The Push-pull Of 'Sweeteners' In Delhi Polls !

 

BY R.K. MISRA

Tongues tattle and tails wag. Come elections in India and political grammar goes for a toss .Tails start tattling while tongues go wag-a-wag and each anatomical accordion plays its own tune.

If the ruling BJP oscillates between narcissism and idol-worship within, the Congress is a welter of confusion without. The first one represents the Right and if it is wrong, it is still right. The second one may be left of Centre, but still aspires to be right of the majority while holding onto the minority. The regional rulers in the states on the other hand, want their cake and eat it too. ‘I keep my state, we rule the Centre’. Thus you have a political cart in perennial push-pull mode’

Every election in India has its own idioms and idiots where parties are all shimmer and glitter but actually wear opaque eye-bands which inhibits them from watching their own see-through gowns as they go about cranking up sound decibels.

For now, national attention is riveted to Delhi where the elections to the 70 seat State Assembly is slated to take place on February 5 with the results to be declared on February 8. The Aam Admi Party (AAP) led by Arvind Kejriwal has been in the driver’s seat with a steamroller majority that wiped out the Congress and made mincemeat of the BJP in the last two polls-2015, 2020. Both the ‘also-rans’ are making a renewed effort hoping to be third time lucky.

Also making a renewed effort, hoping to be ‘N’th time lucky in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah’s Gujarat is their Bete noire, Shankersinh Vaghela. While the two work overtime to bring down Kejriwal’s castle, the former chief minister cherishes to chip away at their citadel. Last month he activated the Praja Shakti Democratic Party, by announcing the erstwhile royalty Riddhirajsinh Parmar as the party president well in time for the elections to local self- government bodies in Gujarat likely to be held next month. ”I intend to fill the vacuum like Kejriwal did in Delhi’, said Vaghela. He is hopeful, his opponents wary of the old fox while critics remain skeptical. But more about it later.

Back to the Dance of Democracy underway in Delhi. In July 2022, the Prime Minister had himself red-flagged the freebies culture warning that this could be very dangerous for the development of the country. He termed it the culture of collecting votes by distributing free  ‘revdis’ (sweets).As he leads his party’s electioneering from the front in the ensuing elections, the BJP is involved in a neck-to-neck race with AAP in freebie dangling. The Congress which ruled Delhi for 15 years before it was tripped out of power, is not too far behind in the game of competitive lob and volleying.

The irony is not lost. Addressing a ‘parivartan’ rally in Delhi on January 5, Modi termed the decade long rule of AAP in Delhi as ‘AAPda sarkar’( a disaster of a government) and yet promised to continue all its welfare schemes . ”Ongoing welfare schemes such as free electricity, free travel for women in public buses and healthcare schemes, among others, will continue if the BJP forms the government in Delhi”, he stated categorically. Apparently the definition of freebies had changed to welfare schemes in the interregnum!

If the ruling AAP has added to its existing programmes announcing revamped mohalla clinics and government schools, free electricity, free medical treatment for senior citizens in government and private hospitals, the BJP has unfolded an equally long list  for various sections of citizenry ,keeping women at the centre of their poll pitch.

Notwithstanding the INDIA bloc parties extending support to AAP, there is a strong section within the Congress which has been pitching for going it alone in Delhi, whatever the consequences. Senior party leader Ajay Maken has made no bones on this count, opposing any alliance with AAP though he clothes it as his personal view.  ”No one can fight the BJP by weakening the Congress and we have to build our own intrinsic strength”, he is on record saying. There are many in the senior hierarchy of the party increasingly veering towards a strategic shift on this count. The increasing aggression in the Congress approach is largely to counter the BJP battle tactic of all is fair in war and elections.

On January 7, the Election Commission announced the date for the Delhi polls. The Modi government’s poll ‘sweetener’ announcement on the setting up of the 8th Pay Commission followed on January 16. An obliging media even underlined the amount employees will stand to gain when it submits the same. Fifty lakh central government employees, 65 lakh pensioners and even 4 lakh Delhi government staff stand to benefit from the revision, union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. Why the hurry to announce except for electoral gains?

The crowning irony is that the Modi-headed Centre strained every nerve in its ample frame to clip the wings of the Kejriwal-ruled Delhi government. It even reversed the Supreme Court judgment of May 11, 2023 that gave AAP government the power to make laws and wield control over bureaucrats, through an ordinance that vested control from an elected government to a Lt. Governor nominated by it. And now desperately pines for the same truncated Delhi government. 

It is like cutting trees to make paper and then writing ‘save trees’ on it ! 

 This syndicated news column was published in the Orissapost and Lokmat Times newspaper editions dated  January 21 and 22, 2025 respectively. , Their  links are given below:-

https://odishapostepaper.com/edition/5195/orissapost/page/9

https://epaper.lokmat.com/articlepage.php?articleid=LOKTIME_AULT_20250122_6_6

 

 

 

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