By Lalit Seth
The message of Assembly election results on Thursday, May 19, this year is that the people trust and admire women leaders when they are Chief Ministers and do not throw them out of office. The charismatic women of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu hold sway in the States they rule. They could expect to spread their wings in neighbouring States.
Jayalitha might have lost some of her shine by winning just a narrow majority, but the simplest of the simple Mamta Banerjee has shown her supremacy on the Bengal scene. She has won more than 210 seats out of 294 seats in the State Assembly. It is more than a double century.
She could play a national role, but she does not wish to be in the power games beyond Bengal. She does not see herself as a future Prime Minister. She has “so many” political friends. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi may or may not be a personal friend, but a leader all right.
She could be speaking to Bengali speaking people all over India and they are around in all parts of India. She could influence the coalition politics in future and be the next leader of the dispensation or the most powerful person in this area.
Is there a message in this for the Congress? Is there a message for Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi? Since she is the leader of her parliamentary party in both Houses, should she consider moving to the Rajya Sabha?
Should she consider vacating her Lok Sabha seat for her daughter, Priyanka, so that Priyanka Gandhi could challenge Akhilesh Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav?
Would the Congress wish to meet the challenge of a reinvigorated Mayawati who is hoping to replace the Samajwadi Party for its excesses, misrule and life style of great luxury and playboy style exhibited at Saifai on Mulayam’s birthday glitter? If Priyanka Gandhi were to bring Congress back U.P. where it has been out of office for a long time, could she be projected as the Chief Minister candidate?
If that is not possible because even Priyanka may not be able to win more seats for the Congress than Mayawati and Akhilesh, could the party consider a post-election alliance with Mayawati if the latter fails to win an outright majority in the State?
The BJP will no doubt deploy loud mouth Smriti Irani and perhaps Mrs. Sumitra Mahajan, the suave Speaker of the Lok Sabha, but only for the General Election. But the BJP will look for effective women leaders in all States to keep Modi in office for a new term and win upcoming Assembly elections, as in Karnataka and U.P., and elsewhere in the next three years.
The BJP has won Assam handsomely and made small gains in Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It may boast of being focused on the development agenda, but the claim rings hollow as almost 500 million in all parts of the country are very poor, most of them of poorest of the poor. The worst drought in India’s history in 25 years has left Latur, Bundelkhund and 200 districts in 29 States and many parts of 470 remaining districts remain desperate and cry for food and water. The Prime Minister has met Chief Ministers of eight or nine States, but the Central Government and Chief Ministers do nothing except twiddling their thumbs. They make tall claims on TV cameras and news conferences, sounding grim and grave, but with very little delivered on the ground.
Even on electricity, less than 50,000 villages out of 600,000 of them have it. Not more than 20,000 villages will get it in a year and who will pay the power bills? Most villagers will be too poor to pay the power companies. Will the Government promise to raise no bills? Punjab does it for free power for connexions for farm tube wells even of the wealthy farmers as the State exchequer has been bankrupted.
In spite of the big victory in Assam where the BJP and its well crafted alliance partners have won more than 83 seats and reduced the Congress to just 25 in a House of 126, the coming times are full of surprises for the rulers of the day. Could they take India for granted? Is their development agenda creditworthy?
Do 40 miles of new highways per day, 15 new miles of rail track, newer ports, water ways, many smart cities, make in India initiative, big ticket foreign investment, small hearted efforts to nab wilful defaulters and tax evaders who call themselves tax avoiders, land acquisition laws, friendship with big money, the hallmark of all parties, and what have you?
Do these claims ring hollow? Do they make a big difference to India?
Has Subramanian Swamy been stopped in his tracks? If he could take on Jayalalitha, have her initially convicted and then see her come out on bail and become Chief Minister again, will he be allowed to take on Sonia Gandhi and get the sobriquet of a mere mischief maker even be rewarded with a Rajya Sabha seat? Time will tell.