New Delhi: The electorate has moved to the right, with religion and culture becoming their two “dominant impulses”, former Union home minister and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram has said.
He also said the behaviour of the government would be the same whether they got 240 seats of their own or 300.
“’Nothing has changed after the elections of 2024. CBI, ED, EC, Income Tax all are functioning in the same way,” Chidambaram said at the launch of senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai’s book ‘2024: The Elections that surprised India’ in New Delhi Tuesday evening.
Another guest, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi, said there were three takeaways from the Lok Sabha, Maharashtra and Jharkhand election results—victory of Hindutva, secular parties giving up their agenda, and the “otherisation” of minorities.
Owaisi also took a dig at the Election Commission, saying, “A senior BJP leader was caught distributing money in Aurangabad, but the Election Commission remained silent. When the PM and a sitting CM raised a slogan of ‘batoge toh katoge’, and ‘ek hain to safe hain’…was it for all Indians or for one particular community? Who will clarify?”
Psephologist-turned-politician Yogender Yadav said at the book launch that only the public or a social movement could bring any change in the current political scenario.
“In the Lok Sabha polls, it was only the public who saved this republic by stopping BJP at 240 when they were aiming for 400… If the republic was saved by the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls, then the public has saved it, not opposition parties,” he added.
‘No majority or minority: All are Indians’
Former Union Minister and BJP leader Dinesh Trivedi said there were no minorities or majorities in this country. “We are all Indians, working together for nation building. The country has changed in the last 10 years. The outcome of the Lok Sabha polls, and now these assembly polls, hint that people still believe in the leadership of Prime Minister Modi,” he said.
“BJP is worried about minorities in Bangladesh and Afghanistan, so why not in India?” Yadav asked.
Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra took a dig at her former colleague, Dinesh Trivedi, saying his views were symptomatic of a “problem which generally happens when you change parties, you get confused about the ideas”.
Moitra also questioned the BJP versus Congress narrative in national politics, saying there were many other opposition parties that have strongly challenged the BJP in their states.
Sardesai dwelt on his experience of covering elections and said they had turned into “candy shops” because the electorate were showered with all kinds of goodies. “People are getting mixers, grinders, mobile phones, laptops and even cash now,” he added.
He said his book speaks of the increasingly transactional nature of voters and their leaders.
Sardesai also shared his experience of observing the changing nature of elections from 1989 to 2024. “There was a time when we looked towards T.N. Seshan (former election commissioner) when he was in the poll body. Now, there are too many questions about the EC too. We don’t have people like Seshan now,” the author said. Seshan, who died in 2019, has been largely credited for cleaning up the electoral system.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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