What will be the message of general elections?

via Amitabh Tripathi published on April 12, 2009


India
has been gripped under fever of general elections as after one week
first phase of voting in few constituencies will take place. Being the
largest democracy of the world general elections in India always has
some curiosity across the world. For last six decades India has proved
credibility of its democratic institutions as well as maturity and it
has received praise and respect for its successful functioning of these
institutions. The final result of 15th Loksabha will come out on 16th
on May and verdict of people will be wide open but it is quite clear
that process of formation of the new government will last long just
like Israel where
several political groups come together to form a government and it took
few weeks to materialize. Indian next parliament is very much going to
receive fractured mandate and no single political party or formation
will be able to muster the majority figure of 272. In this article
election results which have been supposed will not be discussed because
it is quite clear that anything could happen after elections and any
political group or party could go in any camp irrespective of its
ideological leanings except of two things that Congress and BJP will
not join each other  and Left parties will not join BJP.

In
this article I want to decipher the message which this election
contains. Two important and path breaking phenomenon has took place in
this election as this election is not fought with any ideology and
every political party whether it is Congress, BJP or even Left are not
focused on their ideology and they are flexible enough to accommodate
any political group. Second important phenomenon has come out that
first time two national parties Congress and BJP will not be able to cross the magic figure of 272 if their tally will be combined together.  This
phenomenon has been translated into various ways and some analysts are
of the view that regional aspirations have eclipsed national agenda.
But apart from this general election has few other messages also which
has been unnoticed from almost every commentator and analysts.

This general election reminds the verdict of  people in1989 when first time coalition government
was formed and on Anti-congress platform BJP and Left parties come
together to extend outside support to a non congress government. But
this verdict was not absolute in itself and if this verdict of people
has been scrutinized it was quite clear that people were preparing
themselves for next general elections. In 1991 unfortunately leader of congress partyRajiv Gandhi
was assassinated and because of sympathy wave congress was able to
garner the support of people of India but it was unable to get simple
majority and new prime minister P V Narsimharao decided not to get the support of Left and instead managed it anyway. It was time when Indian politics
witnessed the surge of BJP which some people call right wing political
party some call it Hindu nationalist but surge of BJP in Indian
politics was proportionate to collapse of Soviet Union in global map
and it was not a coincidence because people witnessed how a prime
minister of Congress party reversed the age old economic and foreign policy of Nehru to go for economic liberalization
as well as opening the diplomatic relations with Israel. Once this
trend took place almost all the governments at centre followed the same
path and no one reversed the policies. Now 20 years have passed after
1989 when first coalition government was formed at centre and this
verdict of people was result of a churning in Indian society which was
highly influenced with some aspirations of change at national and
international level.

Message
of this general election is again going to be the same as in 1989 as
precursor to some change proportionate to global climate. As we have
discussed earlier that this election is not going to be fought on any
ideology and this election is going to be proved as an illusion where
every thing have to be decided once polls are over. Electorates are
totally confused in their selection of party or candidates because they
are unable to distinguish parties in their conviction and commitment.
As per example various survey from different media house prove that
terrorism is the main issue among electorates but they are not voting
any party on this issue because both BJP and Congress are the same on
this issue as both are apologetic for Muslims, both are not identifying
enemy even skip to name it and if Congress party don’t want any
discussion on this issue because of so called Muslim sentiments on the
other hand BJP  measure this issue in electoral success as few months ago in four assembly elections
BJP was aggressive on this issue in encircling Congress for its failure
to tame terrorism but after 2611 when it was not able to capitalize it
politically it shed the issue and raise it occasionally to keep
reminding people that this issue still has a place in its manifesto.  This hodgepodge has made electorates indifferent towards any political party on this issue. 

BJP
and Congress both have created an ideological vacuum in society and
instead have adopted the path of governance to broaden its base. BJP
has focused more and more on governance, developments and achievements
of its governments in provinces but has not come out with specific
programs on ideological issues which have made BJP identified as right
wing Hindu nationalist party. BJP ceased the process of ideological
education to society and its cadres and emphasized them to become a
courier or messenger of leadership rather than ideology. once BJP has
proved itself as tool of governance and used ideology only for speeches
without execution Congress got the breathing space and revived itself.
But at the same time Congress did not emphasize on any ideological
issues and its ideology was based on criticizing BJP.  Knowing
very well that nehruvian socialism or foreign policy or any other
Nehruvian ideology has no relevance in present context Congress recited
it as their custom and tradition as it was witnessed during some speech
of Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi that India has been unaffected by recession because of economic policies of Congress which has been adopted by Nehru and Indira Gandhi. It clearly indicates that Congress does not want to do any work on its ideology to define it according to circumstances. 

Development
and governance in itself is a big issue and welfare of society is
paramount duty of any government but society could not be driven only
by agenda of development because nations are also driven by their
cultural heritage and burden of history. In Indian context this
development has some important implications also. 1991 was the decade
when India witnessed the surge of BJP and globally it witnessed fall of
Soviet Union.
After the fall of Soviet Union all the leftist in India who have
infiltrated into major academic institutions were exposed to threat of
survival and very shrewdly they converted themselves into secularists
and find a new enemy in form of Hindu nationalists. In this process
they collaborated with Islamists in India which alliance vocally comes out globally after the destruction of twin towers in United States in 2001?  After
2001 alliance of secularists (read it leftists) and Islamists has
become more vocal and active in India. For last few years  they
were confined in academia and Media but after 2004 when they were able
to get enough number in parliament to dictate the terms for almost five
years their political ambitions has become lustrous and in this general
election they are openly collaborating with Islamists and Muslim
organizations to push the agenda of Political Islam. In this election
Muslim organizations has come out with their political ambitions and
they are issuing orders for fellow Muslims for tactical voting
according to their strength in every parliamentary constituencies. As
few news papers have published that major Muslim organizations are
planning to appeal jointly to Muslims to support Third front but at the
same time not at the cost of their interest in their constituencies.
Third front which has been formed as an alternate platform to test the
water  whether it is possible to galvanize the
political parties on anti congress and Anti BJP front to push the
agenda of political Islam with leftist collaboration in the name of
secularism. It is very much evident that this time Left parties are not
going to get much success to sustain their previous strength in
parliament but their collaboration with Islamists for political gain
would have some implications. As we are seeing in Indian context that
secularists who are hobnobbing with Islamists are putting so much
pressure on any initiative to counter terrorism and asking for
proportionality in dealing with terrorism as well as Islamic
aspirations. In near future it would become tougher to deal with these
issues as Muslim organizations have become so active to educate Muslims
with some false theory of atrocity on Muslims.

As BJP has succumbed to the pressure of secularists  and
refrained itself from any debate on the aspirations of political Islam,
its impact on India and role of Islamic motivation in terrorism. On the
other hand Muslim organizations and Islamic institutions are indulged
in massive propaganda of partiality for Muslims in existing system.
Intellectual Muslims say that Indian government is lying about the
population of Muslims in India
because once it would admit it will be bound to give them equal share.
In coming days secularists will come out open in support of Muslim
demands and any resistance from Hindu individual or organization will
be branded as communal. As we have witnessed in the case of BJP
candidate Varun Gandhi
who was condemned from every walk of life from Media to politicians
because no one was ready to go into the circumstances which provoke
these incidents. Even BJP played cautious role on this issue as usual
with hodgepodge taking the benefit of Hindu sympathy and keeping
secularists in good humor also.  This general
election has a message which has been unnoticed that Muslim assertion
is visible with all its political ambitions and they have crafted their
strategy very carefully to push their agenda with non-Muslim faces in
the name of secularism. In the name of secularism lot of damage has
been done to this country and this self denial will prove very costly
to all of us. Because neither we have identified threat and nor we have
any plan to fight it. As in 1980’s Nobel prize winner V S Naipaul has
predicted to west that Muslims are living in two circles as they want
to exploit the idioms and dynamism of Western culture without shedding
their Islamic aspirations and goal  and now it
is true in Indian context also. After this general elections India will
witness Muslim assertion in India equipped with global phenomenon of
theory of atrocity on Muslims and Islam is being targeted by its
adversaries. Let us see this Muslim assertion would be proportionate to
Hindu resistance.

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