The road towards the Bharatiya Janata Party headquarters near ITO was flooded with supporters wearing saffron outfits, chanting “Jai Shri Ram” and dancing to the beats of drums. This was largely what the whole country looked like on May 23, 2019, after the Lok Sabha election results were out.
“After a fevered campaign, months of opposition negotiations and seven phases of polling, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance has won the 17th Lok Sabha elections comfortably. It is currently leading in 351 seats. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance is leading in 89 seats.” noted an article published on The Wire.
This victory of the BJP-led NDA created history. There should not be any doubt that the image of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ground level work done by the BJP chief Amit Shah made this victory possible for the party. Meanwhile, the opposition throughout the last tenure tried to attack the regime of Modi-Shah by attacking mostly the Prime Minister. The issues which the opposition raised were also directly connected to Modi.
A number of people protested and questioned in their own way through articles, books, satire, songs and also took the streets from time to time. But, in the end, it became evident that none of these protests worked much. Moreover, the penetration of the BJP in West Bengal (and getting 19 seats out of 42) showed that there were some issues in front of all of us but we overlooked them. Here are three major reasons:
1) Lack Of A Counter Narrative
Starting from the opposition political parties to the liberals one of the major problems was the lack of counter-narrative. Narendra Modi is not a parachute politician but he is a kind of politician who was made by the RSS to achieve the goal of making India a Hindu Rashtra. From the early 90s, before the demolition of Babri Masjid took place, the RSS launched Modi as a key organiser of the Ram Padyatra by LK Advani.
Modi was cultured and cultivated to become a leader with a 56-inch chest who can rule India with an absolute majority. He proved himself successful by ruling Gujarat as a chief minister from the year 2001. Despite the Godhra riots during his tenure as Chief Minister, he managed to retain his position and returned with an absolute majority. To combat a narrative which was planned and made for nearly 30 years, the opposition could not make any narrative.
The opposition only found the faults of Modi and tried to project those as the counter-narrative, which made Modi his own counter-narrative. In a developing country like India where idol worship is common, such a narrative only made Modi stronger. The people of India connected themselves with the Modi narrative, the talks of national security, Hindutva and strong leadership – these gave people a sense of security.
On the other hand, people did not believe the opposition’s counter-narrative of negative effects of the GST, demonetization, unemployment, farmer crisis, intolerance and Rafale. The opposition and liberals raised the issues as a counter but could not empathize with these issues.
For example, as an effect of demonetization, it is true people suffered at the time but now everything is normal. Neither ATMs have long queues nor do the people have time to remember the problems they faced for 2-3 months. Therefore, the impact of this issue was not such which can make people insecure about Modi.
Whereas in the BJP, from the top to the bottom everyone believed in the narrative and empathize with the causes. This narrative provided them with a sense of security which was so deep-rooted that nothing else mattered much.
2) Absence Of A Mass Movement
From the days after Modi came to power in 2014, the discussions on violence against religious minorities and caste minorities commenced. Such cases were inscribed from various parts of India. Liberals, writers, filmmakers took the streets to protest against the government. The opposition parties also backed the protests but these demonstrations remained exclusively urban affairs. People also raised their voices against Modi through social media but this failed to gather momentum for a mass movement.
When India as a nation rose against the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi, major mass-agitations took place across the country. Noted freedom fighter Jaiprakash Narayan, labour leader George Fernandes and others led the protests. The anti-emergency protests drew many ideologies together which incorporated socialists, communists, the RSS and many other regional political outfits.
In the regime of Modi, despite the talks of violence against minorities, no major mass-agitation took place. Neither the Muslims nor the Dalits of India took the streets in a huge number which could shake governance. The last time India witnessed such a movement was the anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare.
In West Bengal, the movement against land acquisition led by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee could also be considered as a mass movement which demolished the 35-year long Left regime in Bengal. In the Modi regime, only farmer protests came across as a mass agitation. But, to be very honest, the opposition could not capitalise on the agitations because historically, none of the political parties in India have really worked for the farmers. The left which led the agitation, failed to transform it to a narrative as they’re suffering from the loss of a political narrative.
Lastly, the majority of Indians also rejected the idea of Rahul Gandhi projecting the Congress as a secular party because people never envisioned the Congress as a secular force. Historically, the Congress party was an amalgamation of various political philosophies, which involved socialists, upper-caste Hindus, leftists, Dalit leaders and many others.
India is a diverse country but very religious in nature. However, the meaning of religious never meant the rule of the majoritarian religion. Modi recognised that religion is the only political narrative which has been avoided by the Congress from its commencement. Hence, gift-wrapped in national security and development, he sold the narrative of Hindutva which became acceptable exactly the way he sold it. Neither religious nor caste minorities really felt the need to take the streets against this new political idea because the oppositions failed to describe the danger.
Only the civil society and liberals discussed the issue in their own restricted areas with the dream of defeating Modi in 2019 which was a utopian notion. In world forums, civil society talked about the danger of a Hindu Rashtra but nobody took that concern to the ground.
3) Failure In Combating A Presidential Style Election
One of the essential reasons why India witnessed the TsuNamo is because of the failure of the opposition to resist Modi in a presidential style election. While the BJP stayed all about Modi, the Congress never spoke openly about their prime ministerial candidate. While the BJP fought the poll in a presidential manner, the opposition kept faith in the primitive idea of making a prime minister based on the post-poll coalition.
This idea also failed miserably because on the ground, people believed in the face of Modi. The opposition ignored the fact that in recent times, wherever there’s been a swiping victory of any political party, there was a “face-factor,” be it the revolutionary image of Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi, or Mamata Banerjee’s victory in West Bengal or Shivraj Singh Chauhan in Madhya Pradesh.
In all these poll there was a face, either people voted for it or voted against it. The days after the victory, the opposition started talking about how India voted for a terror accused Sadhvi Pragya and not an educationalist Atishi. The point is, such discussions have no value on the ground.
Democracy is all about grassroot management, grassroot politics and understanding of the grassroot narrative. The more we blame the conscience of people the more we will be lost and that is the trap of Modi’s political narrative.