By Mohammed Kashif Yunus for TwoCircles.net
If you go through the advertisement, cut outs, hoardings and pamphlets of Peace Party of India, you will find that in 90% of these displays, there is only one photograph on it: that of its National President Dr Ayub. It is true that other parties like Congress, BSP, SP are also involved in such hero worship but there are three things which Peace Party must mind before toeing such path of hero worship.
First, is profile of the party. Peace Party as a party and its President as a leader does not have the profile that Congress, SP, BSP and its leader like Rahul Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mayawati have. Why does profile matter? Because when an already established political force indulges in hero worship then that weakness could be ignored in front of their other strengths like strong party structure, big and diversified vote bank etc. But when a Party which is struggling for its survival and growth does same mistake, it can be detrimental because projecting only one man also means undermining other office bearers of the party who belong to other castes, religion and region.
This becomes a hurdle in attracting new castes, religion and region people in Party because their leader get posts in party but not place and respect in party literature, hoardings, cut outs, advertisement etc. If you go through the advertisements given by party in different print media you will find that other than Dr. Ayub no one’s photograph is there: not even of its state President Dr. Abdul Mannan.
Second thing is level of hero worship. No doubt that Congress, SP, BSP does the same, but to what extent? If you talk about Congress posters and hoardings, other than Rahul Gandhi you may easily see Ghulam Nabi Azad, Raj Babbar and Sheila Dixit’s photographs in the displays too. In the case of Samajwadi Party, you will find Azam Khan and others. In BSP you will find Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Advocate Mishra and others. But in Peace Party? Just Dr. Ayub.
Third thing is nature of hero worship. Other than the present leaders, it is often common to find some photographs of those great leaders and icons in different party posters who are no more: Kanshi Ram, Lohiya, Gandhi, Bose, Ambedkar, Maulana Azad etc. But Peace Party does not use the photographs of even those leaders and icons who are no more. Their story starts and ends with Dr. Ayub.
There could be 1-2 cases which are exception of the trend given above, other than that Peace Party follows the same trend. If you can visit the Peace Party Office situated in “Vidhayak Awaas New Building” in Lucknow you may find many posters pasted on the walls of office having just one photograph on it. If you can’t go to Lucknow, go to any library and check the advertisement of Peace Party given to Print Media in last six months.
It seems that rather than concentrating on attracting vote of different castes and religions on different issues and by giving respect to the icons and leaders of different societies, Peace Party leadership is more busy in ensuring that Dr. Ayub controls the whole party and there is no one else who is having any kind of control and say in Party. Although there are a number of weaknesses and negativity which Peace Party carries but this negativity of extreme hero worship could be easily identified by a common mind.