:: Nihal Singh

To fulfil Delhi dreams, shed regional baggage

S. Nihal Singh

May.14 : As political parties and the country impatiently await election results on Saturday, some trends thrown up by the marathon elections are already clear. The diminishing power and reach of the two national parties is evident as is the greater assertion of regional parties. But behind the fading might of the grand old party of Indian Independence and its challenger, is their failure to reinvent the idea of India.

True, some issues such as development and security — the latter a code-word for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for stricter law enforcement and anti-terrorist operations — were bandied about. But the electorate instinctively felt that that the parties’ heart was not in these or other advertised issues. Rather, it was a naked grab for retaining or securing power. Indeed, in no other general election have cynicism and opportunism reigned so supreme, with some parties publicly broadcasting the price they will charge for their purchase.

No wonder personalities — always a potent factor in Indian elections — were larger than their life. It is easy enough to blame the media, but if no real issues are being debated and the election cycle mercilessly grinds on, the talking points become Varun Gandhi’s hate speeches, Rahul Gandhi’s coming of political age, Nitish Kumar’s sudden star status and the uninterrupted entertainment provided by the likes of Amar Singh, Lalu Prasad Yadav’s rare public display of temper foreshadowing a less than hopeful outcome for his party in Bihar.

One would have imagined that the building of roads and bridges — important as they are — are the stuff of municipal and state Assembly elections. But if the political parties are not seriously debating weightier national and international issues for constituting the next Lok Sabha, the electorate decided it might as well secure promises of better living conditions in villages and towns alike. And Mr Nitish Kumar answered these prayers because he has had a development agenda in Bihar. Narendra Modi’s development plank in Gujarat became tainted with the ghosts of the 2002 pogrom, which keeps bobbing up one way or another.

The Congress Party’s secularism has become frayed at the edges, nowhere as starkly as in Gujarat where the party seems to be contesting elections on terms set by Mr Modi. The BJP’s Hindutva agenda have been so successfully grafted on Gujaratis that the Congress dare not advertise its secularism. Indeed, the party has felt at the state and national levels that it would be best not to highlight the Supreme Court’s decisions to revive some of the 2002 cases and place Mr Modi in the ambit of investigations for fear of losing votes.

Even in Mr Varun Gandhi’s case, the Congress has been circumspect in criticising his intemperate speeches for the fear of polarisation of voters in Uttar Pradesh working to the BJP’s advantage. The BJP has succeeded, to an extent, in redefining secularism by employing its complicity in destroying the Babri Masjid and such tragedies as the Mumbai terror attacks, instigated and directed from across the border, in a more Hinduised version of polity. There seems little conviction in Congress leaders’ statements decrying the BJP’s "communalism".

The BJP’s dilemmas are different. To be an effective party of governance at the national level, it cannot remain an exclusive chauvinistic party of the Hindus, with a token Muslim representation. Indeed, the BJP-led government’s six years’ tenure at the Centre was as much an Atal Behari Vajpayee phenomenon as a BJP show. L.K. Advani has been seeking to shed his old blood-curdling rath yatra image, but given the age of the Prime Minister-in-waiting, Mr Modi has been casting his long shadow. It would require another leap of faith for the BJP’s allies and the country to accept the man who presided over the 2002 pogrom.

Apart from the salience of the regional parties — the Left parties can also be so defined — the elections have accentuated the power of new technology in securing votes. The BJP, a party that appears regressive in social and political mores, is a clear winner in employing the Internet in broadcasting its message and selling its leaders. Although the Internet is still restricted to a relatively small segment largely in urban areas, the phenomenal growth of the mobile phone has immense possibilities as a propaganda tool in elections. Delhi voters had a foretaste of it in both BJP and Congress candidates relying on SMSes in reaching out.

Both the Congress and the BJP have made amply clear their aversion to the concept of the Third Front and to Independents entering the fray. For one thing, it suits neither national party to give more leverage to regional players, and Independents tend to cut into the votes of major candidates in unpredictable ways. But the assertion of the Independent — not just party dissidents contesting elections — has been a healthy and welcome new development.

The hype over the energised Mumbai upper middle class after the November tragedy died its natural death, with poll figures showing the traditional apathy of the urban well to do towards assuming their civic responsibilities. The candle-lit vigils were more a fashion statement than a desire to get involved in politics. But this election cycle was unique in the genuine Independent, be it a successful banker or another professional, staking a claim directly to participate in the process of political governance. And one must salute the dancer Mallika Sarabhai for making a symbolic political statement in challenging Mr Advani in the capital of Mr Modi’s Gujarat. Belonging as she does to a distinguished Gujarati family, she effectively made the point that she is among those who refuse to be co-opted into Mr Modi’s concept of how a state should be run.

Once the results are announced, national and religious parties will scramble to reach the magic number for forming a government, but the re-definition of Centre-state relations in India’s quasi-federal system has taken another leap forward. One would hope that regional parties in particular would conceive their future beyond the dictates of sheer opportunism.