General Elections-2024: The Bonds of the Indian Electorate!

By all available indicators, trends and analysis the Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA)—more precisely the Modi Government—is all set to perform a rare hattrick of coming-back-to-power in the 18^th Lok Sabha or General Elecitons-2024 that starts on 19^th April and stretches like IPL all the way to 1^st June when the 7^th phase of voting is scheduled with the counting of results scheduled on 4^th June. A host of media reports/opinion polls, analysis by poll experts/psephologists, the confidence of the ruling BJP in achieving a 400+ tally of seats for its alliance, the NDA’s already achieved hattrick of winning three Assembly Elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in 2023, a divided opposition despite the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance or the INDIA bloc of 27 political parties, and of course, the bonds of an endearing Indian electorate all point to this prediction which is fast becoming a certainty like a walkover before the match even began. The BJP on its own won 282 in 2014, 303 in 2019 and now they predict a tally of 350 seats. Even if they fail to reach 350, they seem almost sure to secure something around 300, and if they do so, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be the first ever political leader of India to have achieved a single-party-majority three times in a row—meaning a resounding hattrick on all possible fronts.

The bonds of the Indian electorate seem to be growing warmer and warmer for their beloved leaders and the party, despite the Supreme Court striking down the Electoral Bonds Scheme. Some cynics point out that the vote shares in the previous two General Elections don’t quite bring out the maturing of the bonds of the electorate, because they say that the BJP’s vote share was just around 31% in 2014 and although it increased significantly to nearly 38% in 2019 it’s still lowly in view of the nearly 48% vote share achieved by the Indian National Congress or simply the Congress in 1957 under Jawaharlal Nehru. However, they miss on two points: first, the NDA has been marching along well securing about 45% vote share in the last elections and that since the beginning of ‘coalition politics’ from 1989 onwards the BJP’s achievement of 38% vote share is phenomenal.

The second point needs a little more elaboration. Vote shares are never a sound indicator if the bonds were warm or warmer. Vote shares don’t straightaway translate into winning more and more seats simply thanks to the fact that many candidates of both ruling and opposition parties have been winning seats by the slightest of vote margins which is a confirmed trend of modern poll and political times and that with the emergence of the regional parties there have been too many parties in the fray, sharing/splitting the pie. But on the other hand, the BJP candidates that won by large margins securing more than 50% vote shares of the constituencies concerned have increased from 136 in 2014 to 224 in 2019, and as per the available indicators this figure is set to get bigger this time. Cynics again counter this by saying that in the case of opposition candidates too, the number of wins securing more than 50% of the votes has increased from 64 in 2014 to 117 in 2019 which is more than that of the BJP in percentage terms. However, with the ruling alliance winning over many candidates/factions/parties across the Indian states to its fold quite a few of the erstwhile popular opposition candidates can turn to popular ruling candidates this time.

How big a challenge is the INDIA bloc? Well, even as the marginalization of Congress continues unabated and many parties having expressed their unwillingness either to partner with to share seats with it, the Bloc has been finding it hard to weather the storm keeping its flock together. Besides, most of the parties in the Bloc are extremely self-interested with the big few among them trying to promote their own prime ministerial candidates. And most significantly, they say an absolute ‘no’ to any leader from the Congress, particularly, Rahul Gandhi, emerging as a PM candidate. This is only natural: how could anyone earthily expect leaders like Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Akhilesh Yadav among others agree to having Rahul Gandhi or even Mallikarjun Kharge as their leader should they make it to the Lok Sabha? Then the exodus from the Congress, including very senior leaders continues unabated too. Thus the possibility of the Bloc having a unanimous PM candidate remains a mirage. And, to counter a basically personality-driven party the challengers will have to find a unanimous leader—sooner than later. Not to speak of the ideologies involved. The opposition parties are united only in one issue: that the central agencies have been let loose on them with the express political aim of demoralizing or deactivating them. However, the point remains as to why such ‘vindicated’ leaders like Kejriwal are not facing up to the challenge by confronting the agencies and proving their innocence! To be on a little positive side, the Bloc of late has indeed been making some headway in the South and parts of the East and the West.

Having said all this it must be taken into consideration that the sense of overconfidence is not at all healthy under any circumstances. It would be an insult to the elections of the biggest democracy of the world by presuming it to be a foregone conclusion. One particularly should not forget the surprise loss of the visionary leader-statesman-poet-former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2004 when his BJP’s victory was almost a foregone conclusion. The Indian elections are still immensely capable of throwing up surprises, despite all the odds. No doubt, the development story, the growth of Hindu nationalistic patriotism or jingoism, the scintillating Ram Mandir & the dream of Ram Rajya, successes in foreign policy and so on are definitely making the bonds of the electorate get warmer. But on the other hand, some of the bonds could get somewhat adversely affected too by the termination of the Electoral Bonds, the handling of the farmers’ agitation, the promulgation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) just before the elections, taking the celebrated corrupt leaders of all time liberally into the party fold, the unabashed use of the central agencies and other issues. Besides, the BJP or the NDA still remains entirely Modi-centric. A personality-driven wave need not be repetitive all the time. So then, General Elections-2024 could still be no less than a cricket thriller! Get set and Vote!

Does Sourav Ganguly Need A Rehabilitation Package?

It is a historical fact that cricketers from the Eastern and the North Eastern regions of the country rarely make it as big as Sourav Ganguly and get to represent Team India at the international level. We’re yet to have a cricketer from the states of North East India who’s made it to Team India. Therefore, when some player achieves this feat people of that particular state or region get ecstatic and their euphoria normally gets translated into a range of sentiments and emotions—positive most of the times, but can be darker at moments of adversity that, according to their perceptions, seem to affect their loved cricketer. I remember quite a few instances while I had been to Kolkata and happened to listen to the radio commentary of India’s test or one-day matches out on the streets. Invariably a person would come up to me and ask what the score was. I would reply India was batting and the score was this or that. On almost a reflex emotion the person would want to know, “Is Ganguly still batting?” If informed that Ganguly was out with a poor score s/he would grimace bitterly. Well, emotions or sentiments are produced among the most powerful people of the concerned state or region too, with the exception that most of such people of the political orientation would use those to score brownie points for their party or for self.

 

Now, Sourav Ganguly, one of the finest opening batsmen of world cricket and arguably the very first genuinely aggressive India captain, remains a living legend of Indian cricket irrespective of what the BCCI or anybody has done to him. What happened exactly? The BCCI had ‘denied’ him a second term as President of the Board. Why use ‘deny’? He had been the first cricketer to be appointed or elected as the BCCI President for a full three-year term and we all hailed his appointment as the most welcome step as far as the game of cricket was concerned. BCCI being the richest cricket box office of the world that jingles constantly politics had been a part and parcel of its elections with political bigwigs always craving positions therein and to have their followers in the important posts. In its eventful and often turbulent history over the decades the BCCI had never had a President for consecutive two terms. Therefore, it should be gracefully accepted by all that to be able to serve the BCCI for full three years is more than enough honor for any individual of any level of celebrity.

 

Did Ganguly deserve a second term on merit by way of his outstanding achievements in the preceding three years? There’s not enough clinching evidence here. Of course, he had taken a lot initiatives in promoting the domestic cricket arena and started the first ever day-n-night Pink Tests in India in 2019; he’d brought in legendary veterans, Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman, into active cricket roles; and he’d clinched the never-before business deal for the IPL recently. On the dubious side, if we can call it so, the huge Virat-captaincy controversy could’ve been handled much better, and in our view, he allowed the endless policy of experimentation in Team India cum mindless changes in the Indian batting order go on under the very nose of Rahul Dravid who was appointed Team India coach by him only. The pandemic did prove to be a big obstacle for Sourav no doubt, but the IPL promotion almost overshadowing international cricket that has been always the policy of the BCCI went on unhindered though and Ganguly just fell or had to fall in line.

 

As per media reports Sourav Ganguly did expect a second term and on being not given he looked irritated and discontented. However, it’d be puerile to think that Ganguly was not aware of the underbelly of politics in the BCCI elections, particularly in view of the fact that his own appointment in 2019 was a last-minute decision, and if it was not so he should’ve been proactive enough to fulfill the desires of the powers-that-be, particularly in the arena of West Bengal politics. Apparently, he lost the BCCI votes, but won the conscience vote which should’ve made him happy. Besides, he was offered the Chairman post of the IPL that he turned down as a demotion, again justifying his principles.  

 

As a natural outcome of the region-specific sentiments we mentioned earlier the ruling party of West Bengal, Trinamool Congress (TMC), has been raising a hue and cry over the underplay of politics in ‘denying’ Ganguly a second term. Now in recent days, TMC head and Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee had appealed to none other than the Prime Minister of India to consider Ganguly for the post of the Chairman of the ICC which was also reportedly denied to Ganguly by the Board. This is hardly better than begging for alms and I think it’s pathetic considering the stature of this brilliant and upright ex-cricketer. If you ask for alms you should do so for scores of ex-sportspersons who are languishing across nooks and corners of the whole country and are in extreme penury due to the lack of means to earn a living. And anyway, what’s so sacrosanct about the ICC Chairman’s post because everybody knows that it’s the BCCI who calls the shots in international cricket nowadays?

 

As we mentioned earlier Sourav Ganguly remains a living legend of Indian cricket and there’s absolutely no dearth of options for him in what to do next. In fact, days after the ‘denial’ Ganguly said in Kolkata that he’d been lucky to have served cricket admins in West Bengal and in India, and that such roles could not go on for eternity. It was reported recently that he was considering contesting the elections of Cricket Board of Bengal (CAB) again. Over the years Sourav Ganguly has been actively engaged in every possible sphere of activity in West Bengal or in India, both commercial and otherwise, and it’d be only matter of time before he decides what best to do next. Meanwhile, we must welcome the appointment of Roger Binny, another genuine cricketing gem and part of the 1983 World Cup winning Team India squad, as the President of the BCCI for the next three years and wish him all the luck for good work irrespective of the political pulls and triggers that just cannot be wished away.

Congress: The Most Unearthly Enigma On Earth As Prashant Kishor Fails Again!

In the digitalized modern world, every device has either to be updated regularly or discarded entirely for a new one to keep the user relevant to the times. If the old device continues to be used in total disregard to the warnings the user becomes useless and almost a nuisance to the society and the other users. In such a state-of-the-art setup the Indian National Congress (INC or simply the Congress) seems to be the only device…sorry…a national political party, that steadfastly refuses to be updated, showing an unearthly disdain to change in pace with the times. It has done nothing after losing promising young firebrand leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia and others; it has done nothing after its 23 top leaders, famously forming the G-23, separated themselves from the party asking for reforms and structural changes; it has done nothing to change the leadership even after losing elections again and again since 2014; and it has done nothing even after the celebrated poll-strategist Prashant Kishor who had brought the Mamata Banerjee government back to power in West Bengal with an incredible majority last year came forward willingly to help the beleaguered monolith two times in two years.

 

Why is the oldest national political party of the largest democracy of the world so inimical to change? Well, it cannot possibly part with the Gandhi leadership, such is its devotion to the family. They, the staunch loyalists, say no other Congress leader can replace the Gandhis because they say further that only the Gandhis still possess a pan-India presence and recognition. They don’t seem to see that the Congress is gone in the North East; it’s gone to in the East too; it’s gone in the North except for somehow sticking on in Rajasthan, it’s gone in the Central region except for so far surviving in Chhattisgarh; it’s gone in the West but for being the smallest partner in the Maharashtra coalition government; and it’s gone in the South too. So, where is Gandhis’ India?

 

The Gandhi family cannot be blamed entirely for the sordid episodes of resisting change, because on several occasions Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi offered to resign and allow other senior leaders to take over the reins. However, the regressive loyalists refused to budge on each occasion, beseeching them like the slaves of the British to continue. They, at any cost, want to keep Rahul Gandhi as the Congress’s Prime Ministerial candidate as if for eternity. The G-23 was formed to bring in the much-required changes in leadership and in the overall structure. But the loyalists continued to advise Sonia Gandhi to thwart what they call the dissidents.

 

The opposition unity in the country has been suffering because of this change-resisting enigma of a party. The opposition parties, as we’ve mentioned many times in earlier pieces, fully understand that a real united opposition in India cannot be formed leaving out the oldest party of the country as the INC will contest anyway on its own all its traditional seats come what may and thus split the votes in favor of the ruling party. They neither can take the Congress in with them due to the risk of losing a huge chunk of the seats that happened in Bihar, be it in the assembly or the general elections. Most importantly, with the emergence of promising national leaders like Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal, the obsession of Rahul Gandhi as the united opposition Prime Ministerial candidate has also become an obsolete enigma.

 

The IPAC wizard Prashant Kishor definitely understands these realities and therefore perhaps, he has kept on trying to guide the Congress to become an effective opposition partner with parties like the TMC, the AAP, the TRS and so on. He tried last year and failed. After the victory of Mamata’s TMC in 2021 where the Congress was avoided as an alliance partner Prashant Kishor gave the issue another more serious try. Several rounds of discussions between Sonia along with Congress stalwarts and Prashant Kishor had taken place in Delhi in the past few days. And it failed again with both the would-be collaborators parting ways on Tuesday, the 26^th of April 2022, amicably as reported.

 

Here again, obviously, the regressive changing-resisting loyalists have to be blamed squarely for this failure. They must have thought that if Prashant Kishor, the kind of poll revolutionary he is, becomes an independent consultant he’d surely ask for revolutionary changes in the party’s structure and leadership to which they cannot agree at any cost. Therefore, they must have advised Sonia Gandhi to offer Kishor to be a part of Congress by joining the Empowered Action Group to strategize jointly for the General Elections of 2024. And Prashant Kishor declined, true to his role as the most-wanted independent political strategist.

A line from a famous Hindi song in the melodious voice of Kishore Kumar from the critically acclaimed Rajesh Khanna-starrer movie Amar Prem (1972), directed by Shakti Samanta with music my Rahul Dev Burman and lyrics by Anand Bakshi, comes to the mind that says, ‘…majhi jo nao duboiye, usey kaun bachaye…’ (when the boatman sinks his boat who can save him?)!

Why No Lockdown In West Bengal Or Still No National Lockdown?

A stupendous election victory against the might of the national ruling party; Didi Mamata Bannerjee installed for the third term as Chief Minister of  West Bengal; and the immediate promise to take the fight against the COVID-19 virus in its deadly second wave head on. But, in the days that followed the state government had not shown any real intent to take on the promised fight, deciding only to augment a little the earlier state administration order that was announced a day prior to the counting of votes on 2^nd May 2021, to shut down restaurants, cinema halls, malls, gyms, sport complexes and so on, and to schedule the business hours of the general markets.

 

The order came the very day of the oath-taking ceremony, no doubt a very subdued affair due to the situation, of Mamata Bannerjee as the new Chief Minister; but, unfortunately, the new order yields precious little in terms of strict curbs or a most-preferred complete lockdown. The order follows largely the same format of the previous order except for the rescheduling of the business hours of the general markets, completely stopping the local train services with immediate effect, reducing the trains of the Metro railway by half, buses to run at half-capacity and ordering all government/private offices at 50% attendance. These measures are far from what is actually desired considering the COVID spread in the state, mostly due to the 8-phase state elections. We will see why.

 

First, the daily timings of the general markets are from 7 to 10 in the morning and 5 to 7 in the evening other than the essential shops/stores like the chemists and the groceries which are open as usual, and the jewellery shops from 12 noon to 3 pm; but in actual practice, as observed, all essential/non-essential shops manage to remain open throughout or at best are ‘allowed’ the concession of overshooting the closing hours regularly. An average citizen of any age can easily move out of home, travel from end to end of the city, crowd the market freely during the ‘general’ hours or in the ‘essential’ hours or in the ‘jewellery’ hours and can gorge on street food available on the stalls about which the order is not specific or for that matter, about all other vendors selling anything. This defeats the purpose of the stay-home doctrine, so crucial to break the chain of infections.

 

Second, some of the other measures are contradictory: all offices are to work with 50% attendance, but if local trains are discontinued, metro trains restricted and buses at half-capacity passengers, then how the office-goers are to travel to the workplaces, which means there would be inevitable crowding in the metro trains and in the buses. Not to speak of the commuting needs of the countless businessmen, traders and vendors. Masking norms are mostly being followed in Kolkata and other major cities of the state, but it’s a tough job to enforce the controls in semi-urban and rural areas. Besides, the social distancing norms have been compromised everywhere thanks to the half-hearted measures.

 

Lastly, although the daily COVID-19 cases have risen slowly from around 17000 to around 19000 in the last few days, we had seen rapid rise from around 1000 cases to over 15000 daily cases during the later election period, and our point is that the slow trend in the last few days cannot be justification for liberal norms, for the dangerous variants of the virus can rise exponentially or even explode anytime like in the states of Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh. Therefore, it must be said emphatically that the state government is playing with the lives of the people of the state, and waiting for the cases to explode for imposing lockdown is very risky, considering how people have still been dying due to lack of oxygen, lack of medical facilities and over-stressing of the health infra all over the country.

 

For India as a whole, national lockdown was imposed on 25^th March 2020 with hardly a four-hour notice, when the daily infections were just in a few hundreds, concentrated in Maharashtra and Kerala. Well, this is not to contest the decision to lockdown the country, for in the global perspective and the experience of many countries it was deemed necessary. Data analysts were extrapolating at that time that without lockdown the infections and the deaths would have been in hundreds of thousands. This is exactly our point.

 

While the first pandemic peak in India, reached mid-September 2020, was just above 97000 cases a day and deaths around 1000 a day, the present numbers are more than 4,00,000 daily cases and 4000+ fatalities. The 4-Lakh mark was crossed about ten days back, after which the figures were fluctuating between 3.5 to over 4 Lakh, giving rise to false hopes of the second pandemic peak reached; however, some experts maintain that the peak is expected mid-May or end of May this year. Therefore, it is a valid question to ask: why still no national lockdown? The scenario has been getting bizarre with the states arbitrarily announcing partial or full lockdowns, weekend lockdowns or mini lockdowns whenever they desire, except for the most disciplined state of Maharashtra where the lockdown and anti-COVID strategy has seen the positive results.

 

In fact, a whole lot of medical experts, scientists and international agencies have been urging India to impose national lockdown since over a fortnight. The Government of India is not listening perhaps for the blues of the earlier lockdowns in terms of economic devastation. We say that the damage done last year is due more to lack of planning and haphazard unlocking than the failure of lockdown as a strategy. No doubt, lockdowns are no solutions, but they can definitely break the chain of infections and save lives by forcing people to stay at home. Further, experts believe that there has been much under-reporting in the numbers of daily infections and deaths, some saying that daily deaths must be around 25000 to create that kind of pressure on the crematoriums, the round-the-clock burning pyres all over the country being witness to the immense human tragedy unfolding. At the moment the most important things to do are to prevent more deaths, de-stress the health sector and ensure regular supply of oxygen; and to achieve that a national lockdown is a must, which, experts maintain, has to be of at least of a two-week duration.

The Miracle Lady Mamata Wins One Of The Biggest Election Battles Of India!

All the odds were stacked against her. She was facing the double anti-incumbency factor her party, Trinamul Congress (TMC), having ruled the state of West Bengal for two terms of ten years and herself as Chief Minister; there had been palpable anger against her party for charges of corruption and the lack of development. Then, the national ruling party BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) had its full focus on this state after having conquered the whole of North Eastern region, most of the Eastern and the Northern region; since 2014 when the BJP-led government was established in India with the ideals of aggressive Hindu nationalism and religious polarization, the BJP decided to win over the whole of India, and West Bengal became the epicentre of their expansion plans; the BJP mastered only three seats in the Assembly Elections of West Bengal in 2016, but that increased in a spectacular fashion in the Lok Sabha general elections in 2019 when the BJP captured 18 seats of 42 thus reducing TMC’s seats from 34 in 2016 to 22; and buoyed by that the national ruling party wanted to win the 294-seat Assembly Elections of West Bengal-2021, desperately enough even to defy the threatening second wave of the pandemic.

 

Therefore, she got pitted against the full might of the central government in terms of limitless money and muscle power; all the machinery and the agencies of the government geared up; and all the top leaders of the BJP including the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and almost all other ministers holding rallies in the state preaching against her that amounted, at times, even to heckling. The eternal fights between the workers of BJP and TMC flared up months prior to the elections leading to deaths on both sides and crossfire of allegations from both sides.

 

Then, quite early in the campaigning trail, she suffered a fracture on her left leg, just above the ankle, and after spending a few days in hospital had to do the remaining campaigns from the wheel chair. Further, the election was planned in an unprecedented 8-phase schedule which she alleged was done only to suit the BJP. Further, many of her trusted ex-ministers and members of her party defected to the BJP. Lastly, most of the exit polls predicted a tight fight between the BJP and the TMC, even indication a hung assembly, and in light of the immense power of the national ruling party just reaching the halfway mark was not considered safe for TMC as horse trading and defections, of late, have become an integral part of the Indian elections.

 

And, Mamata Bannerjee, the two-term Chief Minister of West Bengal, not only won the elections, but registered her third consecutive landslide victory; even bettering the haul of 209 seats in 2016 with 213-14 seats out of total 292 polled this time. By all the parameters as mentioned above this battle was billed as one of the biggest election battles ever in India with an air of absolute suspense about the final outcome, and the tremendous victory of Mamata cast a spell of absolute wonder and admiration over the media and all stakeholders, and of course, the ecstatic supporters of TMC and the citizen-voters of the state many of whom could not stop themselves coming out in the streets defying COVID norms. The victory has instantly catapulted Mamata Bannerjee as the most potent opposition leader of the nation to creditably fight the might of the BJP, a secularist challenge to the prevailing communal politics.

 

Mamata Bannerjee always calls herself a worker, a grass root worker at that, and in fact, her party’s name ‘Trinamul’ means grassroots. She has never been a lady with the sophisticated mannerisms of a seasoned politician; she acts and behaves always as a tough street-fighter, and never says no to challenges irrespective of how big or impossible these are. For this election too, she has kept on fighting like a tigress declaring the now-iconic 'khela hobe' (let's play), never bowing down to anything or compromising anything. Her key associate Suvendu Adhikary defected to the BJP in December 2020, somewhat initiating the surge of defections. Adhikary has been Mamata’s best bet from the constituency of Nandigram for the last two elections, and his defection was a huge loss. The local BJP leadership teased her to fight from Nandigram if she dared. The brave lady, endearingly called Didi (elder sister) in the state and now nationally, indeed took up the challenge, abandoned her usual constituency and filed her nomination from Nandigram against Adhikary; and she even declined to contest from a second constituency for safety. The Nandigram fight became the national obsession. And it was in Nandigram she broke her leg, in an incident that was officially declared as an accident, doubts, however, remained.

 

Nandigram fully justified why it should be a national obsession. From the initial rounds of counting Suvendu Adhikary was leading, at one stage more by than ten thousand votes, but in the later rounds Didi was catching up fast and managing to take a slender lead. Finally, at the end of the 16^th and last round a news agency declared Didi as winner by 1200 votes; however, after some time Adhikary was declared winner by around 1900 votes. The Election Commission of India said, at that stage, that it had not received the final figures; however, afterward Didi’s loss was confirmed. It was an anti-climax of sorts in the unbelievable proceedings of the counting process. Didi conceded to this defeat magnanimously in her first address to the public and later to the media, saying that this loss was nothing in comparison to the overall verdict; but, she maintained, she wouldn’t let it go like that and would appeal for a recounting. She also asked her fans to go back home, strictly abide by COVID-appropriate behavior and to plan celebrations only when the dreaded virus was brought under control.

 

So then, this was the brief story of a brave odds-defying lady staging a tremendous victory. This writer had been a little critical of her autocratic inclination on earlier occasions; and yes, she retains her share of autocratic dealings and the charges of appeasement-to-minority politics. But, at this historic moment we salute Didi and look forward to having her as a great leader on the national front in near future in the pursuit of re-establishing the time-tested values of secularism, so important for a richly diverse and plural democracy like India.

 

In the remaining four state assembly elections, as results were declared after the counting of votes from the 2^nd of May 2021, the Left Democratic Front created history in Kerala by retaining its power with a thumping majority, for the first time in the history of the state’s assembly elections; in Tamil Nadu the DMK-Congress alliance successfully stopped the AIADMK-BJP alliance and came back to power after ten years; BJP retained power in Assam, and defeated the Congress in the Union Territory of Puducherry where the BJP engineered a defection drama before the elections managing to form an alliance and winning the majority of the seats. The Indian National Congress or the Congress party was decimated pitifully everywhere except for its piggy riding bout on the DMK in Tamil Nadu, and in West Bengal the Left-Congress alliance was totally obliterated denying BJP the expected gains from a split of the anti-BJP votes.

COVID And Amphan: Indian Contrasts In Crisis Times!

When the extremely severe cyclonic storm Amphan hit Kolkata and adjoining districts of West Bengal in the evening of 20^th May, 2020, with a speed ranging from 110 to 133 km per hour the damage could very well be anticipated. West Bengal is not new to cyclones originating in the Bay of Bengal, in fact, three cyclones namely ‘Fani’, ‘Bulbul’ and ‘Amphan’ swept over the state within a span of one year only—from May 2019 to May 2020. However, the force and speed of Amphan was unprecedented in the state as some point out that the areas had not seen such a severe cyclone in 283 years. By late night that fateful day, closeted in the control room of her secretariat in Howrah, Chief Minister Mamata Bannerji, distressed and sad, said while briefing the media online that a few districts of her state and Kolkata were totally destroyed and it would take days to assess the damage apart from the loss of lives. She desperately hoped that the central government would come in with some help as her state was already drained of resources with the battle against COVID-19 raging on. Didi, as she is popularly known, also hoped Prime Minister Modi would come and see the damage for himself. And, the Indian Prime Minister responded magnanimously, announcing the very next morning his decision to visit the state on 22^ndMay.

Political differences between BJP-ruled central government and TMC-ruled West Bengal state government are only too well known with both parties not stopping the rivalries and the parleys even during COVID times, in fact, fighting over COVID issues in recent days. Therefore, Mamata wishing for Modi’s presence and Modi’s gesture in coming immediately is being viewed in a new light: that they have come together in a spirit of cooperation in the time of crisis, setting aside politics for the moment. The Prime Minister expressed full solidarity with the state government—hit by twin-tragedies, and praised its efforts in tackling both the catastrophes. He assured full help at every step of the way ahead—restoration, reconstruction, rehabilitation and the like, and announced a preliminary financial package for immediate expenses.  Later in her media brief at the airport after seeing off the Prime Minister, Mamata Bannerji appreciated Modi’s visit and his promise of joint efforts, not saying anything against the offer of help as claimed by a ‘national’ news channel that started carrying supers ‘Mamata Slams Aid’.

Unfortunately, Maharashtra wing of the BJP failed to learn any lesson from its central leadership bonhomie, and selected this same say to stage public protests all over the state claiming the state government’s mishandling of the COVID fight, perhaps the very first instance of such kind in the worldwide war against the killer virus. One of their allegations, as puerile as it sounded, was that why Maharashtra has witnessed such a spike in cases while Kerala handled it so competently. Well, ‘serving’ the interests of the local people for decades they still don’t understand why Mumbai is Mumbai, and why it should have the largest number of COVID-19 infections, like, in a similar way, why the virus should select New York for its special treatment. In totality, they must understand that COVID is not a political phenomenon and doesn’t go by who ruled which state. At this hour of crisis for the state the best option for them is to inspire the people to follow the precautions religiously and to jump in the fray for total cooperation. Perhaps, in India, political parties need multiple tragedies strike in unison to make them lose their political rivalries and power-hungry politics, even if for the time being.  

Election Politics: Trepidation, Euphoria, Desperation And Opportunism!

As political parties all over India announce list after list of candidates for the General Elections-2014 with the first phase of voting happening on 7th April; as political parties nominate their candidates for the constituencies; as political leaders file their nominations for the hot seats and as political parties sort out their priorities getting ready for declaring their manifestos certain entertainingly rampant characteristics are popping up and out bringing out the essence of election politicking in the largest democracy of the world. You can like it or dislike it, you can abhor it or ignore it, you can debate aloud about it or keep mum about it, but you cannot help enjoying it. And it’s your right to get entertained before you decide about your vote which you must exercise anyway with the latest option of rejecting all the candidates in your constituency.

A sense of trepidation seems to have engulfed the ruling coalition particularly for Congress party that leads it. After all the scams, all the corruption charges, inflation and an alleged policy paralysis many stalwarts have either refused to contest or have joined or decided to join other political parties that seem to be winning. Many still within the party or the coalition seem to have resigned to the emerging view that they after all will have to sit in the opposition this time around taking consolation in the fact that they have ruled the country for the last ten years.

A sense of euphoria seems to have engulfed the main opposition parties particularly the BJP who, in the soothing company of its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, starts to feel almost secure in the emerging view that this party will after all get the chance to rule the country after a gap of ten years. Many stalwarts within the BJP are eager to stick their necks in and be a part of the expected victory. However, the euphoria seems to have made the party dream of a single party rule creating in its wake internal egoistic and power-mongering trouble. Okay, the Prime Ministerial candidate has already been announced, but the position of Deputy PM or even Associate PM or Assistant PM are still open for grabs. So furious is the euphoria that even its potentially powerful allies are no longer safe—if you care to go through the snubbing game going on between BJP and Shiv Sean in Maharashtra.  

Therefore, be it trepidation or euphoria, a sense of desperation seems to have engulfed the entire political community. Everybody, be it their plain greed for power or be it their 'commitment' to continuing public service, wants somehow to be on the winning side, by hook or by crook. As we have mentioned earlier many stalwarts belonging to Congress and other parties have betrayed and joined rival parties with the enlivening hope of ending up with the winning ones. As you know winning means cornering power and cornering power means...you know well after living in the largest democracy of the world for decades. Many other stalwarts including granddads or senior most leaders have been bickering for more lucrative or prestigious constituencies. Such was the fury of this desperation that within BJP it has raised the specter of a Modi-Advani confrontation once again and has created divisions that are hardly healthy for a party that is hopeful of forming the next government.

All these inevitably lead to an air of rank opportunism that has in fact been so characteristic of Indian politics over the decades. Leaders are running here and there looking for the best chance of reaping the maximum benefits and finally or hopefully grabbing positions of power. More frighteningly, the party that took up the cudgels for the common man on the ideal of a corruption-free country has managed to beat the masters in their own games. It has matched the masters bit by bit with expertise and elan in every aspect of dirty politicking. Its front runner—the run-away Chief Minister— has got used to creating controversy and turmoil wherever he sets his 'preaching' feet in, so much so that his party now has effectually become the common man's most common tormentor.

And incidentally his mentor cum anti-corruption crusader has become a perfect comedian siding with or deserting any political party at will all the while maintaining that he would never support any political party. Our dear 'merciless Mamata' had recently shown a helluva lot of ‘mamata’ on this crusader, but had to go back to her merciless ways when the former left her midway and abandoned. However, in the first place nobody quite understood why both needed each other so suddenly.

To end on a rather positive note we must point out one emerging trend which is valid for all political parties. In their desperation to get the best possible 'winning' candidates political parties have been roping in celebrities including film actors and professional comedians. Maybe this could act as a distinct dampener for prospective criminals who could have qualified otherwise.