It is said that “democracy is always in the making, forever incomplete, founded in possibilities”. As the Opposition INDIA grouping lurches into another self-inflicted controversy – this time over a hate-filled diatribe by a member against Sanatan Dharma – this maxim could well apply to it.
With roughly 180 days to go for Lok Sabha Elections 2024, the INDIA coalition is still “in the making”, appearing “forever incomplete” and struggling to convince voters of its raison d’être and, therefore, not “founded in possibilities”. A slew of recent opinion polls shows that the alliance has had little impact in diminishing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal.
While it is a marvel that a bloc of 26 disparate parties have been able to thus far even agree on a message to pitch at the hustings, the INDIA grouping, if it isn’t inert, will realise that their message is easily discredited.
The alliance is going to the polls with essentially an appeal to voters to reject the “authoritarian” NDA regime that, according to the Opposition bloc, has undermined the Constitution and endangered democracy. It believes Modi’s allegedly divisive brand of politics has pit Hindus against Muslims and other minorities and by voting for INDIA, voters can ensure that ‘Bharat Judega Aur Jeetega’ (India will unite and thrive).
But to get voters to sign on to and endorse this message is proving to be hard; especially, as the voters see INDIA heavyweights assembled under one roof, each representing a distinct part of the country; each representing voters that speak different languages and voice different concerns. To the ordinary voters, this “poll dance” of the Opposition tells them the spirit of democracy – choice, pluralism and federalism – is flourishing in Bharat.
Also, when they hear battle-scarred commissars within Opposition ranks lustily predicting that they will defeat Modi, the voter comes away assured that – contrary to the Opposition’s claims – it is no “dara hua” INDIA cowering under the glare of an alleged dictator in a dead democracy.
Think about it. If, as the INDIA bloc claims, major democratic institutions like the Election Commission that ensures free and fair elections or the courts that are called into scrutinising the verdict when and if it is challenged are both compromised, would the Opposition be so certain of its own victory?
Second, if Modi is a ruthless dictator with a Putinesque malevolence towards the Opposition, would the INDIA bloc be getting away with hurling a constant barrage of hate and abuse at the Prime Minister?
Third, if minorities were being put to the sword by the foot soldiers of a “Sangh sanctified exclusivist Sanatan Dharma” would they be electing the BJP’s Tafajjal Hossain from the Boxanagar seat in Tripura which has a 66% Muslim population?
Fourth, if the INDIA bloc is truly against, as they say, the “hateful Hindu supremacism” of the likes of Veer Savarkar, why do they sup with the Shiv Sena-UBT that lionises the late Hindutva ideologue?
Fifth, by championing the “eradication” of Sanatan Dharma or boycotting elements in the media, how is the INDIA bloc going to usher in the democratic revolution it says it wants to see?
Perhaps, it isn’t democracy that needs to be saved, it’s the Opposition that needs to be rescued from under the weight of its own contradictions. The latest one, exposed by the attack on Sanatan Dharma, may be a case of one too many. But is there anyone in the INDIA bloc that is alive to the contradictions? Most in the grouping appear convinced of the robustness of their message. They genuinely believe that they are at the threshold of welcoming “1977” once again.
Indeed, the epochal 1977 verdict saw the humbling of the imperious Indira Gandhi who suspended the Constitution by declaring Emergency, thinking she alone knew what was best for the country. And who could blame her, after all, a sycophantic coterie never tired of reminding her that “Indira is India and India is Indira”.
The people were clearly not impressed. They voted in the Janata alliance immediately after Indira Gandhi lifted the smothering Emergency. The scale of Gandhi’s defeat proved that people don’t need to be convinced or courted when the facts are obvious.
What’s more, the INDIA grouping seems to forget that, back in 1977, the Opposition’s star campaigner was a socialist political ascetic called Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) who could summon vast reserves of moral authority. His renunciation of the poisoned chalice of politics led many to brand him Gandhian. However, unlike today’s unyielding INDIA bloc, even the “total revolutionary” in JP had the awareness to tweak his politics to better represent deeper issues.
Political historians will tell you that, in his lifetime, JP had metamorphosed into many different things as and when the situation demanded. That JP had “been, one time or the other, an ardent nationalist and an admirer of an idealist like Gandhi; a Marxist who was a critic of the Soviet state; a non-Marxist socialist who had a detailed agenda for reforming the country; a democrat who had lost all faith in political parties; an active supporter of Sarvodaya and Bhoodan movement.”
The context is important because it contrasts JP’s political dexterity with INDIA’S ideologically catatonic leadership. The INDIA bloc can no longer hide that their shared Modi-hate is the only reason they’re together.
If they truly want democracy to thrive, they must pivot the alliance to champion more public-centric causes. Who in an election year, after all, wants to be accused by voters of changing their principles for the sake of their party?
Rahul Shivshankar is Consulting Editor at Network18. He tweets at @RShivshankar.
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