different from the values ​​put forward by the founding leaders like Vajpayee and Advani. The ideological commitment among today’s politicians seems to have weakened,” he said.

Recalling his association with Vajpayee and Advani, Mr. Kulkarni said it was his privilege to work with leaders who valued experience and expertise, regardless of party affiliation, as they gave great responsibilities even to opposition leaders. “They believed in India’s multiparty democracy and in inclusive governance as the path to national progress. We seem to be moving away from such trends,” he said. He also expressed concern over the declining quality of parliamentary debates, and said that Bills requiring serious debates were being passed after the suspension of 140 MPs, without much discussion in the Parliament.

Mr Kulkarni criticized attempts by some vested interests to portray India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru as a villain or anti-national element. “Vajpayee and Advani had great respect for Jawaharlal Nehru for laying the foundations of India’s development. We need to realize that today it is a disturbing trend to brand dissidents as anti-citizens,” he said.

He recalled Vajpayee’s belief that friends can change, but neighbors and geography cannot. “He believed that improving India-Pakistan relations would reduce Hindu-Muslim tensions in India and worked in that direction through initiatives such as the Lahore bus drive and the Agra Summit. But progress on such moves was derailed due to Pakistan’s failure to curb terrorism,” Mr. Kulkarni said.