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When elections were announced, I was resigned to BJP/Modi forming the government again with a clear majority. What gave me some hope was when PM Modi stooped so low with his anti muslim comments, “non-biological” and “god-sent” pronouncements, and invocation of spirituality by telling people to get “punya” by voting for him! I felt these acts were despicable but I also felt the Indian voter is mature and will give appropriate responses.
Modi took oath as PM! Several articles were written analyzing the results in detail. But I felt reiteration and reinforcement is never too much when it comes to promoting secular, liberal, constitutional democratic values.
Reason for optimism
Politics of hatred, islamophobia, religious polarization were snubbed. Modi and BJP used all resources available at their disposal but fell far short of their self declared goal of 400+ with BJP not being able to get a majority on its own.
Ram Mandir was a key election plank. The electioneering kicked off with a grand inauguration by PM Modi with several invited celebrities including politicians, industrialists, actors, and sportsmen. Modi solicited votes in the name of temple and tried to exploit religious sentiments! Modi tried to scare voters saying he needs 400+ to stop congress from putting “babri lock” to the mandir! People of Faizabad constituency of which Ayodhya is part of, were not impressed by the usage of religion for politics, defeated BJP and elected SP candidate.
Anti-muslim hate speeches failed to polarize voters into extending their support to BJP. To pick one sample speech among many by PM and other BJP leaders – Modi brought down the dignity of the office of PM to its lowest level with his speech in Banswara, Rajasthan. He targeted Muslims by using terms “ghuspaithiyon”(infiltrators) and “jinka zyada bachche hain”(those who have more children)! He played with emotions of Hindu women by saying their “mangalsuthra” will be taken away! He spread misinformation. Voters proved to be more mature than Modi, gave their verdict by defeating BJP candidate there by big margin.
A personality cult was systematically created for Modi over last few years. It is a shame that BJP as a party has totally surrendered to an individual, its manifesto was named Modi ki Guarantee! Personality cult is not good for democracy, it is an indication of a slide towards authoritarianism! By relegating BJP to below the majority mark and by totally rejecting 400+ appeal, voters defeated Modi and his personality cult.
The Divinity project threw another factor for the elections when Modi declared himself to be a messenger of God and someone not biologically born! He may have had his hallucinations or it was his political ploy but the voter was under no illusion that self proclaimed gods were really gods! People of Varanasi felt he is an earthly being after all and gave him a reduced victory margin! And the people of India brought his seats down to below the majority mark!
Several takeaways from the elections to feel optimistic about. However one has to be very cautious to sustain and build on these gains.
Need for caution
Whatever may be the gains, the same government came back to power! Modi/NDA3.0 will continue governance the same way!
It may be too much to expect from alliance partners Nitish, Naidu etc to exert any major influence to alter the course. They have a history of switching alliances without much regard to ideology. They may be content just to be able to be in power.
Sustaining the unity of the opposition is not a given. It was commendable the way they came together and brought into focus the real life issues like unemployment, inflation, constitution, secular and democratic values. But power is part of politics, will pull away from ideology, especially when the ruling party applies all tactics, including misuse of CBI, ED etc to destabilize the opposition.
Path forward
The not-biological and god-sent leader will need to work with normal human beings like Naidu and Nitish. A major responsibility of Naidu, Nitish and other NDA members is to keep a check on Modi and BJP. Time will tell how well they fulfill this responsibility, we can hope for the best.
Job is not complete for the opposition alliance. Hope they will continue to raise real life issues and fight for upholding democratic values.
Indian voters showed maturity in their judgment, the election results indicate a major turning point and give reason for cautious optimism. There is no place for complacency. Wish India a great future as a liberal constitutional democracy!