BJP pays the price for arrogance

It would be foolhardy to deny that the electorate in five states in which elections were held last month have dealt a crippling blow to the BJP and signalled the resurgence of the Congress in no uncertain terms. Whether this revival of the country’s principal opposition would hold out even in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections and to what extent is a matter of speculation but that the Opposition and Rahul Gandhi in particular have miles to go before they get chiselled into an outfit of strong and meaningful governance is a moot point.

There was a degree of arrogance in the nonchalant boast of the BJP that it would deliver a Congressmukt Bharat (a country free of the Congress party). The message from the recent round of elections which were billed as a semi-final before the Lok Sabha polls is loud and clear-that no party or combine can consider itself invincible and afford to be arrogant.

There is no denying that while the reasons for the setbacks to the BJP were manifold, the demonetisation of high denomination currency and then to a lesser extent the introduction of GST were monumental failures essentially due to faulty implementation. While the government cannot be expected to debate a measure like demonetisation since such decisions have to be kept under wraps before they are rolled out, this government needed to have a practice of wider consultation with experts than it actually has had.

Those who mocked at Congress president Rahul Gandhi, derisively calling him ‘pappu’ have had to swallow the bitter pill of abject defeat. True, the Congress and the anti-BJP opposition in general had no blueprint ready to emphasize that they would be more suited for power. Their campaign was negative all the way, prodding for change without offering a credible alternative.

Indeed, these were State elections and may not translate into a wholesale vote against the Narendra Modi government at the Centre but inherent in it was a clear warning to the BJP dispensation that they must deliver if they are not to be dumped in the dung-heap of history.

The next six months before the general elections will be a testing time for the BJP-led NDA to deliver on promises for the good of the people. It was not as though there was nothing good that the governments in the states did. There were several measures for which these governments can be lauded. But the weight of the unfulfilled promises and of some measures that flattered to deceive was greater.

The Congress party must temper its euphoria with a recognition of what it needs to do to come up trumps in the Lok Sabha battle six months down the line. All is not lost for the BJP. When it comes to Modi’s charisma over Rahul Gandhi’s penchant for irresponsible utterances the BJP has a head start.

The ‘khichdi’ sarkar that the Opposition is likely to offer will be no panacea for the country’s ills. But the voter feels empowered to throw out governments and it is quite conceivable that any future dispensation would be as much a victim of heightened public expectations as the current one.

But as of now, BJP’s downward slide is not irretrievable. Prime Minister Modi’s tough approach in the course of governance is a plus over his predecessor Manmohan Singh’s weak-kneed administration, tied as Singh was to the coat-strings of Sonia Gandhi.

The Modi government can also take legitimate credit for providing a much cleaner administration than the predecessor government did, with no corruption scandals tumbling out of cupboards. But evidently, this was not enough for an electorate hungry with expectations.

Among the individual states where the BJP had to bite dust, the one where the writing was on the wall for long was Rajasthan where the Vasundhara Raje government was manifestly arrogant and unable to judge the pulse of the people. The BJP high command had ample time to effect a change of guard but it did not.

The government in Jaipur already buffeted with the anger of farmers with the Centre’s policies entailing hardships heaped on them by unremunerative prices for their produce and the ill effects of demonetisation, compounded its own problems by angering the Rajputs by mishandling the controversy over Padmavati.

The problem was compounded for the BJP by the challenge posed by two highprofile Congress bigwigs — Ashok Gehlot and Sachin Pilot, both of whom commanded wide respect of people at large as credible alternatives.

In Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP’s Shivraj Singh Chouhan had been in the saddle for three terms, there was voter-fatigue and a desire to see change. Shivraj and his ministerial colleagues were unresponsive to the call of the times and cocooned in a sense of superiority. Though the contest was keen, there was a feeling that they needed to be shaken out of their complacency.

In Chhatisgarh where the BJP’s long-standing Raman Singh government suffered a crushing defeat, it was the same story of the voter’s exasperation with a government that was not innovating and improvising but had a stake in status quoism.

The Congress, however, lost out heavily in Telangana where its alliance with an opportunist Chandrababu Naidu of Telugu Desam cast it against the general acceptability of K Chandrashekhar Rao and his party the TRS which spearheaded and succeeded in its endeavour to have a separate state carved out.

Another virtual wipe-out for the Congress was in Mizoram where the Mizo National Front emerged hugely victorious.

All in all, the elections in five states have opened up the possibilities of a tough battle between the BJP and the Congress in the ensuing Lok Sabha elections.