Congress 'crying' over SIR and CEC is misplaced :: How ? --- Ask yourself honestly: would Narendra Modi still be in power if he had not delivered on promise of development?

This is truly a changing world.  One international 'Democracy Report' produced by the V-Dem Institute claims only 7% of the world’s population live in liberal democracies. 

Having said so, we know there is a special importance about Democracy in India. The heart of a healthy democratic process lies in the Election System. The Congress has been traveling the wrong route while trying to get back its rhythm in national politics. We need to see the mandate of 2014 when Narendra Modi first became the Prime Minister. This was also an election when Congress figures came down all time low to 44.  

Mind you the mandate in 2014 - had two clear messages. First, it was a mandate against UPA and especially the Congress. It was anti-incumbency vote. But there was also an expression of hope in the BJP and especially the prime ministerial face Modi. 

The BJP and NDA benefited because people expressed hope in the alliance and in particular on Modi.  The Congress party and even other opposition parties need to analyse things pretty deeper. 

If in 2014 -- anti-incumbency against Congress and trust in Modi gave BJP the unexpected number of 272 ... five years later .... the BJP's figures jumped to 303. Importantly; here Trust in Modi and people's desire for a strong and decisive leadership surpassed everything. 

In both 2014 and 2019 elections; the caste equations did not work. 

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However, it worked in 2024 but within a limit and only in Uttar Pradesh. This was compounded by wrong selection of BJP candidates and hence the Lotus party's number dropped. The Samajwadi Party gained in UP. 

Now taking the debate to the next stage,  we know people are over interpreting US mid-term elections outcome in the context of India. 

Former News Editor of 'Maharashtra Herald', Mohan Sinha argues: 

"The people dreaming of @narendramodi  losing the “Trump way” refuse to accept a basic fact: India’s voting system is far stronger and more reliable than most. 

If voters wanted to throw Narendra Modi out, they had the chance in 2019. Instead, they gave him ... (another) term. That is the proof."

Between 2014 and 2019; Modi showed what he could do with more than five years. He delivered the most basic things to the poorest people — things Congress could not manage in sixty years. 

And he gave the middle classes and the rich the idea that India could change.

Mohan Sinha 

Mohan Sinha adds: "Ask the older woman in the Northeast who saw electricity in her home for the first time. Ask the villager in Maharashtra who finally got water from a tap. Ask the people who saw a proper road reach their village. 

Why did successive Congress governments fail at these elementary tasks?

Kalahandi once gave Rajiv Gandhi a hard lesson: promises have to be kept. The same rule still applies."  

PM Rajiv Gandhi’s August 1985 visit to the drought- and poverty-stricken Kalahandi district in Odisha became a defining political moment that exposed deep structural flaws in the welfare system.  

Stunned by widespread corruption and systemic leakage, Rajiv Gandhi famously admitted that only 15 paise of every rupee allocated by the central government actually reached the intended poor beneficiary, while the rest was lost to middlemen and administrative overheads.

You can keep complaining about SIR and “electoral manipulation.” In your heart you know the truth: 

It's obvious; whether in elections or otherwise --- when one side keeps winning, the other keeps losing. For this it is always safer to bet that these are always linked to the "trust" between the the voter and the political party and candidates.

Sinha has his argument: 

"You can abuse Modi all you want because he is a Gujarati or a tea-seller’s son. You can hate Modi and wish him dead. But hiding behind the flawed ‘vote-chori’ campaign is doing great disservice to the world’s finest electoral process and the Indian voter. You (Congress especially) need to stop lying to yourself."

Taking a closer look to Indian politics around 2013-14 would be a meaningful exercise. This was the period; everyone saw the 'return' of massive crowd in public rallies especially those addressed by Narendra Modi.  Here too, the transition process was visible. 

The problem with the Congress party most often is that it starts believing its own propaganda. The propaganda is also believed by the Sickular ecosystem but not by hundreds of Youth Congress workers and office bearers. Otherwise, why over 200 office bearers across seven states were suspended for defying Rahul Gandhi's call. 

To strengthen this argument, I come back to Mohan Sinha, who tweeted rather acidly:

"This is the same voter who threw Indira Gandhi out in 1977 and brought her back with a thumping majority in 1980. This is the same voter who voted for India’s first BJP Government and (also) voted them out in 2004, unimpressed by the ‘India Shining’ campaign." 

Sinha also says: "Ask yourself honestly: would Modi still be in power if he had not delivered on his basic promise of development? He said he needed more than five years to do the job. Voters gave him that time, and he used it well. 

The day he starts behaving like the Gandhis and their party, voters will throw him out without hesitation. It will not be because some editors, drunk on their own self-importance, keep ranting on TV and think they have the power to remove him." 

The real question is why so many of those editors still cannot see the difference between the India of the 1980s and the India of today? 

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However, for BJP too, the complacency would be the road to self immolation. It's true, India’s strongman - that is Namo - has performed and somewhere underperformed especially with regard administrative and economic reforms. He has changed the country - -- as they say - for ill and for good. 

But the reality is -- Modi and his pro-Hindutva forces - meaning BJP and the RSS - all combined are facing one of sternest tests yet. 

In political battle fields often strategies fail. Long back Partition was intended to avert the threat of civil war between Hindus and Muslims. It completely boomeranged on the common people - both Hindus and Muslims. 

But the fear mongering and the vote bank politics helped Congress for long. It is no longer helping anyone; not even Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.

In West Bengal too; the Hindu-Muslim divide did not work as much as the development card. Therefore, people have high expectations from chief minister Suvendu Adhikari. 

Voters in Bengal are smart about politics.  They trusted Congress between 1947 and 1977. Then reposed faith on communists for 34 years. Between 2011 and 2016 - 15 years - three elections, they trusted Mamata Banerjee. In 2021 - Mamata was warned. 

Modi was also warned in 2024. The corrective steps have been taken for various states including the tougher ones like Maharashtra, Haryana and West Bengal. But 2029 will be much more competitive. 

The Congress may still be not aware of ... how they left the country behind in 2014. 

In 2004, Manmohan Singh inherited 8.5 per cent growth. In contrast between 2012 and 2013 and 2013 and 2014 - India had grown less than five percent growth for two years. Rahul Gandhi may be in his wild dreams; others should be little more pragmatic.

ends