by PANKAJ
SHARMA
After the assembly elections for Haryana
and Maharashtra, there are people, including Bhartiya Janta Party president
Amit Shah, who have announced that it is 'Modi-Tsunami' in both the states. BJP
leaders have also expressed their beliefs that the assembly elections in Delhi,
Jharkhand and Jammu & Kashmir will prove the repeat performance of this
'tsunami' in coming months.
I know that it looks foolish to swim
against the tides and place the bare facts before everyone. But, I have certain
questions in my mind which surely need to be answered. BJP has got a clear
majority in Haryana with 47 seats and 33.2% votes. But can one ignore the fact
that when around 1 crore 30 lac people went to polling booths why around 90 lac
of them casted their votes against BJP? Prime Minister Narendra Modi had made
it a point to have clear majority in Maharashtra, why then voters of
Maharashtra did not give him a mandate to form the government without having
the support from the people to whom he was 'the bird from Passeriformes order
who becomes active during the fortnight of ancestors' (Pitrapaksh ke kouei)?
Why out of 5 crore 20 lac voters who went to cast their votes in
Maharashtra 3 crore 70 lac chose to go against the creator of this 'tsunami'?
BJP could win 122 seats in Maharashtra, but it could get only 1 crore 47 lac
votes.
Nobody can deny the fact that
Congress has not even lost but ended up third in Haryana and Maharashtra. It
ruled Haryana for 10 years and headed the government in Maharashtra for 15
years in a stretch. Therefore, losing like this where you get only 15 seats in
Haryana and 42 in Maharashtra, that too after a visible change of development
and growth in both the states, should be a matter of deep introspection for the
entire leadership of the Congress party. But I would take the liberty to pose
some pertinent questions. If it was the continuation of 'Modi Hudhud' that
started four and a half months back, how could a party with whom Modi wants the
nation to get rid of attract nearly 1 crore voters in Maharashtra and more than
25 lac in Haryana? Congress has no right to celebrate the fact that BJP has
come down in both states since May 2014. BJP had leads in more assembly
segments in Maharashtra and Haryana during Loksabha elections than the actual
seats it has won in October assembly elections. But a fact is a fact, however
minor it is, and it should be taken note of.
There are some more alarming
indications that have come up from the results of these elections, specially
from Maharashtra. It is now little more than a year since Supreme Court has
given electorate the power to reject all candidates in an election by pressing
NOTA, None Of The Above, button on the electronic voting machine. 'Modi
Tsunami' is a phenomenon of last one year and normally nobody should probably
feel like pressing this option if the country is obsessed with Narendra Modi
and BJP. Why then in Maharashtra nearly half a million NOTA votes were
registered? 50 lac may look a very small number. But do you know that this is
more than what 9 political parties managed to get together in Maharashtra? And
who are these parties? They are Samajwadi Party and CPM. They are BJP's allies Republican Party and
Rashtriya Samaj Paksh. It should be hard to ignore the fact that in a
Naxal-affected constituency Garh-Chirouli, Nationalist Congress Party could get
only 770 votes more than NOTA. BJP won there, NCP was second and NOTA was third
with 17510 votes. What NOTA got in Maharashtra election is the figure which is
more than what has given two seats to All India Majlis-e-Muslimeen, three seats
to Bahujan Vikas Aghadi and one seat each to Bharipa Bhaujan Mahasangh and
Rashtriya Samaj Paksh in the state assembly.
Congress now has to address the
challenges it is facing quickly, decisively, firmly and fearlessly to reinvent
itself. No other party than Congress can lead the fight with a person of
Narendra Modi's bulldozing persuasion without caring for democratic principals,
electoral norms and human values. A strongly self obsessed man, that he is,
Modi will go to any extent to achieve his dream of 'Congress free India'. While
marching on this path, he will ruthlessly implement his plan of making
irrelevant the individuals in his own party, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
and its extended arms, strongly or loosely allied political groups and national
icons. Congress, therefore, has a huge national responsibility to save the
basic threads of our national fabric. Congress has to gear up without blinking
and giving a second thought. India cannot revive its fortune unless Congress
reinvents itself. It has to bring the real sense of politics under one umbrella.
The hidden facts of these assembly elections
seem not so discouraging for the Congress but it should not become a pillow of
consolation on which one can take a siesta. Unless a roadmap of root and branch
reforms is implemented immediately, Congress will find it increasingly
difficult to win the confidence of voters. The rot in Congress has been long in
the making and it is high time that Congress gets rid of its rent seekers. Only
then Congress would be able to give a fitting reply to those who think that
Modi has already setup a stall to get his second inning in 2019. Those who have
some experience of witnessing the political storms from time to time and
understand the political grammar of a complex country like ours would agree that
there is still much hope of bouncing back for a party like Congress that led
the movement for freedom, that united India and brought people of different
religions and languages into a single political project and that has a
universalist vision.
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