Watchout, Modi Eating ‘States’ for Breakfast
BY RK MISRA
Hope is a good
breakfast but a bad dinner. And Congress realized this much to it’s chagrin
when an impatient India sent it packing
and now waits expectantly while saffron replacement Narendra Modi lays the
table afresh.
For the moment he
seems intent on clearing the gargantuan kitchen. Maharashtra and Haryana have
just been swept clean of the Congress and NCP in the State Assembly elections
held this month and are set to be replaced with a spanking new saffron set-up
headed by Modi’s trusted men. Next year, 2015, is the turn of Bihar to go to
the polls followed by Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and Assam in 2016 and Uttar
Pradesh, Manipur and Punjab in 2017 Congress is now reduced to ruling in only 9
of the 29 states in the country, five of them-Assam, Manipur, Arunachal
Pradesh, Mizoram and Meghalaya-in the north-east, a junior partner in
Jharkhand, besides Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Kerala.
The Indian political ‘Plate’
has been seeing considerable seismic activity. From decades of Congress party
domination the scene shifted to intermittent but ineffective opposition – led, broad
spectrum governments headed by Morarji Desai, Charan Singh (1977-1980). Soon Indira
Gandhi was back in 1980 but yielded to son Rajiv Gandhi following her
assassination in 1984. Rajiv, in turn, gave way to the Janata Dal government of
V.P.Singh and Chandrasekhar of Samajwadi Janata Party (1989-91) with the
Congress returning in 1991 under P.V.Narasimha Rao following Rajiv Gandhi’s
assassination.
The BJP led by Atal
Bihari Vajpayee came to power in 1996 but could not put together the numbers
and was followed by H.D.Deve Gowda I.K.Gujral (1996-1998) before Vajpayee
returned in 1998 heading a BJP led NDA coalition. It was ousted in the next
general election in 2004 and the Congress returned leading another coalition
led UPA government, holding power for two terms before giving way to a Narendra
Modi led BJP government in 2014.
The last term of
Man Mohan Singh’s UPA government led to popular revulsion as
regional parties ran riot holding the government to virtual ransom and
corruption scaling Himalayan highs. Desperate to hold on to power at any cost, the
Congress just buckled under, running a rag-tag government. So overtaken was the
leadership by greed that it forgot to even take a page out of Indira Gandhi’s
book. Whenever cornered, she would opt for elections, going to the people with
a new slogan (‘garibi hatao’ etc) and invariably come back with a majority.
It has taken over a
quarter century for the pendulum to swing from Congress rule through unstable
opposition led governments, then coalitions to a BJP majority rule in 2014. The
proccess has been painful, but
mercifully, the end of the tunnel seems to be visible now.
Through subtle
strategic maneouvres, pushy politics, and brazen brand building, Modi cut
through the clutter in his own party as well as the Congress to catch common
imagination. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The Maharashtra and
Haryana election results have brought out that the downward spiral of the
Congress still continues. It is yet to pull
out of the demoralized disarray that it finds itself in. Rahul Gandhi
had done well to go back to the drawing board to refashion the party from
scratch, more in keeping with the aspirations of a young, educated and dynamic
India but seems to have given up mid-way in the face of reverses and criticism.
He could start anew by studying his grandmother’s political moves more closely.
Atleast, his arch political rival, Modi has done so. He had mercilessly
decimated all opposition within his own party in Gujarat to emerge as the
unchallenged leader. He repeated the feat without remorse at the national level
to become the spearhead of the party in the 2014 general elections and sail
through.
Even in the present post-poll
scenario in Maharashtra, it was Modi who decisively turned the tables on the
NCP. Sharad Pawar’s party was gamely exploring the possibility of a tie-up with
the Shiv Sena. A call to a top industrialist was all that it took from the
highest quarters in Delhi warning of the bulging skeletons languishing in
Central cupboards. Whether fact or a mere coincidence, within hours the NCP
announced unconditional support to the BJP government in Maharashtra, reducing
the Shiv Sena from a roaring tiger to a meek mouse.
With the Congress
still spreadagled Modi and his man-friday, Amit Shah have a head start of
sorts. It has been years but the Congress
has not found time to appoint a new president
of the Gujarat unit after Arjun Modvadia put in his papers owning
responsibility for the Gujarat Assembly polls debacle in 2012.On the other
hand, Amit Shah already has a new assignment from Modi-to begin work on Bihar, West
Bengal and Jharkhand for the polls.
While riling against
the Congress, Modi is actually targeting regional parties. His strategy
involves ensuring that the Congress loss does not become the regional party’s
gain. Thus it is that the INLD in Haryana and the Shiv Sena and the NCP
were both targeted by the BJP in
Maharashtra. Next in his crosshairs is Nitish Kumar’s JD-U in Bihar, the
JMM-Congress combine in Jharkhand, Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi party in UP and
Mamta Bannerji’s Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. With popular perception
inclined to buy Modi’s argument that proliferating regional parties are not
good for national interest, and same party governments in the centre and the
state ensure better development, the fortunes of most of them seem set to
plummet in the elections to come.
Similarly his move of
pulling out all stops in aiding the flood hit people of Jammu and Kashmir and agreeing
to spend Diwali in Srinagar and Saichen are all designed to reap fulsome results.
As things stand, more states will fall into the BJP kitty in the days and years
to come. Don’t be surprised if you see a BJP government in Bihar, Jharkhand and
a very strong presence even in West Bengal and Jammu. And watch-out for Modi is
eating “states” for breakfast!
very creative healine with matching lead. very factual story
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