Onward march of
BJP and pathetic fate of Congress
-Dr.
Abdul Ruff Colachal
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BJP’s agenda for India is not to make it corruption or crime free
but Modi has clearly stated his party’s primary goal is to make India a
Congress-free nation. And BJP has begun to work towards that goal and poll
after poll indicates that the BJP is not very far away from achieving its
stated goal.
After the central government and Lok Sabha, now Maharashtra and
Haryana have gone the BJP way as the ruling Congress party crumbled in these
states. Congress party with its tallest political and governance experience is
now seen literally shivering as its chief opponent BJP making steady inroads
into Congress vote banks and the with swift gains of BJP against it, pushing it
to wall sides, literally, has already made Congress party vulnerable about its
existence in future as at least a prominent party. And BJP is gradually
replacing Congress party as the largest political outfit in India.
Congress has lost power directly to BJP at the center and in two
more states. That the BJP could neck Congress party out
of its dominant position in Haryana and Maharashtra, with astounding
ease, clearly shows the BJP trend or Modi
aura Is not temporary a as it gained all this on its own
in Maharashtra and Haryana.
The wrong strategy of making an innocent looking Manmohan Singh as
PM last times, instead of Rahul or Priyanka seems to have cost the
party power and credibility as Manmohan while promoting
the rich and corperates in India and abroad
also encouraged actively rampant corruption leading
to scams.
Possibly, Sonia Gandhi took Manmohan as the luck person for the
party and government with his blue color turban he wears as Congress pride and
innocent look he sports. Now it is clear it not his luck but coalition tactics
of Sonia Gandhi that kept the regime going for the full term.
The corperates that controlled Manmohan and his cabinet directly
indeed belong to BJP which cultivated them for future purposes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) has made big gains in the Maharashtra and Haryana state elections.
The BJP won 122 of 288 seats in Maharashtra. This more than doubles its seat
count in the state, which is home to the financial hub of Mumbai, but falls
short of an outright majority. The BJP for the first time got majority by
winning 47 of 90 seats in Haryana, which borders the capital, New Delhi.
Wins in both state have strengthened its position in parliament
too. State elections determine seat shares in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house
of parliament, where the BJP and its allies lack a majority. The BJP hopes for
gains in a clutch of state polls between now and 2017 to get towards the
majority it needs to pass most legislation without help from the opposition.
The 64-year-old Modi, a gifted stump orator, hit the campaign
trail hard. He will be able to reap capital from the victories even though the
BJP did not achieve its ambition of winning enough seats to rule Maharashtra
alone. However, BJP has proven stronger than the traditional Siva Sena party.
BJP president and Modi campaign manager Amit Shah told reporters
after most of the seats had been declared that there is still a Modi wave that
is like a tsunami.
Though the results represent major gains for the party since the
last state elections, the BJP's share of the vote in both Haryana and
Maharashtra was just down from the May 2014 general election, when it won the
first outright majority in 30 years.
Both states, which voted on Wednesday, were formerly bastions of
the Congress party that has long dominated Indian politics. As in the general
election, Congress was decimated, and risks sliding into oblivion under
mother-son duo Sonia and Rahul Gandhi.
With a view to further strengthening capitalist formations in
India, Modi has already seized on exit polls giving the BJP a clear lead to
shake up his economic team, replacing the top civil servant at the finance
ministry and hiring U.S.-based economist Arvind Subramanian as his chief
economic adviser. Modi has his work cut out drafting an annual
budget to encourage business investment and revive Asia's third largest economy
from a prolonged slowdown by February. His government scrapped diesel price
controls and raised the cost of natural gas, giving market forces greater sway
as it seeks to attract energy investment, boost competition and cut subsidy
costs.
The Congress downplayed the electoral defeat it suffered in
Haryana and Maharashtra, saying such developments are part of the democratic
process. It now says winning and losing is part of democracy and the party has
always maintained that we should neither go overboard on victory nor despair on
a defeat. Many Congress leaders found fault with party vice-president Rahul
Gandhi's leadership and want Priyanka Gandhi’s to lead the party, but the
leadership stresses that the faith of crores of Congress workers is in Rahul
Gandhi.
Fortunately for the Congress party, there are no visible cracks in
the ranks and files of the party since Most Congress people think that the
setback purely temporary and their party would, like before, and come back to
power in due course.
Fortunately for the Congress party, again, Manmohan did not
campaign in the polls. Obviously, the Congress may not seriously want to
introspect the poll outcome in order to reach out to all without hidden
corporate, corruption or Hindutva agendas that was paramount or necessary.
However, neither the leadership nor the party functionaries and
supporters are aware of the fast changing political
scenario of India where BJP and RSS
have come up strongly riding on
anti-Muslim opportunities the Congress party
provided and on their own the polls have been won and governments
formed.
This situation is unique and never before happened.
BJP is clearly on its way forward. The communal Hindus in Congress
and other parties would support the BJP agenda that don’t allow Muslims to
become chief ministers or deputy CMs in secular India, except in Jammu Kashmir
even where they, after making a Hindu Deputy CM, are now fighting for a Hindu
CM as per Indian conventions.
The results, however, do not mean the people have already given a
seal of approval to the Modi government over the past four months, or proved
Indians recognise Modi as an undisputed leader of India. But the people have
not rejected BJP’s unimpressive achievements so far, either.
The solid BJP win has also ensured and a funeral of a 150-year-old
Congress party. People are still annoyed with hopelessly corrupt and
insensitive Congress party which has ruined the national and it’s already
weakened prestige and they have found BJP the only alternative to keep the
Congress, founded in 1885 and led by the Nehru dynasty for four generations,
and other corrupt parties at bay.
Non-BJP and non-Congress parties continue to enjoy the changing
the political equations in the country without deciding to make a credible
contribution to positively help the common people, to make India a real secular
democracy. .
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