Transpoliticals are simply those who identify differently, while turncoats are prone to defection.
Madhavan Narayanan
J K Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter, is in the middle of a row after refusing to acknowledge or respect some prominent transgenders who turned female. She invited outrage after describing successful transwoman football manager Lucy Clark as a “straight, white, middle-aged bloke”.
I don’t want to wade into transgender politics, but I do see in the middle of general elections in India that the prefix ‘trans’ has many uses. I am reminded of a fancy new term for a broke person who loves to spend—transfinancial, a rich person trapped in a poor person’s body.
That is inspiration enough for me to arrive at a new term: transpolitical. A transpolitical is someone who is seen to be from one political tribe but traipses over into another with a new sense of identity. My favourite example this season is V Karthikeya Pandian, the Tamilian-born IAS-officer-turned-politician who is making waves in Odisha as heir apparent to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The BJP is suddenly upset about the loss of ‘Odia asmita’ or identity, but Pandian, mixing a Tamilian penchant for alliteration and rhyme with his love of all things Odia, declared: “I am Indian by birth, Odia by breath.”
Pandian is fluent in Odia and originally from Tamil Nadu, whose chief electoral officer Satyabrata Sahu is an Odia who speaks fluent Tamil, and like Pandian, an IAS officer. Rather than a transpolitical, Sahu is more a transferable bureaucrat.
But you cannot confuse transpoliticals with turncoats, who are a different lot and much in the news. Transpoliticals are simply those who identify differently, while turncoats are prone to defection. And turncoat is too broad a term. I propose to classify them into various types. You cannot just say “blue” when there is royal blue, navy blue, sky blue and turquoise blue. So, here is a nuanced taxonomy of defectors.
The most common member of the turncoat species is the opportunist, who jumps ship when he sees there is no future in the party for him. The sophisticated way to do this is to say the party leadership is inaccessible. A finer member of the species is someone who suddenly wakes up from a long sleep to declare that one’s party is no longer what one thought it was. Sample: ex-Congressmen who defect on the ground that the party is against wealth creators. When this discovery takes place long after politically-linked tycoons are slammed, you may well call them trance-politicals, as they seem to be waking up from a long slumber. We might call them Rip Van Uncles, after Rip Van Winkle, but that would not be Bharatiya enough. For me, they are political Kumbhakarans. Now, that works better.
A sub-species of the Politicus Kumbhakaranus is someone who used to be a party spokesperson and suddenly discovers vices where he saw virtues. The Congress has lost at least three spokespersons this year to quick-fix defection. On a closer look, you find the defectors were in the party not for ideological commitment, but more for their articulation skills in prime-time shouting matches. Like lawyers, they simply settle for the better client. We may call them Client Servers—but not to be confused with network computers of a similar description.
Then there is the Vote Banker. This is a tricky variety. They are identified with any one political party at a given time, but are committed members of their caste, community, region or constituency. They switch party loyalties but stay true to their tribe. You can think of leaders of Vanniyars in Tamil Nadu, Lingayats in Karnataka, and some chosen members of the OBCs in northern states whose loyalties are traded like players at an IPL auction.
Then come individuals who switch sides when they find political equations have changed to hurt their personal ambitions. Arvinder Singh Lovely in Delhi, who used to be with the BJP, moved to the Congress, and is now back in the BJP. He says this is his last stop, but we will wait to see if his guarantee works. Given their revolving-door politics, I am tempted to describe his kind as the Revolver. But that’s a misnomer for those who are neither going great guns nor shooting straight from their hips.
It is best to call them the AyaGayas, in eternal remembrance of the politicos who ushered in the ‘Aya Ram, gaya Ram’ culture in Indian politics. Their contribution to the business of tourist resorts also needs to be recognised as this is the type that gets herded into luxury spots even as rival parties fret headcounts in confidence votes. I won’t call them Reverse Swingers, though, as you never know which way is reverse.
The Oscar for defections must go to the type I call Asset Managers. Don’t confuse them with the professionals who manage your mutual funds or shares. These are the ones who manage their personal assets by switching sides. You can picture industrialists who switch party affiliations to make sure their wealth is not targeted by law enforcers. However, my favourite in this category is a former minister who was dubbed by a famous journalist as ‘Bungalow Bill’ after a Beatles number. His theory was that this politician’s loyalties depended on which party was best placed to help him retain his sprawling bungalow in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi.
Madhavan Narayanan | Senior journalist
(Views are personal)
Courtesy : TNIE
Note: This news is originally published in thenewindianexpress.com and was used solely for non-profit/non-commercial purposes exclusively for Human Rights.
