Political ploys have become a feature of the cut and thrust of the Indian Politics. Sworn enemies become a comrade in arms and strange bedfellows to defeat a former friend or foe maybe with or without malevolent intentions. The present amalgamation of parties is ample testimony of shifting alliances and loyalties. Sometimes, the conscience speaks louder than words as does hate. Horse-trading is not new to the Indian politics, and BJP’s Operation Lotus is not surprising for me. All parties do that in India. I am not a fan of BJP (or any party) but I definitely get bothered with such practices. We Vote for the party and the candidate; however, when the voted out party leaders bargain to join the winner party, it’s a breach of trust with the voters. Anyway, in the present scenario, BJP is the richest political party with a huge funding, after all, the attraction of spoils is so strong for our politicians that their MLAs themselves will run to the BJP. Such are the morals and integrity of our elected members.
In Karnataka, BJP’s ”Operation Lotus” has toppled the state’s coalition government; three Congress MLAs were camping in a hotel in Mumbai in the “company of some BJP leaders”. In the name of Operation Lotus, BJP was allegedly luring several opposition MLAs to defect to ensure the stability of it’s the then government headed by BS Yeddyurappa in Karnataka in 2008. Shivakumar, who had earned the reputation of being a “trouble-shooter” in the Congress for bailing out the party from many crises in the past, accused Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy of being “lenient” towards the BJP. Shivakumar, however, exuded confidence that the BJP would not succeed in its attempt. Many Congress MLAs in Karnataka have alleged that the BJP leaders have approached them to quit the government and join BJP. The saffron party needs to be more careful while approaching such MLAs.
On one hand, BJP is approaching the opposition leaders to join their party while on the other hand, they are failing to understand the sentiments of the core BJP workers and leaders. The problem at root is, we have started to lose a great leader to our polluted politics. Narendra Modi has turned out to be an authoritarian figure for not only the opponents but also their own leaders. They are now silent for Modi and Shah to control their fate. The duos have learned how to keep their herd in control since the Gujarat days — either by offering them a good compensation or intimidate them — nothing else than absolute submission is expected in both the cases.
Currently, you see only two authoritative voices in the BJP. Other is lackeys who merely echo the orders coming from Modi and Shah. The rest of them are powerless voices that nobody listens to. Naturally, not all people in BJP are happy with the autocratic style of the Modi-Shah duo. They feel neglected and sidelined since they don’t always agree to the chauvinistic views of the top leadership. They are the first ones to rebel once the opportunity presents itself. It can be said about their coalition partners too who are unhappy and sidelined, whether it is TDP, Shiv Sena, or Akali Dal. They want to be in the coalition but at equal partners. With Modi and Shah, that is increasingly becoming difficult.
However, the people who were not really with BJP for religion feel cheated. Their heart is still with Modi, but the mind rebels. They understand that Modi has failed to deliver. He is not the “Yug Purush” they had expected him to be. In fact, they can’t help but notice that this government isn’t any better than the previous one. Plus, it is becoming increasingly difficult to defend the BJP government. Hence, Modi’s popularity has waned considerably. On top of that, BJP IT cell makes a joke out of itself by releasing absurd graphs defending the indefensible and adding insult to injury. We already know that the BJP and Congress candidate for the PM. Looking at the current scenario, it is likely that Rahul Gandhi would be the candidate as next PM. Of course, Rahul Gandhi will not get a full mandate but he will enjoy the support of his party and coalition members, which I guess would be enough to cross the line.
Hardly three months are left; Modi needs to regain his popularity by correcting the Wrong decisions, not doing Media hijacking, by shedding the attitude of being the God. Everyone has noticed a change in the tone of Modi before and after elections. It used to be kind of “We (me+citizens) will do it” and now it’s like “I did it”. I know he doesn’t make his own speeches but this is the thing.
There is a constant effort being put in to show him as the best, as doing everything. Hope things get better before the 2019 elections, or else BJP will be losing its sheen. The popularity of a politician is judged by the not only capacity to win his own election, but also win elections for his colleagues. On both these counts, at the moment, Modi stands tallest among all the contemporary politicians irrespective of the party affiliations. The biggest mistake he made is demonetisation. And to the worst, he heavily advertised it as a success during its first anniversary that was nothing but a mockery towards the middle-class people. Property tax increased and even made it worst. Heavy taxation system became a burden for the middle-class people. They say Ram Mandir issue can’t be solved as the matter is in the court but how did they implement the SC/ST law against the General Caste people when the matter was in court? He failed to control the price hikes and in fact, prices have been increased due to GST. Anyway, there are some good sides too; the best thing that the government did is controlling terrorism. From 2014, we don’t have any bomb blast news that was the part of our life during the UPA. However, this is not enough to retain its power; BJP seriously needs to pull its socks in acceptable manners by taking voters in confidence.
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