Election results in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab show that BJP is not invincible

Like it or not, we are in “New India”. Narendra Modi has successfully marketed Hindutva and converted the poorest segments of Indian society. How else does one explain the comfortable victory of the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Goa?

There was no reason for the BJP to win, particularly in UP. An unprecedented economic crisis, unemployment and deaths due to the Covid pandemic should ordinarily have led to the fall of the Yogi government. But election results have belied political pundits and the Yogi government has returned to power.

How does one explain this political phenomenon? It was Hindutva coupled with freebies like the free foodgrains that apparently went in favour of the BJP. There was no reason for the BJP to win in Uttarakhand and Goa either, with strong currents of anti-incumbency in both the states. The long and short of the election results is that Hindutva is kicking and alive and Narendra Modi continues to rule the hearts of many, if not most, Indians.

There is not much time left for the opposition parties to put their act together before the next Lok Sabha election in 2024. The opposition is undoubtedly in disarray. The election results must have further demoralised their rank and file. But political parties striving to reclaim India from communal politics cannot afford to spend time finding faults with one another.

When we talk of the opposition, it becomes the primary responsibility of the Congress to lead the opposition. Despite reservations that many may have with the grand old party, the fact remains that one still cannot imagine a national alternative without the Congress.

But it is also a fact that Congress alone cannot take up the challenge nationally. Congress and the regional parties together will have to take on the BJP in 2024. Congress needs to weave another UPA kind of umbrella alliance that it worked out in 2004 under Sonia Gandhi.

It is already late and the initiative to bring the opposition on the same platform has to come from the Congress. Regional leaders have tried carving out a national role for themselves but they have not been able to influence people outside their own comfort zones. While the Congress must give regional leaders their due, forging unity and consensus must be its responsibility.

It will mean managing many king size egos and it will indeed be difficult. But Sonia Gandhi set an example in 2004 when she walked across to neighbour Ram Vilas Paswan to personally invite him to join the UPA, and he obliged. The Congress needs to learn lessons from its own past. Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi has already tweeted that the party is ready to learn.

Another serious challenge waiting in the wings for the Congress is to guard its own ranks. Narendra Modi has been working at achieving a Congress-mukt Bharat. He will try to sow seeds of differences among Congress leaders and, if possible, split the party. There are already groups in the party which have been voicing differences with the leadership. Some may have notional issues and some may have genuine differences. The party leadership need to urgently hold a dialogue with such elements and close the ranks in the larger national interest.

It is equally the responsibility of the dissenters to sink their differences and stand with the party that has nurtured them. Any split in the Congress ranks will go to serve Modi’s objective of Congress-mukt Bharat. And, it must not be allowed to succeed at all.

To say that India is at a crossroads is an understatement. Our constitutional values are at stake. Hindutva forces led by Narendra Modi have captured virtually every constitutional institution to their advantage. It is, indeed, quite an uneven battle. But when the Congress launched the freedom struggle against the then mighty British empire, it was an uneven battle even then. The Congress needs to gather its wits to fight Hindutva and move on along with other opposition parties.

The election results have also shown chinks in BJP’s armour. It is not invincible and the goal of defeating the BJP in 2024 may not be as elusive as it looks right now.

(The writer is the Editor-in-Chief of National Herald)

(This was first published in National Herald on Sunday)