By Shivaji Sarkar
The party with a difference, that LK Advani and Atal Behari Vajpayee built, has just become a different party under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, quips a RSS leader. Even in the defeat in 2004, people felt something wrong or sinister had been done to Vajpayee. In 2018’s near wash out in five States, the party cadre and the RSS in particular appear jubilant.
They are jubilant because arrogant party bosses and ministers have distanced themselves not only from the aam aadmi but also their own close cadre and workers, who toiled for decades to take the party to be “a formidable party and a national alternative”. It is a different issue that till date it has not been able to spread its wings in southern India, eastern India and many pockets of the North-East. That was the strength of the Congress, in its heydays. It had its supporters in every nook and corner. The BJP still hasn’t been able to do so.
Remember, Vajpayee could give a different human and pro-people touch to the administration. He was always keen on getting a feedback from his own people, journalists and friends. On the other hand, Modi and his ministers, except a few, who have been more than ignored, created such a distance that their workers and supporters feel insulted. Some say even they are not allowed to the portals of their receptions at the residences of their very own leaders. They are shooed away by the security men, albeit politely, and told to seek an appointment on phone. The poor man, who travels from thousands of kilometers away, ends up only cursing himself.
And then there are those, who are neutral but also curse themselves as the BJP has brought in an inflationary regime, something which the UPA had ushered in. They are not allowed to withdraw their own money. The accounts that have got dormant are difficult to be made operable. The bank fees and charges are going through the roof. Sinking interest rates have made the lives of senior citizens and women difficult. The fear of bank collapse have made all insecure.
Further, digital banking has seen swindling of amounts from their accounts. Inflation has made life difficult but shockingly the indices don’t show it. It was the opposite with the Vajpayee regime. Prices of real estate had even come down without demonetisation. Worse, the GST is clearly a tax on tax! Why should there be GST on house tax and not on petrol, is a big question?
The loud bad-mouthed dirty attacks on the Opposition apparently made the people diffident. They wonder if the nation’s first Prime Minister Pandit Nehru was the real reason for the failure of all programmes, which others had ushered in.
Ujjwala, the much-touted so-called free gas connection scheme, say the poor say has fooled them totally. They don’t get the subsidy and Modi’s government has made the cooking gas doubly expensive. Think, can someone having an income of Rs 1500 to 3000 a month afford a cylinder at Rs 1000 plus? The world over, petrol prices were lowered in sync with falling crude prices. However, India is the only country where it became a profit earner for the companies and taxes for a “pro-people government”. People now say, since the States’ poll campaigns started, every day a ten-paise cut was affected. The Modi government must realise that voters are not fools. And certainly not in this digital age!
The State governments too faltered in many ways. In Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh the “bhavantar” – difference between food grain minimum support price (MSP) and market prices – did not reach the farmers. Rajasthan particularly failed on many fronts. Number of other schemes remained merely on paper. Adding insult to injury, the States could not create the jobs that were promised.
Then there is the connectivity story. They built sub-standard roads, so did the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI). But the toll charged is high on these. Both the Centre and States are at fault, despite the tall claims being made.
And why should there be persecution of the upper castes and protection of the Scheduled Castes? If people could vote against BSP’s Mayawati, then they have voted against the BJP too in the States.
The BJP has specialised in fleecing every one. The middle class is pauperised. They chastised people, such as through the National Green Tribunal (NGT), reportedly at the behest of the big automobile companies. The people are being harassed and their cars impounded for having crossed a ten-year limit. The whole world does not mind driving 40-year-old cars but in the BJP government one has had to junk his/her fine operational vehicle!
The exit of RBI Governor Urjit Patel, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramaniam and Niti Ayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya are not less shocking. In fact, it is a sad reflection on the system being run and perhaps they couldn’t stomach it any more.
Importantly, Hindutva is no more a preserve of the Sangh parivar. It has become the common political plank. So Hindus no more vote for Hindutva. Worse, the Parivar has lost its credibility as its leaders identified themselves with the failed BJP leaders.
Is this the end of BJP? Is it the beginning of the Congress surge? The answer to both is a big no. The BJP has been Congressised and the Congress has BJPised itself. Take the case of Kashmir—BJP’s failure there is because it followed the Congress policy. Insofar as the Congress is concerned, it could not create waves in either KCR’s Telangana or its own ruled Mizoram, because it is conceived as the “B” party of the BJP.
Undeniably, Indian politics is in a confused state. Nobody thinks or cares for the people. The growing perception is both the BJP and the Congress are developing themselves as ‘touts’ of the corporates. People unmistakeably are distrusting both. They are now looking for an alternative party for the people. Alas, presently it is nowhere to be seen. Definitely, the BJP has to do more introspection for losing the trust that people had on it in 2014. It looks like “Achhe Din” (good days) have back fired.—INFA