General Election in India

Wednesday 08th May 2019 07:16 EDT
 

It is turning out to be, arguably, the most acrimonious general election India has had in a long time. You may not have to, proverbially, scratch a little nor sniff a bit. The surface tension itself is so palpable that it reveals how bitter, and grim, has the contest become beneath. This time the fight has dwarfed most of the past enmities and grudges. More than that, it has turned the erstwhile bitter rivals into friends. And, this is just one of the ways to gauge the intensity of this face off.

As I write, the Union Home Ministry has issued a notice to Rahul Gandhi - the principle challenger in the polls - on the issue of his citizenship. The petitioner, Dr Subramanian Swami – a BJP MP in the Upper House – has produced documents where Rahul Gandhi, allegedly, declares himself to be a British citizen. Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra has reacted sharply and dubbed this controversy as “bakwas”.

The news of this notice issued by the Home Ministry broke barely hours after the Supreme Court rebuked Rahul Gandhi for causing contempt, by falsely attributing his allegations against the Prime Minister to a finding by the Supreme Court. The court did not allow him to get away with a mere expression of regret for having said this in “the campaign heat”. He was instructed to tender an unqualified apology that his lawyers were, doggedly, trying to avoid.

This could, possibly, take away whatever little credibility his unusually shrill campaign targeting the Prime Minister personally - “Chowkidar Chor Hai”- may have had. Though, much of its sting was taken out by an effective counter – “Mai Bhi Chowkidar” – campaign when the entire Union Cabinet and party brass, besides a large number of vociferous sympathisers in social media, stood behind the Prime Minister by adopting the moniker “Chowkidar”. It must be said that the sheer audacity in the slogan had a stupefying effect, initially. And, the way it was converted into an incessant rant, appeared to suggest that Congress had managed to conjure up a plank, combative enough, not only to rally around their low-on-morale supporters but also to deliver a big blow to the PM’s image in the battle for perception and push him on the back foot. But, the way BJP turned the tables with matching aggression blunted the Congress plank. Finally, Congress began to look very ambitious in targeting the integrity of a man who built his entire reputation on an unblemished and unimpeachable record. Their story was not only muddled on facts, it lacked even a shred of evidence. But the biggest weakness this campaign suffered from was a nauseating track-record of all those who were resorting to what were widely seen as wild allegations.

Even as the “Chowkidar Chor Hai” began to fall apart and lose steam, another, potentially powerful carrot – NYAY – was dangled. As a ‘Minimum Income Guarantee Programme, it promised a direct transfer Rs.72,000 cash every year, in the bank accounts of the bottom 20% population of entire India. Having just emerged from the loss of three provincial governments, widely believed to have been lost to the bribe of loan-waivers to the farmers, this was indeed a serious one for the BJP to counter. And counter they did.

Their primary thrust is on what they have already delivered. What tops their veritable laundry list of goodies is the LPG gas for cooking to over 50 million homes of the poorest of the poor. The list includes free LED bulbs to hundreds of million homes, over 20 million free houses to the homeless poor, an ambitious health-care insurance cover of Rs. 5 million to hundreds of million poor citizens, free-cash transfer to farmers, huge tax-rebates to the middle class, 10% job-reservation for the upper-caste poor and a lot more. To know whose bag of goodies is making the real impact on the voters, one must wait till the May 23 when the results are expected.

The State of Jammu and Kashmir seems unconcerned with all this. The campaign issues in the Valley belong to a different genre. Akbar Lone, the National Conference (NC) candidate for Baramula, very early on in his campaign, yelled Pakistan Zindabad in a public meeting and dared anyone oppose him in professing his love for Pakistan. Farooq Abdullah, his leader, running for the Srinagar seat, praised publicly Yasin Malik- leader of banned JKLF and accused of multiple murders, abductions and terror funding, under arrest and pending trial. Mehbooba Mufti has chosen to play Imran Khan’s self-appointed envoy. She has, on his behalf, on various occasions, proposed talks as well as brandished a nuclear threat. And when she switches back to her role as People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) leader, she threatens catastrophe, even secession, if the Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution are in as much as touched. Funnily enough, on April 6, even Pakistan has issued a public warning to India, about not tinkering with these two contentious provisions in the Indian constitution.

But it is here, in J&K, that you see a worrisome conversion of interests that is yet unnoticed elsewhere in India. Congress has, arguably, for the first time ever, promised in its manifesto, to defend the Articles 370 and 35A. NC and PDP have obliged the Congress by withdrawing from the contest in the Hindu majority seats of Jammu and Udhampur, thus transferring an over 35% Muslim vote, en block, to them. The block-traders of Muslim votes are trying to offer a stiff contest to the BJP, all over the country, by ensuring a bi-polar contest.

Pakistan has, lately, become hugely interested in our domestic politics. Ever since Modi took charge, it has felt a higher degree of unpredictability and discomfort in India’s response to terror as an instrument of its policy towards India. No wonder, Pakistan has as much stake in these elections as the contestants here, if not more. And, the Pakistan within India is straining hard, to make it a happy one for the Pakistan across the border.


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