India First

Of Bhakts and Bhakti Movements in Indian politics, when The Gods and Goddesses are all too Human Edited: 28-Oct-18 As most Indians would know, bhakti means devotion to God. The Bhakti Movement, which has its origin in Medieval India, was characterised by complete surrender of oneself to God, the love of a selfless devotee or bhakt . According to an insightful article on Bhakti Movement, “Bhakti poets emphasized surrender to god”. Let’s shift to a different world – that of post-Independence politics in India. Indian politics witnessed a landmark development in May 2014. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured power in the Lok Sabha election with a clear majority – a feat not achieved by any government since 1984, and never by any party other than the Indian National Congress (INC). Between the elections of 2009 and 2014, there was a generational shift within the BJP – a generation of politicians who had been its most prominent face since it was formed in 1980, and befo...

Politics For a Purpose In a democracy the primary purpose of a political party is to come to power to serve the people of the country. Moving closer to the real world, raw power associated with top constitutional positions intoxicates like few other human experiences. Often we see that achievement of a constitutional position is viewed as a goal, when in reality, it’s just a means to achieve the noble goal of serving one’s country selflessly. Somewhere along the journey of securing freedom from the British, to running independant India for nearly 60 years, India’s oldest party Indian National Congress seems to have lost purpose. As is inevitable with human nature, politicians across parties and across democracies, seek powerful positions. But how well do all of them utilise those positions of power for which we have elected them? The negative aspects of human nature – like greed and ego – prevail more often than we voters would like! But the Congress seems to be a step wors...