Twenty20 - Is the end near?

It is not often that the common man in Kerala rallies behind a “muthalali” - an entrepreneur. But that has been happening for the past 2 weeks. Kitex Garments and the promoter Sabu Jacob has been in the thick of things. The Vazhipokkan in Mathrubhumi sums up a lot that I have to say on this. Let me add more.

Twenty20, the political party formed by Sabu Jacob, has been an experiment that took national attention. I had written the below lines in September 2020.

The political scene in Kerala took an interesting turn with the arrival of Twenty20 a few years back. A political party with corporate-style functioning, backed by capitalists, in Kerala! Heady Mix! Twenty20 won the last panchayat election handsomely. Now they have plans to contest in neighbouring panchayats. The interesting experiment has enough backers and critics. Nidheesh M. K. has an interesting article on Twenty20 which can be read here.

I was wary of predicting an end to Twenty20. I would say now that the experiment will lose steam and would die in 6-8 years! It can only sustain longer without Sabu Jacob.

Politicians and businessmen are interesting people. They command a lot of public respect. But has there been a businessman who runs his own political party in a democratic country? There are businessmen within established political parties who have occupied public offices. In those cases, they stood in the election and won or had the backing of political parties in power. They occupied offices with the confidence of the public.

History is replete with instances of businessmen sponsoring political parties but not running parties successfully. Businessmen always have a vested interest in their business and profit which often comes in conflict with that of the public interest. That is the reason they cannot be successful in running political parties.

Twenty20 by Sabu Jacob has been successful for the activities it championed and the immediate benefit that the public had. Corporate-style functioning brought in a refreshing change to the politics in Kerala. People preferred professionally run Twenty20 enterprise over the political parties run by normal people, most often not very well educated and even corrupt. The local politics among the leading parties also helped in the growth of Twenty20. Twenty20 won the local panchayat again in 2020 and won few more neighbouring panchayats. They now want to win the legislative assembly seats and probably run the Kerala government.

Would an established political party allow this to happen? Definitely no! They cannot afford to let the experiment grow bigger. They will do everything within their means to restrain Twenty20. The strength of Twenty20, Kitex Garments promoted by Sabu Jacob, will become its weakness, the Achilles heel. If Twenty20 has to sustain itself, Sabu Jacob has to keep either his business or party away. He might not leave his business.

If you still need to be convinced, try answering the below questions.

• Would Sabu Jacob be able to run a political party like Twenty20 in any other state in India? Why?

• Can there be a business entity that enjoys preferential treatment more so when the business is run by a politician?

• How do we trust a politician who can potentially legislate laws in favour of his enterprises?

Twenty20 came into existence because of the public mistrust in politics. They say “Politics is downstream from culture. If you want to change politics, you first have to change people to change culture.” Businessmen are not the answer!