Can these two be mentioned in the same breath ? Does not look like it. One does not have to go beyond the present crisis to get an insight in to that. When BJP was in power , the policies that they pursued vigorously are being rejected by them only because the same have been proposed by Congress. FDI Retail is a case in point and I am sure if BJP had been in power the "reforms" like FDI in retail and freeing of fuel prices would have happened earlier.And to round it off, one understands that policies opposed by Cong when they were in opposition are proposed by them.
There are two aspects one is personal convition Vis a Vis party's stand. There could be occassions when on some aspects your personal convictions are not in sync with your party's stated position. I would think that is okay as long as the principle policies and positions are in sync.
Earlier we used to hear terms like"turncoat" used very derogatively and to reflect on people with no morals and hypocrites. The very fact that the term is no longer in vogue suggests that the behaviour which was used to describe is acceptable to a large extent and is normal . It is no longer something which is bad and unusual.
People's convictions seems to be a function of the party they are in rather than they being in a party due to syn of their personal convictions with that of the party. In fact ,I am not even sure whether any political party has any stated conviction which can stand the test of time.
Is this just a recent trend or has it always been like this ? I would think that this is a recent trend getting worse by the day. Karnataka is a case in point.Yedurappa is part of BJP only because he would be reward with CM position and BJP had him as the leader only because he had a large caste based vote bank under him.
Quite frustrating .
