Ethics and morality have never been the stuff of politics. Chanakya and Machiavelli are often quoted as authorizing amoral realism in the conduct of affairs of state. Chanakya’s approval of pragmatism over principles referred only to the king’s pursuit of national interest, not his personal ones. Chanakya’s advocacy that a king use any means necessary — including bribery, betrayal, and violence — to defeat rivals, was done in the larger interests of the state and the kingdom. Political parties in India have, however, often deployed Chanakya in their pursuit of amoral politics.
Very few political formations in India can claim to have resisted the temptation of using amoral means to claim and retain power. Of all the political parties in play in contemporary India only three formations have claimed that they are constructed on an ideological platform. The communist, Dravidian and Hindutva parties have always claimed superiority over political parties that have no rigid ideology defining them. The Indian National Congress claims its ideology is defined by secularism and pluralism but few today view it as an ideology-based party. The split in the Dravidian movement has also exposed the fact that all the Dravidian parties are also into seeking power rather than pursuing an ideology.
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