New Delhi
Yet another round of provincial legislature elections came and went by in India and the voters have reposed faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pro-Hindutva Bharatiya Janata Party infour states out of five.
The BJP win came in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh that sends 80 lawmakers to Lower House of Parliament. Modi is himself one of them since 2014 representing ancient Hindu pilgrim city of Varanasi.
"I was mandated by mother Ganges to come to Varanasi and represent you," Modi does not forget totell voters. Reference to the 'sacred river' is a clear attempt at indoctrination to keep voters intoxicated on Hindutva ideology.
The saffron party and Modi himself has benefited immensely from hardliner Hindutva politics.
The renewed mandate has certainly made his task of returning to power in 2024 easier.
The Prime Minister was not hesitant to recognise this factor and underlined in as many words the importance of victories especially in Uttar Pradesh.
Of course the UP win has catapulted Hindu monk-turned-politician Yogi Adityanath onto the national stage as Modi’s successor. While Modi always makes a good synthesis of development and Hindutva
ideology-based politics, Yogi Adityanath is more vocal about his Hindu hardliner rhetoric - chiefly targetedat 'enemies of the society' and the Muslims.
"My opponents said in 2019 that the fate of 2019 general elections were decided in the 2017
UP elections itself. Now I think they will say the same that the fate of 2024 polls was
sealed in today's outcome," the Prime Minister said in his victory speech to the party workers at BJP HQ.
"The results strongly vindicate BJP's pro-poor and pro-active governance.
Of course in running a country with multi religions and multiple communities, it cannot beHindutva all along.
The U.S.-based Freedom House, which assesses political rights and civil liberties globally, noted the decline in civil liberties in India owing largely due to BJP's Hindutva brand of politcs.
A report by the Swedish V-Dem Institute said India was among the top 10 countries sliding into authoritarianism.
In two states of Manipur and Goa a sizable Christian population have voted for Modi's party notwithstanding several episodes of the ruling party's antagonism towards Christians.
But among the minorities, a community that stands shaken now with the renewed mandate forthe BJP is the Muslims.
As results started pouring in on Thursday (March 10), several Muslims including traders and journalists on the condition on anonymity in Delhi said there will be a sharp rise in hate speech by radical BJP leaders and possible attacks on their livelihoods like meat (read beef) trade and cultural practices
"The latest victory is likely to help the BJP forge ahead with its controversial agenda, including implementing a citizenship law that excluded Muslims from its ambit and had been pushed to the back burner after nationwide protests," says a write up in 'The Washington Post'.
But BJP leaders deny playing up only Hindu rhetoric to win elections. Even the Prime Minister in his victory speech claimed he has always focused his campaign based on development.
"The results strongly vindicate BJP's pro-poor and pro-active governance. Earlier, the people could not reach the governments for basic amenities such as electricity, gas and water," Modi said claiming his party has changed things.
Virendra Sachdeva, a member of party's Good Governance cell, said, "Please do not underestimate our inclusive development agenda. This is one thing which is not appreciated in the media. Just when there was sinister campaign that minorities are not happy, we have Muslim voters in Uttar Pradesh and Christian voters in Goa and Manipur voting overwhelmingly for the BJP".
Both of them could be correct in a sense.
For instance in Manipur state which is infamous for anti-India insurgency movements by varioustribal Christian groups, the BJP offered itself as a harbinger of peace and solution.
This has helped in perhaps 10 assembly segments in 60-member Manipur assembly.
Kuki tribes including armed militant groups openly backed BJP nominees and thankedModi's trusted Home Minister Amit Shah for his peace overtures.
On other hand of course it remains a mystery that even Congress and other parties did not make BJP's alleged antagonism towards Christians a poll issue.
But it is true these elections will give a major fillip to Indian right-wing hard-liners who wouldnow push for their long-standing demands, such as Uniform Civil Code, which Muslims are vehementlyopposing as this would override religious laws on matters including marriage and inheritance.
In choosing Yogi Adityanath — one who adheres to an ascetic life style based on yoga —
the BJP leadership in 2017 had authorized him to rule Uttar Pradesh. But in the process they also gave Hindu groups a new generation of leadership.
Since then Yogi has been one of the star campaigners for the BJP in southern state of Karnataka and Tripura polls as well.
In between 2017 and 2022, Yogi has given Uttar Pradesh a "better law and order situation" with goondaism doing
a vanishing act. Several gangsters have been put behind bars. But most of them are Muslims.The BJP implemented two of its major electoral promises - the abolition of Art 370 in Kashmir and construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya.
The Yogi government has 'targeted' journalists and others with “sedition” charges, opposition parties say.
Media reports say more than 100 alleged criminals – several of them Muslims have been the victims of extra-judicial police killings. The BJP leaders, however, deny these charges.
Pramod Pandey, a voter in Baghpat in western UP, had said on the polling day - "The opposition campaign went haywire
when they started attacking Modi and Yogi Adityanath personally. The opposition socialists Samajwadi party claimed that there was no progress in UP under BJP. Such campaigns did not go down well with people" .
"Public mood is set for development, this is the win of 'Modi-Yogi' double engine government.
People have voted on the issues of security and infrastructure. After 30 years a same party is forming
government in UP for the second time," BJP leader Rita Bahuguna Joshi said.
Of course, in BJP's triumph across four states, there was the fifth Punjab state which went to hardly 10-year-old party Aam Aadmi Party (Common people's party).
It is a agrarian state bordering India's arch rival Pakistan. The AAP, which controls the Delhi's city government, became the first regional party now to capture power in more than one state.
This also means marginalisation of the Congress, which has ruled India for about 60 years. The Congress was expected to wrest power from BJP in Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand, but itfailed.Now, with Congress losing grip, obviously the responsibility is with the regional parties to confront the BJP.
AAP has huge responsibilities, but it will find things challenging as other regional leaders such as Mamata Banereein West Bengal is another ambitious person on that score. Her party tried to make foray in Goa this year, but failed utterly polling just 5.6 percent of total votes in the state.
The regional parties also often fight among themselves and this ultimately goes to help Modi and his party.
ends
BJP retaining power in four states makes Modi's task of returning to power easier in 2024
(UCAN report)
Indian voters have once again reposed faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pro-Hindutva politics in the latest provincial polls held in five states.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returned to power in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh in the north that sends 80 lawmakers to the lower house of India's parliament.
It also captured power in neighboring Uttarakhand, known as the Devbhumi or land of Hindu gods, along with Manipur in the northeast and Goa on the west coast with sizable Christian populations.
It was only in Punjab, which was swept by the Aam Aadmi Party or Common People’s Party promising an alternative to mainstream politics, that the BJP and other major parties were pushed to the margins.
But the renewed mandate in four of the five states has clearly made Modi’s task of returning to power in the 2024 general election look easier. Uttar Pradesh returned the Hindu monk-turned-politician Yogi Adityanath, who is the reigning chief minister of the state and is seen as a possible future successor to Modi on the national stage.
The Yogi is more vocal about his Hindutva ideology, a combination of unabashed invocation and celebration of majoritarian religious identity.
But the PM preferred to tone down the ideology in his victory speech, saying the results “strongly vindicate BJP’s pro-poor and pro-active governance.”
Indian Muslims, though, began to worry as election results began pouring in on March 10. Many traders in national capital New Delhi expressed their apprehensions of a rise in hate speech and attacks on them in the name of religion.
“The latest victory is likely to help the BJP forge ahead with its controversial agenda, including implementing a citizenship law that excluded Muslims from its ambit and had been pushed to the back burner after nationwide protests,” said an article published by The Washington Post.
BJP leaders denied the pro-Hindu rhetoric was the only factor behind the victory. “Please do not underestimate our inclusive development agenda,” said Virendra Sachdeva, a member of the ruling party’s good governance cell.
Speaking to UCA News, Sachdeva said the media always highlighted the minorities’ fear and disappointment with the BJP but failed to appreciate that Muslim voters in Uttar Pradesh and Christian voters in Goa and Manipur had voted in favor of the party.
Pramod Pandey, a voter in Baghpat in western Uttar Pradesh, said the opposition campaign went haywire when it started attacking Modi and Yogi personally. “The socialist leaders of the Samajwadi Party claimed no progress was achieved under BJP. But such campaigns did not go down well with voters,” he added.
UCA Link
UCA News Link
BJP leader Rita Bahuguna-Joshi said the public mood was in favor of development. “This is a win for the ‘Modi-Yogi double engine’ government. People voted for security and development infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh,” she claimed.
Still, there is no denying that the BJP reaped a rich electoral harvest by implementing two of its major electoral promises — starting construction of a Ram temple at Ayodhya and revocation of special status granted to the Muslim-dominated Kashmir region.
As noted by US-based Freedom House, the Modi government and his Hindu nationalist party have "presided over discriminatory policies and increased violence affecting the Muslim population” leading to a decline in civil liberties in India.
The latest report by the Swedish V-Dem Institute stated that India was among the top 10 countries sliding into authoritarianism.
The BJP’s continued electoral successes since 2014 have led to the increased marginalization of the Congress, which ruled India for about six decades since its independence in 1947.
The Congress was expected to wrest power from the BJP in Manipur, Goa and Uttarakhand but failed miserably and ended up losing power in Punjab.
While still grappling with how to take on Modi’s electoral might, the oldest political formation in India has ended up on the losing side in nine of the 10 state assembly elections held over the past two years.
The Congress has now been reduced to ruling just two states on its own. Its continued marginalization has left many party stalwarts wary of their future prospects.
Lawmaker and former UN diplomat Shashi Tharoor underlined the need to reform the party’s organizational leadership. “One thing is clear — change is unavoidable if we need to succeed,” he tweeted.
With the Congress left high and dry, it is now left to the multiple regional parties to take on Modi and his party at the 2024 hustings.
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