INDIA: Bharat Lost, India did not win!

The world’s most important and largest democracy, India , witnessed an unprecedented poll drama this year. The odds were much larger for anybody to bet on but it culminated in being a win, but a no-win, for the right wing, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which went to the voters with one face, divisive caste polarisation agenda and loads of money power and over confidence. Indian diaspora is very liberal and believes in life for all and love for all. But from the year 2019, they began to realise that their chosen leader is not lesser than a autocrat.

Democracy doesn’t accept autocratic rule, especially in a country like India where you have 29 States, 300 plus languages and dialects, different needs and wants, varying degrees of economic strength and swaying convenient political ideologies.

India wanted a change and in 2014 and with the infusion of tonnes of money and having on board a US based lobbying and advocacy agency, BJP pulled the rug from the feet of the erstwhile government. A autocrat called Narendra Modi was installed as the Prime Minister and a defamed rioter Amit Shah as the Home Minister. For a decade of rule, what these two managed to do was to create tension between communities, simply ignoring unaffordable inflation, unemployment, crimes against women, no minimum selling price for farmers’ produce, haphazard and hopeless handling of COVID and unwarranted imposition of failed propositions like GST and RERA. For the BJP, it’s only about ruling by not following the rules.

Rarely does it happen that a prime minister avoids speaking with the media. Deception held back Modi to face a fearless media, so it is alleged that he made his good business friend, Gautam Adani, buy top media brands. The judiciary too was dumped in the back pockets of Modi and Shah, who are today facing severe criticism from their parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ((RSS), a Hindu outfit which was about to be banned by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. With 240 seats in the kitty, it was but obvious that the Modi-Shah duo go for the hunt for good allies so that they cross the 272 seats number of being the largest congregation and stake claim to be back again in power. The aim of bagging 400 plus seats, to replace the Constitution of India was crushed and demolished by voters. Two staunch opponents, Nitish Kumar of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Chandrababu Naidu of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), both lost horses became the kingmakers and, for now, their night out has just begun.

A decade saw the ruling incumbent misusing government organisations like the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Income Tax departments to terrorise political bigwigs by either closing favourable political deals or putting them in the dungeons. The Opposition, led by a hesitant scion of the Gandhi family, Rahul Gandhi of the Indian National Congress (INC) got his party’s mojo back, so much so that the Right wing couldn’t digest it’s own downfall. Rahul’s two mass outreach campaigns viz. Bharat Jodo Yatra and Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, both on foot scaling the length and breadth of India, helped the INC to connect with the populace with a justice oriented agenda, and it worked.

It is said that the entire world’s money rests with 1% of people while the rest work to make the 1% richer. Modi-Shah’s political outfit, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was bouyed by Nitish and Chandrababu. Political analysts say the life of the coalition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) of which BJP is the boss, might not survive for long. But, at the end of the day, Bharat Lost and India did not win 2024. EOS