By Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam,
For the Congress Party and its UPA allies, it is the most crushing defeat ever. However, unlike 1977, when even Mrs Indira Gandhi was defeated, this time round Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have won. This is a saving grace of sorts.
It is natural to ask at this moment as to what went wrong with the Congress Party and its allies. To begin with, Congress Party had the disadvantage of a ten-year incumbency. For any democracy, a single party’s or coalition’s rule for ten years is a burden to be unloaded.
These ten years were the most productive in the entire history of free India. UPA-I and UPA-II did what no other government had done in terms of service to the country. The economy grew at an average of 8.5 percent, which was reflected in the tremendous economic uplift that was visible to even casual observers.
Through wide-ranging empowerment measures the government tried to benefit not just the well-off sections, but all classes across rural and urban India. For some reason, better known to itself, the Congress Party could not convey it to the people with even ten percent of the force the BJP was trying to drive home its message.
Another important point is the change of guard that the Congress Party has been trying to effect over the recent years. In itself it is a commendable idea for the elders of a party to gradually pass the baton on to younger leaders. That is a process of perpetual renewal found everywhere. However, in the case of the Congress Party it looked a little abrupt, unsmooth.
As a result of it the old guard stepped back too suddenly and the younger set was not yet ready to step into their shoes. The breach thus created left a lot of room for the BJP to come in and snatch the initiative from a reluctant, hesitant Congress leadership.
Those who were adult in 1984-89 witnessed how the political novice Rajiv Gandhi was often derided for putatively trying to run the country as a business firm, assisted by management types and assorted technocrats. Their attitude, it was alleged, was not political but managerial. People are saying it about Rahul today, possibly with greater justification. In time Rajiv learnt his political ropes. Let us hope Rahul, too, learns it, the quicker the better.
Yet another factor was corporate and media (corporate media, particularly) going the whole hog for Narendra Modi, to the extent of putting their credibility at stake. People have been rightly saying that this election was not fought by Congress and BJP but by Congress and media. Media credibility, which has been slipping over the last several years, has now fallen to the lowest point.
It has been the most polarising, obliquely communal campaign that made it look like “Hindus for Modi”. Conducted in the background of 130 communal riots in UP, including the most vicious anti-Muslim riot of Muzaffarnagar, Campaign 2014 unleashed great hate and hysteria. Amit Shah openly talked about taking revenge. People who love such things had not forgotten what prime ministerial candidate Modi and his Man Friday Amit Shah had done in Gujarat 2002.
A lot of people who support Modi today may not accept the factor discussed above and may try to counter-argue, but this remains a fact. It was not the only fact, yet it was certainly a factor with many.
Finally, the AAP turned out to be a great decoy and a show spoiler for the secular front. Its candidates took away crucial secular votes leaving the field open for a BJP conquest. As many as 40 seats were lost to secularism because of AAP.
For the secular front it is going to take a lot of time and effort to recover.