Election 2019 – The Idea named Modi

“We the people are the boss and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve”                                                                                                    - John F Kennedy

Indian election and the various contours of it has long been described as a direct representation of the mandate of vast majority of the masses. These mandates over the years have been conceived differently through the prism of masses and classes, demographic and geopolitical considerations and everyone’s favorite – caste. The elections of 2019 at various levels broke the conceptions and misconceptions of many of these pre-set and pre approved understandings. It also enforced and cemented an idea which for long, an influential segment has tried to cast as an aspirational fluke – the idea which is symbolic to greater idea of historical nationalism – the idea in more simple words whose time has come – the idea named Modi.

Let’s try to understand the idea through the prism of the results of election 2019 which can be explained in  four broad Parameters –

(a)    National Security – To quote https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/10-reasons-why-narendra-modi-led-bjp-won-lok-sabha-elections-2019/articleshow/69466610.cms - “During the election campaigning, PM Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah and other party leaders boasted about the February 26 Balakot air strikes carried out to avenge Pulwana terror attack in which 40 CRPF personnel were martyred. They also reminded the voters about the September 2016 surgical strikes launched to avenge Uri terror attack.”

Here the important point to understand is that the above is more of the radical change in the stand of the Union of India towards its neighbour and prospective available options not only in present case i.e Pulwama but in case of all future provocative incidents from any side. The priority given to the National security though many intellectuals claims to be the with intention of only near electoral benefits should be ideally understood in the larger periphery of the commitments of the Sangh parivar which the incumbent party belongs to. The concept of “Akhand Bharat” is/ has been largely used to portray the sense of importance to the motherland. The party which takes inspiration from such ideas is ideally tilted towards making national security a prime plank not only during polls but also in regular daily social transactions in its continuous and cumulative effort to dominate the narrative. At those levels, the ruling party has been successful.

(b)    Modi government’s schemes kept voters invested in the idea of vikas – To quote htts://scroll.in/article/924134/five-reasons-why-indians-voted-for-modis-bjp - “Houses, toilets and gas connections were the main thrust of Modi government’s work in rural India. As we explained in The Modi Yearsproject, for all their flaws and limitations, these schemes – the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the Swachh Bharat Mission, the Ujjwala Yojana – had been implemented furiously on the ground, and rural electrificationhad expanded as well. The question arose: were the schemes delivering electoral dividends for the BJP? The answer depended on who you spoke to.”

The recent election result has shown that the answer is common across all segments of society. Over the years of India’s independence, almost during all elections – the concept of “I” has dominated the electoral discussions. This showed in the rise of the caste based politics and freebee culture across social segments. The local satraps across the country consolidated their position highlighting them being with “I” that is with their own target caste/ community/ mentality. The seldom limited the developments aspect of the elections to mere identification politics limited to the tune of the individual community. The year 2014 showed that this fortress of “I” induced electoral entitlement can we broken into creating a more inclusive “we” across the demographic segments. The intellectual class of the country claimed the stunning result of the 2014 elections as more of the negative mandate against the previous government and completely overlooked the winds of transitional changes which were blowing across the country. The next five years showed continuous signals of these changes ex. J.A.M ( Jan Dhan Yogna, Aadhar, Mudra Yogna) , demonetisation, Citizenship bill, government corporate bill which were viewed as the operational activity of the Government but in real terms has much larger message and the impact on the society. The economy was tried to move from the “right” oriented to “duty” oriented mindset. Election result 2019 has put a stamp on the initiatives in these directions.

(c)     Opposition is in disarray – To quote https://www.timesnownews.com/elections/article/modi-fied-india-9-reasons-behind-bjp-s-historic-victory/424210 - “There can be no clearer writing on the wall. The people of India have rejected the Congress, particularly under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi. The negative campaign unleashed by Rahul and the low level of political discourse left people disenchanted and baffled about what the Congress would bring to the table. Also, the fact that the electorate was mature enough to know that the Congress would never be able to come to power on its own, and so the country would be straddled with a motley crowd of coalition partners who will have disparate interests.    Congress also looked like a party in perpetual chaos. It was a display of startling adhoc-ism when Priyanka Gandhi was formally launched into politics and given charge of eastern UP so late into the game. And NYAY - why was it not made a cornerstone of the Congress campaign two years before 2019 rather than three months before the elections? The name itself confused many, who felt that the scheme had something to do with justice.”

Here we should talk about Congress in particular and congress culture in general. With congress culture, we imply various opposition parties (excluding now obsolete left), the media couturiers and a breed of self-declared liberals and intellectuals.  Let’s see the facts first – in election results 2019 - the Congress won 52 seats. This is second-lowest total in history though a wee ahead of the 44 seats that it had got in 2014. Post the result, the party president was sulking for few days. Also the party rewarded its president by anointing powers to make sweeping changes in the grand old party. This at a time when the party president has himself lost his traditional seat by comfortable margins. The other opposition parties excluding TMC and BJD are themselves looking at the existential crisis. These facts and figures must hast have been concern for any independent thinking rational well wisher of the mandate. Though the irony of the situation is that even after elections, the common discussion in the newsroom studio is centered around the status of minority in new governments’ era, why the ruling party is not controlling the motormouths, the chances of possible growth in intolerance, etc even before the new government has taken the outh. Everyone agrees that a strong opposition is needed in any democracy but no one is ready to do detailed analysis of the reasons for its debacle and to advise the party who is in still living in the denial for the reasons of its decline. Mr. Shekhar Gupta in the recently concluded “Centre for Policy Research” gave an viral speech on the elections of 2019 concluding the role of opposition disarray in the same. My Yogendra Yadav in the same panel insisted on asking question from the Indian voters on simply “how, they can do so.” Mr Yadav till a few months backed insisted on all forums that Indian masses the rejected the present dispensation. The irony is not lost on any one.

(d)    Brand Modi – To quote https://www.indiatoday.in/elections/lok-sabha-2019/story/election-results-2019-5-reasons-that-got-narendra-modi-another-term-1532978-2019-05-23 - “Since the beginning of the election campaign, the BJP raised Modi versus who question to the Congress and elusive third front. On the other hand, the BJP remodelled Brand Modi from a development oriented leader from Gujarat to a leader of international stature. The BJP leaders repeated stated that India’s international standing has risen since PM Modi took over in 2014. PM Modi himself, while commenting on the economy, said India was a member of fragile five before his government took over while under his leadership, the country has reached to new heights in all spheres of governance and diplomacy. The Opposition’s criticism failed to discredit PM Modi in the wake of the claims made by the government.”

The complete phenomenon of the brand Modi can be simply stated in “The Leader in what leader does.” The brand like all other brand is a cumulative result of years of careful positioning, image differentiation and unavailability of the close substitute. The years of work in Gujrat is a barometer through which the brand modi is continuously measured. Like all great brands, competitors have tried to create the alternative and substitute of the same but have terribly failed in replicating the same due to one ingredient – the ground level connect experience. The experience in age terms is a much wider discussed concept in Indian politics but the brand Modi has successfully turned it to experience in terms of governance at ground level. Any brand success formula is “to match the expectation” but the brand Modi has tried to change the same to “creating the expectation and then matching the same.”

The new India is aspirational, discredits entitlement, is not afraid of experiments and is ready to break the traditional shekels. The Indian polity needs to be redefined in the prism of this new India. This election result is also an open indicator to various political and social commentators to reanalyze their approach to understand the varied dynamic transitional changes happening in the society. Elections 2019 is a done deal and till the time, opposition reaffirms its dusted ideals and create a new road map for the country, its time to embrace the cult of new India which at least for now is imbibed in the idea named Modi.

:- The Nik Baat