BJP’s arrogance loses colour in India polls
Voters shunned hyper-nationalism that neglected a poor economy, lack of jobs and agrarian distress
Amit Shah was the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) face of the elections, which were fought on the repeal of Article 370 and the plank of hypernationalism. However, the voter disagreed and put the imploding economy, a near-historic lack of jobs, agrarian distress, the collapse of a big cooperative bank in Maharashtra and the water crisis (with areas in Maharashtra doing without water for weeks) centre stage.
If I were Amit Shah, Union Home Minister and BJP president — the most powerful politician ever produced by the Sangh parivar — I would be a tad bit worried about the results of the Maharashtra and Haryana state election results.
Shah was the BJP’s face of the elections, which were fought on the repeal of Article 370 and the plank of hyper-nationalism. Shah strode the length and breadth of India attacking the Opposition and mocking at them as “anti-nationals”. He promised to throw out the “ghuspetiya” (interlopers) and called human beings “deemak” (termites). A measure of Shah’s status was the anointment or his son Jay Shah as a secretary to the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI). Shah also gave a series of one-to-one interviews to several channels just before the voting. Now that the BJP will form the government in Maharashtra and Haryana (with outside support in Haryana, politics seems to have normalised.
A quote attributed to Bill Clinton “it’s the economy stupid” seems to summarise the situation. Shah, apparently, bet the house on testosterone charged hyper-nationalism, clearly hoping that the vote would mirror the full majority the BJP got in the parliamentary elections just a few months ago on the Balakot surgical strikes against Pakistan.
But the voter disagreed. She certainly sent a message saying that citizens had sacrificed enough when asked by Narendra Modi as a national project and now wanted governance in turn. The BJP’s slogan in Haryana was “Ab ki baar 75” (This time 75) — clearly the 2019 big win hangover persisted in the BJP.
Whether the Opposition can get its act together for Jharkhand and Delhi, which will next go to polls, is debatable, but Indian politics just normalised with these results and that is good news for India.
Checks and balances
The Haryana Jats punctured Shah’s balloon. And sitting Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar — a Punjabi non-Jat, whose appointment was obligingly hailed as a “master stroke” earlier — will now contend with a Jat deputy, 29-year-old Dushyant Chautala. The BJP’s commitment to women was also callously exposed when they sent a chartered aircraft to ferry Gopal Kanda, a rape- and abetment-to-suicide accused, to seek his support to form the government.
Even the usually tame Indian media protested and the BJP had to back down.
Maharashtra again sent the BJP a message that they did not like hubris and arrogance and the massive overkill of using the central investigative agencies. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) notice to Maharashtra’s tallest leader Sharad Pawar boomeranged on the BJP. The ED move to catch Pawar on the wrong foot conveyed the impression that the central agencies were Shah’s most reliable allies.
ED notices were also issued to Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will now also have a check in the form of newbie Aditya Thackeray as his deputy, while the Shiv Sena, as an ally of the BJP, will serve as a vital check on the saffron party that had dreamt of being the senior partner in the alliance.
So the Indian voter told the BJP two things. One, that they like real democracy with an effective Opposition and real checks and balances. And two, no arrogance in politics — the vote is an effective check.
Whether the Opposition can get its act together for Jharkhand and Delhi, which will next go to the polls, is debatable, but Indian politics just normalised and that is good news for India.
■ Swati Chaturvedi is an award winning Indian journalist. Twitter @bainjal