Skip to main content

Post Election Thoughts


The elections are over, and results are out. Whether people like it or not, if we believe in democracy, we must accept the result with grace and move on. Modi or Rahul or Mulayam, they are not going to be sitting by your bedside to hold your hand. They are going to throw a basket that has flowers - (some fresh, some stinking rotten and how many of each we don’t know) - into the Indian crowd. What we catch or what hits us we don’t know. So, let’s wait and watch with optimism.

One thing I noticed was that after 1977 which was when my personal interest in politics started this was the first election where the majority of the citizens were emotionally involved. Everyone took pole positions, nothing mattered but politics. There was huge polarisation not just in terms of caste, community, religion but also 2 new religions as I came to term them - AM & PM - Anti Modi, Pro Modi - and the 2 new religions dominated the landscape of India drowning the traditional groups. With 72 seats in UP and 7 in Assam, many a Muslim I am sure voted for Modi for whatever reason. From whatever electoral arithmetic I was aware of it is well-nigh impossible for BJP to get 285 seats on their own without Muslim support. Let me tell you why. Before the elections the maximum number of constituencies where BJP had even a presence was only 300 out of 543. Modi took the audacious target of 272 on the logic of 2/3rd majority in this segment so he is left with 72 seats from allies but like a leader had a stretch target. BJP worked this election on the assumption that no Muslim would vote for them which is borne by the fact that the number of Muslims given MP tickets are few if not non-existent. It was this particular strategy that made 15-year-old allies like Nitish to walk away so fast and the sulk of the internal leadership like Advani and Sushma.

The next strategy was however to change the subject of debate not for any selfish dubious reasons but to change the narrative. So from the start the focus was "Vote for India, Governance, Development" with a little political rhetoric thrown in for some whistles and comedy and to address the entire nation without any (or little) focus on caste, community, religion.


Internal surveys of BJP or opinion polls also did not show up anything more than 250 at best for BJP and scraping past 272 for NDA. But BJP got 285 which makes it 95% results from its core constituency which is obviously now incorrect but instead got 35% from its non-core areas which were Muslim dominated. UP was in the wildest imagination at 50 out of 80 but 72??? So the one fact that our so-called liberal intellectuals, left leaning commentators will NOT agree easily to is this fact. It is this ONE FACT that has completely unnerved the Nitishs, Stalins, Mamatas and the Left apart from other sundry AM religion folks. The entire edifice on which their whole treatise is built is now shattered. It’s like discovering the world is flat.

When the name of Modi was announced I know that ministers and others in congress celebrated the 2014 elections as a walk over, a non-contest. Little did they know the change in people’s mood or the change that could be achieved. So this makes the shock even more shocking. This also explains the spate of resignations not due to morals but each need to now get himself weighed in with the public on new rules and situations that the citizens had created and on which BJP had reaped a harvest. Was BJP aware and planned this? I don’t think so. What BJP did I feel is that they decided to change the narrative given their own ideological baggage and initiated action accordingly and by sheer luck and providence got caught in a perfect storm and came out as winners.

Coming to this AM/PM polarisation I found it deep and wide within families, friends, colleagues, business associates and over time noticed a interesting difference in this behaviour. You had long time traditional congress/BJP supporters who I discounted. Among the rest who were suddenly very "politically involved" a large number jumped on to a ideological bandwagon and others onto a political opinion bandwagon. These were not the traditional long term politically involved folks; they were those who were caught in the maelstrom of current political atmosphere.

Those who jumped into the ideological bandwagon became either PM or AM and then rooted for BJP, AAP or Cong. With these people it was impossible to have an intelligent discussion. Everything they argued was on emotions, views that they heard/read and a hope/dream of a rainbow which their favourite would deliver. Facts, logic, economic theory, etc did not matter. Some in this group turned abusive if you did not agree with them. I know of people who denied someone a job, unfriended people on FB and such other silly behaviour. These people were very clear on one thing. What they knew, what they read/heard and felt was gospel truth and any disagreement was blasphemy. So you had a situation where an "opinion seeker" wants a discussion on say Mani Shankar Ayer or Modi or Rahul, the rules were that the debate cannot be on anything except on the positive things the "opinion seeker" has stated. Anything contrarian he deletes. It became funny to me because the "opinion seeker" wants to have free speech but curbs it himself.

Those on the political opinion bandwagon spoke issues, strategy, economics, personalities and based on the subject had differing opinions that could be termed as pro Cong, pro BJP or pro AAP and of course AM or PM. Those who were and jumped into the political opinion bandwagon (like me) had to endure a lot of frustration because based on the issue and your arguments, you got abused by the ideological group of BJP/Cong/AAP and each thought you were against them. The AM/PM religions of course became strident and added to the frustration. It took me time but rather late I managed to start identifying whether a person was ideological or not and then steered clear from getting drawn into political discussions. A "yes sir" was the safest route to escape so the person was happy.

 Like with dogs I hope that this political heat that many find themselves in reduces and is seasonal since with elections over, it’s not funny anymore.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Humour in Real Life Part 1

Life has been good to me, have spent significant time travelling, faced various situations and when one looks back, many were rather funny but usually in hindsight. These can lose their sting when written, but I still try. They are not in any order. Gujarat Hotel: Joined a new company and many of us at a senior level were new to the company and each other. Met up in our hotel room on the eve of a meeting in Gujarat – a dry state. Invariably the conversation came to getting alcohol and none knew what to do. One guy had a bright idea and picking up the phone ordered in a friendly but all-knowing voice – Ask Pinto to send it to the room. Obviously, there was some confusion at the other end, but my colleague confidently said – don’t worry yaar, Pinto knows everything, just tell him. Line disconnected and we ask – who’s this Pinto? He says – I don’t know but usually every hotel will have a guy named Pinto !!!!!!. Now Gujarat can have lakhs of Patel’s but not Pinto, a very Goan name bu...
2 comments
Read more

Winds of Political Change

  However well meaning, when a political system pushes an agenda that threatens to upend all logic, human life and society as we know it and above all demonstrates a hypocrisy that even a deaf mute blind can see and hear, people will react strongly. Even if logic dictates that economics, development, progress should be the cornerstones of human priorities, the same humans will “disregard” these because the threat they see, is seen as a threat to economics, development and progress. The major mistakes made by the Democrats, liberals, and otherwise derisively termed “wokes” were the following, even if they claim that they are saving the world. Within a short time after the Covid pandemic started, the larger public were convinced the pandemic was engineered, covid vaccines useless if not dangerous and the pharma industry in cahoots with corrupt politicians was playing god. Gender affirmation and choice activism coming close on the heels of the pandemic only reaffirmed the larger view ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Humour in Real Life - Part 2

Odessa file: In college, a totally bald professor had a class scheduled in the afternoon when we got news that he was sick, and the class cancelled. Me and my friend - incidentally both of us had shoulder length hair – decided to go watch the matinee show of the film “The Odessa File”. We reached the theatre to find ahead of us in the line – who else but the bald professor. Like typical college kids we generally discussed him in colourful words and avoiding him got into the theatre and soon interval time arrived. Most folks left the seats to step out while we continued sitting. My friend in a loud voice with very colourful words recalled the Professor bunking class to see a movie and soon asked in general. “Where the f**k is that baldy I say” and we turned around – only to find the Professor sitting exactly behind us and stared into each other’s eyes. We quickly turned back and I don’t think we even saw the rest of the film properly. Even as the credit list came on, we literally ...
Post a Comment
Read more