Page 9 - Tehelka Issue 13 - July 15, 2018

politics

chalked out as a strategy to ensure a red ple live, eat, wear and pray as per their Although with a difficult fight in Gujarat
face for BJP on 543 Lok Sabha seats. Is dictates. in 2018, Himachal, Tripura and Megha-
Rahul Gandhi hitting the right chord! laya were great political gains. So the
This, as history has proved that in elec- No more invincibile BJP now boosts of unprecedented
tions, its the positives rather than nega- The saffron party shed the invincibility presence in 23 states, more than what
tives that do the work. factor when it lost elections of Kairana, Indira Gandhi did.
Although it would not be audacious Gorakhpur, Phulpur in UP, Araria in On the other hand the opposition
to say that India has moved forward as Bihar and by elections in Rajasthan has just accelerated to the third gear
much as backward since the saffron and MP. In Karnataka, BJP couldn’t with the energized Congress behind
party was voted in office astoundingly form government inspite of having Rahul. The 84th Plenary session of the
in 2014 general elections. Back then it the public mandate. Amit Shah band- Congress failed to chalk out an effective
was a vote against corruption, infla- wagon is now up for some real con- strategy to counter BJP. Instead it chose
tion, policy paralysis and social insecu- test in Rajasthan, MP and Chattisgarh. to be in the aggressive mode. Congress
rity. Trend analysis says voting in every President Rahul Gandhi would have
elections is affected more on the basis done good by spelling out Congress’s
of contemporary issues as public mem- Polarisation not road ahead to a corruption-free India,
ory is short. Health of economy, society, how he will help unemployed and boost
nation at large, security, employment only of the Muslim growth rate. Despite him trying to give
etc decide who the voter will vote for. votes and the a new face to the party by bringing the
If India has acquired a reinvented re- youth in its forefront, major latent flaws
invigorated status at the international dominant upper are more than apparent for the phoe-
forum we have moved two steps back caste but lower nix to rise. Also, the party is not drawing
on the social security matrix. At the upon its capabilities and strengths for
end of the fourth year of BJP lead NDA, caste votes too are providing a better alternative in term of
bank scams have grown larger by the being managed with deliverance and bettering peoples’ lives
day, agrarian crisis has taken threaten- in the runup to 2019 elections.
ing proportions, growth figures don’t an eye on upcoming There’s a serious reason to think
seem to be optimistic, jobs are hard to 2019 elections why BJP might stay on unless some-
find and the moral police ensures peo- thing unexpected happens. The initial

8-12 Modi.indd 3 03/07/18 3:39 PM