Since 1947 as the British left and Indian acquired Independence, politics has mainly centered around the Congress party, who ruled the country for a total 52 years with the odd interval. It was a dominance that waned in 2014 and the 2019 results officially ended it. Now the people and electorate has placed BJP at the center as the new national party.
At the center of BJP stands irreplaceable Narendra Modi. A man who made a synthesis of Hindu ideology and development. With Modi and BJP now securely affirming their place, Indian political history is sure to shed its status quo.
A leader India was waiting for. A leader – whom millions see as a ‘messiah’ – who can perhaps solve all their problems.
A leader – who cannot be wrong even for taking away their legitimate currency notes; and a leader who will unleash the true economic potential of the world’s largest democracy.
Many unhesitatingly laud his image of a mystic Indian – a yogic in meditation but yet someone who connects so well via video conferences and Twitter.
He is also a leader who says that the country of about 22 per cent poor people can embrace an imaginative world of ‘Digital India’.
India's 2019 general elections could have redirected the country's politics from the trajectory it had been hurtling on for the past five years. There had been some wishful thinking that if the electorate replaced the ruling pro-Hindu party, the country's strength — its plurality — would have been protected. But the election's outcome was different.
In a historic mandate, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was given a second term to run the world's largest democracy. Modi is the first prime minister since 1971 to return to power with an absolute majority. He is the third one to do so after the country's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi. In the recent elections, Modi's pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) garnered 303 seats while with his allies it has 353 seats in the 545-member Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament.
The question now for many Indians is: What comes next?"A new battle for the idea of India begins today," wrote Shiv Visvanathan in The Hindu on May 24 when the election results were declared. To some the 'battle' is one picked by a BJP leadership that seeks to subvert the secular principles of the Indian constitution, a foundation that allows religious and ethnic plurality to breathe in the country.The main apprehension among religious minority leaders and a section of left-liberals has been that the BJP could change the constitution to discard the parliamentary system.This fear is not new.
In the 1990s, when Indian politics had entered an era of coalition regimes, veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani, a former deputy prime minister, had floated the idea of a presidential form of government.
Advani had said the Indian constitution required a "fresh look." Before the election there was five years of debate over allegations that the Modi-government was making subtle attempts to subvert constitutional bodies such as the poll panel and Supreme Court to meet their ends. More broadly, many believe the BJP's return, and the country's ongoing march towards Hindu majoritarianism, is a near fatal situation for religious minorities, especially for Muslims.
Kewekhape Therie, president of the Nagaland state unit of the Indian National Congress and a Christian leader, clearly sees the outcome of the election to be a mandate for "religion polarization."
A surge of nationalismMinorities' concerns about India's future are not without reason. In the run-up to the polls, the BJP made its pro-Hindu stance clear when it fielded Sadhvi Pragya Thakur who is accused of terrorism over a deadly bomb blast.
Development, mayhem & Hindutva – Making of Brand Moditva
The journey from being ‘Modi’ to the ‘Moditva phenomenon’ has been of a loner, and that of a man who vanquished adversaries at virtually every stage.
Till February 27, 2002, Narendra Modi was another BJP leader and at best a Chief Minister. But once the Sabarmati Express train was torched killing Ram Bhakts and that resulted in carnage between Hindus and Muslims in his home state – Narendra Damodardas Modi has not looked back.
He turned disadvantage into advantage. Besides dealing with detractors in Congress who wanted to nail him in 2002 riots, Modi also overcame hurdles posed by party colleagues like Sanjay Joshi as well.
At one point even his trusted lieutenant Smriti Irani had questioned his role during the carnage of 2002.
In 2013, his declaration of being made BJP’s ‘prime ministerial candidate’ was opposed by none other than his mentor L K Advani.
In 2002, during the peak of mayhem, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee asked him in public to discharge ‘Raj Dharma’. "With what face I will go abroad," Vajpayee had said at a Muslim relief camp.
Dealing with all that requires more than the assertiveness, and Modi has shown the single mindedness. And the right synthesis of Hindutva inclined nationalism punctuated with development and him (Modi) being seen as an architect of change transformed him into a big national leader.
A leader India was waiting for. A leader – whom millions see as a ‘messiah’ – who can perhaps solve all their problems.
A leader – who cannot be wrong even for taking away their legitimate currency notes; and a leader who will unleash the true economic potential of the world’s largest democracy.
Many unhesitatingly laud his image of a mystic Indian – a yogic in meditation but yet someone who connects so well via video conferences and Twitter.
He is also a leader who says that the country of about 22 per cent poor people can embrace an imaginative world of ‘Digital India’.
Born on September 17, 1950, Modi first became Gujarat Chief Minister at the age of 51 on October 7, 2001.
He had gone there more as a stop gap arrangement after Bhuj quake. But once the mayhem had settled down and Gujarat was drenched saffron in December 2002 elections, the writing was clear.
On the swearing-in day attended by the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and other BJP stalwarts – there were banners reading ‘Aayo rey aayo, Gujarat ne sher aayo (Here comes Gujarat’s lion).
Modi grew larger than life.
‘The Brand Moditva’ was in the debate and statisticians did not fail to appreciate that BJP’s vote share had gone up to 51 per cent in 2002 – much higher than 44.8 per cent in 1998 and 26.7 in 1990.
It was a neo-Modi -riding on the Hindu consolidation. The BJP recorded a resounding victory even in Panchmahal and Dahod showing that post-Godhra riots had brought in also tribals and OBCs under the influence of Hindutva school of politics and thought.
But, even as success came along; all of it was not like a walk along the bed of roses.
In between in 2005, he was denied Visa by the US. By 2004, the government had changed in Delhi and in 2007 assembly polls Sonia Gandhi called him ‘Maut Ka Saudagar (A merchant of death)’.
An ear on the ground politician that he is – Modi turned the table; and said ‘Soniaben’ has insulted five crore Gujaratis. All this in a state where entrepreneurship and business are virtues! He won 2007 assembly polls.
Modi mixed his cards well. He emerged ‘protector of Gujarati pride’. At times – he played up Hindutva-nationalist card using the phrase ‘Mia Musharraf’ to perfection and made it clear that there will be ‘no appeasement’ of Muslims.
He kept winning elections after elections and only after 2012 – he made a venture ‘outside’ Gujarat.
Long before the EVMs started working, the general elections 2014 was described as a watershed polls in country’s history. The anger of the middle class about corruption and a vividly seen ‘indecisiveness’ of a Prime Minister in office ensured that the dynastic Congress was handed over a convincing defeat.
Its tally came down to 44 while BJP’s shot up to 282.
Life for Modi plunged into a whirlpool of success and happiness. To many Indians, Modi was a harbinger of ‘acchey din’ (good days) and the US President Barack Obama laid down red carpet for Modi and had even picked up Gujarati to welcome India’s Prime Minister with the salutation – ‘Kem Chho’.
In 2015, the UN obliged Modi and June 21 was designated as the International Day of Yoga. Oriental India was in the international space and India acquired its lost space as a soft power.
Prime Minister Modi – dismissed as a Mofussil leader for his limitation with English oratory – travelled across the globe and shook hands with firm grips with all the key players like Vladimir Putin, President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In September 2016, Modi turned a 'hardliner BJP leader' and a true nationalist to order ‘surgical strikes’ giving a message that his government meant business when it came to dealing with terrorism.
The core voters were enthused even as opposition parties spent weeks spending the genuineness of the attack.
There came another opportune occasion in February 2019 when the country was already in poll mood. Yet again, Modi gave green signals – and this time Air Force led the aerial strikes on Balakot terror hubs.
The macho Hindutva nationalist image was latched upon by Indian voters and for the first time since 1971 – he is the first Indian Prime Minister to win two consecutive polls with absolute majority. Thus, there was a glimpse of yet another transition – Hindu Hriday Samrat trying to get into the show of Bharat Hriday Samrat.
It is not without good reason that Narendra Modi has changed the political dynamics of India.
While the Congress has been decimated, parties like RJD scored a zero in Bihar and BJP’s traditional and ideological opponents the communists’ tally in Lok Sabha also came down and the Marx followers could not open an account in their one-time bastion Bengal.
In the final tally, BJP crossed the 300 mark on its own and vote share made a quantum leap to 37.46 per cent registering an all India swing of 6.12. The NDA percentage climbed up to 45 per cent.
During last five years and during his days in Gujarat, Modi has been slammed for being dictatorial and anti-minorities – towards both Christians and Muslims.
However, his admirers counter such charges. Actor Vivek Oberoi, who acted in a biopic on the Prime Minister, told UNI – “Contrary to general impression that ‘intolerance’ debate has tarnished the image of the Modi regime, such allegations have only proved on the contrary that Modi’s regime has been one of the most tolerant dispensations”.
Analysis of the outcome of 2019 elections also show that a large number of Indians have rejected dynasties and politics of entitlement.
This is the ‘new India’, Modi promised.
Closer look at voting pattern also suggests that even minorities – Christians and Muslims – have voted for the candidates who would in Delhi ultimately add to the strength of Namo.
In his maiden speech after election as NDA parliamentary leader, Modi said the society needs to have higher ‘aspiration’ and that India is.
During election campaign, faceless Indian voters – and from lower strata of society – said they would vote for Modi because under his stewardship, the government has brought in a new ‘foreign policy’.
Modi has tried to make an outreach to Muslims and others as well who did not vote for party as well. He said his MPs should work for all including those who did not vote for them.
In terms of governance, the Direct Benefit Transfer into bank accounts, gas cylinders for rural poor, rural housing and a believed to be corruption-free governance would be certain hallmarks of his tenure between 2014 and 2019.
Modi projected a self image of a Hindu-nationalist, an industry friendly catalyst for development, someone who initiated GST reforms and a man who would not compromise with the ideologies of his RSS roots. All these have paid in dividends and helped create a phenomenon called Moditva.
And the marvel is going to last long.
ends
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