underplayed campaign of Mayawati was eulogised every now and then. And the BJP was criticised for illogical ticket distribution and ‘polarising’ strategy. In other states, all the internal surveys of aspiring ‘to be national’ party were sold as the most credible numbers. The Media houses, mostly from Delhi, tried their best to influence the voting behaviour with blatant biases. Everything fell flat before the people’s mandate and created credibility crisis for all these elements.
Against this, the post elections speech by Prime Minister Modi gave a clear meaning to this mandate. While reiterating his stand for inclusive government, he depicted a clear vision for 2022, and not 2019, which is everybody else’s reference point. If ‘New Bharat’ is to be built then the new era of electoral politics is the starting point for that. The traditional pattern of divisive considerations would be replaced with ‘new resolve’ of integral thought. People have given their thumbs up for this credible nationalist agenda, whether other political parties and intellectuals get this message clear or not is upto them
Ratan Sharda
2017 elections show a decisive turn of India as a nation towards a nationalist polity dedicated to development.
These elections have exposed the irrelevance of Main Stream Media (MSM) in moulding peoples’ opinions as per its world view. Global surveys show that newspapers too have lost credibility as most newspapers now publish views as news. With hundreds of sources of news, this methodology does not work anymore. Social media which was social at one time has become the news media of choice that people believe more. This is happening inspite of misinformation going viral many times. Failure of mainstream media to rightly and objectively disseminate news has seen the rise of Social Media as an alternative. Clamour to control it orchestrated by main stream media comes out of typical mindset of
fighting change rather than change self.
It is also clear that people are no more apologetic and cannot be shamed into feeling guilty just because they happen to be in majority. India’s Hindu civilisation is not intolerant like many other civilisations that impose secondary status on other faiths. People have now understood that as long as they have given respectful democratic space to all citizens irrespective of caste, creed and faith, they have a right to get the government they want. They have realised that minority based politics is worse than majoritarian politics. India is a truly republic of faith, shaming its citizens will backfire.
These elections tell us that people are not taken in by manufactured controversies of intolerance, and questions about their nation and nationhood. These elections have settled the way citizens of India look at themselves, at their nationhood and their expectations. Illiberal lobby of Left-secular-Maoist forces may have doubts about our nationhood and so-called idea of India, common people have no confusion about their nation and cultural nationhood. Left lobby needs to reconcile to these new realities.
Despondent and sometimes bitter response from critics of the BJP and today’s ‘expert comments’ tell us that they have not reconciled to the change in mood of the nation. Their abusive, unsubstantiated criticism of Hindutva and ‘hyper’ nationalism tell us they refuse to recognise the ancient heritage of a well developed and evolved living civilisation that respects and accommodates all faiths.
This intolerance to native wisdom and bitterness at their failure to foist their agenda on this nation inspite of controlling all institutions of learning and policy making will result in more bouts of controversies.
You can expect more rounds of manufactured controversies and efforts at creating disturbances. They may pick up small issues and blow them out of proportion with help from well entrenched supporters in media. They may manufacture crises with help of minor incidents magnified in their shrill style with obliging
lobbies in months to come. They will keep fomenting trouble and defame security forces. It is the latest tactic they have adopted.
I may stick my neck out and hazard a guess that we can expect atleast two more cycles of noise or serious efforts at trouble making before upcoming state elections in next year. First target would be Gujarat where BJP is well entrenched, and second could be Karnataka where they are poised to win.
Marxist-Leninist forces have upped their ante and are working hard to spread more disaffection in campuses supported by urban Naxalites and Maoists. They are using their network of small band of campuses where they have nurtured these destructive forces for last few decades. Their cover is Cultural Studies, Freedom of Speech, Feminism, Dalit-Minority
atrocities etc, any minor issue of society to disturb the society. Violent Maoism-Leninism masquerades as Neo-Left today in urban settings to further the cause of violent overthrow of democratic polity. Rashes of disturbances in their citadels with deliberate provocations are proof of this strategy at smallest of pretext. Rise of nationalism and decline of Marxist-Maoist ideology has made them intolerant. Nationalist forces need to fight this war of ideology and war against democracy intelligently.
Coming to the battle of ballots, it sickens me to see so-called analysts putting people into boxes of labelled Jat, Jatav, Kshatriya, Brahmin, Muslim, Christian etc etc etc. I could not sit through pre-election opinion polls that spawned debates by supposedly knowledgeable talking heads that included politicians, so-called intellectuals, TV editors/anchors who would dissect every political or even government policy move in terms of castes and religions. It was highly distasteful and insulting to see intelligent citizens being fenced into these boxes as flocks of sheep driven by a certain Mr. Yadav or Mr. Mishra or Mr. Patil etc.
This failure of progressive modern analysts to see anything beyond these caste and religious glasses led them not to see the realities on the ground and feed wrong information to the politicians who might have been fooled while common people were not.
Ok, caste is a harsh reality. I would say that progressive politicians and opinion leaders owe it to the nation to take a lead in getting people move out of this caste/faith mentality in democratic process of elections if they really consider themselves as opinion leaders. They could give a broader perspective about themselves and their country. Now, it seems, people themselves have moved ahead of them. This charade of dissecting Hindu society into castes or minorities was supposed to be secular and conversely people who talk of casteless Hindu society as a monolith were called communalists.
India has seen people rising above caste and faith considerations earlier too. Most significant historical moments being rise of Mrs Indira Gandhi in 1971 and emphatic win of Janata Party in 1977. 2014 is the recent phenomenon that proved that people are ready to think beyond myopic view of caste and creed imposed on them by their leaders. It seems our opinion leaders thrust caste-minority-majority framework in any analysis because they are comfortable with this model that served them for decades. Their naming of 100s of castes and sub-castes like back of their hands gives them an aura of knowledgeable talking heads.
By the way, an anchor once told me that they couldn’t take up discussions on more diverse issues of development or policies because these so called spokespersons and talking heads are too lazy to do homework for such debates.
Left-Secular lobby played caste card successfully in Bihar no doubt. However, even Bihar success was heavily buttressed by Nitish Kumar’s good governance record. We should note that since 2014, all the elections have been won by parties who promise progressive government across India.
2017 elections have again proven in a big way that caste/religion though a factor, can be overcome by a higher objective a better life for the citizens, a better society and genuine progress.
2017 has shown that people are tired of old style of politics of pandering to caste/religion and politics of freebies.
These elections force us to concede that people have moved onto new politics – politics of aspirations, politics of development, politics of national identity that is above caste/faith identities. Old politics of blind opposition and disruption is dead. A commentator in a Hindi channel made a telling point. He said, “Voters wish to ride a Rajdhani Express but politicians are enticing them with rickety bullock carts and tractors.”
People are looking for positive agenda, not a negative disruptive agenda of sustained pointless opposition. People are willing to give chance to new politicians and new policies. New voters have no patience like their
elders had and are not resigned to their fate, nor do they consider netas as their ‘mai-baaps’. Voters of this great democracy have broken out of feudal mindset. They are unsparing if they feel they have been taken for a ride. They don’t spare anyone. They give a fig whether that person is from an illustrious family or has a formidable reputation, or which he/she belongs to. Reputations of many heavy weights buried into the earth in this election. Leaders would lose earlier too, but numbers were small. Grave yards of lost reputations are vast this time.
Successful leaders of these elections would be acutely aware that the fate that befell the opposition may also affect them if they do not deliver. Let us hope that politicians have learnt their lessons and so have commentators and expert analysts. We can hope to see more informed debates and objective analysis of social issues in coming times.
We are optimistic that our nation has finally arrived at the cusp of much awaited renaissance envisioned by Swami Vivekananda and Maharshi Aurobindo. It is upto leaders of the society to join this march to glory or be left behind by the citizens of this country.
(The writer is a senior political
commentator.)
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