Ekla chalo re is no longer a stirring song
momentum to the saffron brotherhood.
And yet, as Karnataka and now Kairana have shown, the notion of political invincibility is also part of a myth-making factory. Modi and his lieutenant Amit Shah have built a larger than life image for themselves by convincing the Opposition that they are indestructible. But to draw a cricketing analogy, as India’s stunning 1983 World Cup win over the mighty West Indies and the magical turnaround in Kolkata against Australia in 2001 showed, even seemingly unbeatable rivals can be outplayed provided there is sufficient self-belief.
From an Opposition that has been outwitted at almost every stage for the last four years, we now at least have the emerging contours of a potential challenge. At the heart of it, is the ultimate political weapon: the survival instinct. Nothing else explains why the Congress has virtually surrendered to a HD Kumaraswamy while forming a government in Karnataka, or the fact that a Mayawati is ready to forget past animosities.
Not that the dominant party is simply going to lie down and let the Opposition walk all over them. Within days of the by-poll setbacks, there are signs of the Modi-shah duo getting into course correction mode. The massive aid package to the sugar industry is perhaps a belated recognition that post-kairana the
farmer needs a break. That Shah is now busily courting allies is another pointer to the future: in the run-up to 2019, the BJP will need to relearn the art of winning friends and influencing people. Ekla chalo re is a stirring song but it doesn’t necessarily make for good politics.
Post-script: A day after the Kairana results, a Whatsapp forward from a BJP supporters group was sent to me by a friend. It read: ‘See what happened in Kairana: 35 per cent Muslims voted as a bloc while we Hindus are divided and fighting over petrol prices!’ In the months ahead, as the stakes get higher, expect the communal pitch to intensify further.
ganna neta’s Rajdeep Sardesai is a senior journalist and author The views expressed are personal