TThe Karnataka result, an emphatic rejection of the Modi brand of politics

 

The Karnataka result, an emphatic rejection of the Modi brand of politics

The Congress Party received a historical mandate in the just concluded Karnataka Assembly election, winning 136 seats out of 224, as against 78 in 2018, with vote share increasing to 43% from 38%, thus registering the largest seat and vote share since 1989. In contrast, the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) vote share dipped from 36.4% to 36% over all, though it received massive drubbing in terms of vote share in five of six regions, with the seat share crashing to 65 from 104 in 2018. The Speaker and 14 Ministers of the Bommai government were defeated.

 

What explains the crushing defeat for the BJP and massive victory for the Congress?

 

First, the ‘Modi magic’ failed to resonate with the people. Prime Minister Modi wrapped up a high-decibel campaign, addressing 19 rallies and holding six roadshows. The BJP held a total of 3,116 rallies across the state since the election was notified. Its leaders made 311 visits to temples and mutts; held 9,125 public meetings, 1,377 roadshows and 9,077 street corner meetings (TOI 9/5/23).  While Modi was the campaigner-in-chief, some 128-party leaders, including 15 Union ministers, hit the campaign trail in Karnataka, turning it into a high-pitched electoral battle. All this came a cropper.   

 

Second, a disgraceful and undignified campaign by Modi and the BJP against the political rival. One can understand political rhetoric during the election rallies, but not hitting below the belt and resorting to innuendoes and false accusations. A BJP legislator called Sonia Gandhi ‘Vish Kanya’ who ruined India, and an agent of China and Pakistan. And no less than the Prime Minister, who distorted her speech at a rally and accused her of conspiring to separate Karnataka from India. He said the ‘Congress Shahi Parivar wants Karnataka to secede from India’ (IE 8/5). Taking the clue from him, the BJP even sought cancellation of the Congress registration as a party and urged the Election Commission to file an FIR against Sonia Gandhi and the election commission promptly seeking her explanation within 24 hours, while it ignored the numerous complaints lodged by the Congress against Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, J.P. Nadda and Yogi Adityanath for their hate speeches.  While the BJP was clutching at straws for want of a narrative, the election commission played a partisan role and failed to enforce the Model Code of Conduct and ensure a level playing field. The BJP’s communal agenda  consolidated the Muslims beyond the Congress.

 

Third, taking the people being fooled as granted by invoking sectarian politics and religious bigotry. As the Congress proposed in its manifesto to ban the Hindu militant outfit Bajrang Dali, Modi deliberately chose to give it a religious color by equating Bajrang Dal with the Hindu popular deity Lord Hanuman- known as Bajrang Bali- and accused the Congress of insulting Bajrang Bali and all his Hindu Bhakts across the country.  He asked the people to chant the slogan ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’, while walking into the polling stations on the polling day and vote against the Congress.  

 

Modi also invoked the names of Lord Shiv and Ram to play with the emotions and sentiments of Hindus. And the election commission did nothing to stop the vitriolic venomous communal campaign. Modi and BJP have been using religion to polarize the people, taking for granted that people are foolish enough to endorse what they say and do, while side-stepping the real issues of bread and butter that matter. It was shortsightedness to assume that people need the opium of religion, more than anything else, to win election. But the people of Karnataka have rejected the politics of hatred and violence and communal divide. 

Fourth, the Congress overcame all odds. It is remarkable that the Congress rank and file united and took on the communal agenda of BJP head-on.  Rahul Gandhi’s 22 days Padayatra   in Karnataka last year in seven districts, covering 51 constituencies had impacted the electoral outcome, the Congress winning 37 of 51 seas with a striking rate of 75%.  The Yatra resurrected the party and enthused the workers. It united the party, revived the cadre and shaped the narrative for the Karnataka election. With the initial mobilization done, the final push came in the form of hectic campaigning led by Rahul and his sister Priyanka, Party President Mallikarjun Karge, Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar. All of them worked in tandem and coordinated their campaigns and election rallies.

 

Together, Rahul and Priyanka spent over 20 days campaigning in Karnataka, shouldering the responsibility of taking the aggressive no- holds barred campaign past the finishing line, with Rahul addressing 23 public programmes, while Priyanka led 22 campaign rallies.  Priyanka taking the centerstage with guts and gumption took on Narendra Modi, countering his false campaign that evaded to address the real issues of people- massive administrative corruption in the 40% Sarkara; massive joblessness and unemployment, inflation and unbearable price rise. And when Modi played a victim card accusing the Congress abusing him '91 times', Priyanya responded that these could be listed in one page, but if she has to make a list of the abuses and insults hurled at her family by Modi and the BJP, the list woud run into 'books after books after-books'. She attracted huge crowds wherever she addressed. The people saw in her the trait of her grandmother Indira Gandhi- ‘Indira Amma’.

 

It was during the Padayatra, from many conversations and interactions that Rahul Gandhi had, that the Congress came out with the five guarantees in its manifesto.  The five guarantees for every month are: 200 units of free power; Rs.2,000 for female head of a family; 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household; Rs.3,000/- for unemployed degree holders and Rs.1,500/-for diploma holders (for two years) and free ride for women in public buses. These promises have provided a great relief for the common people across the state and swung the votes in favour of the Congress. That is how the poor and marginalized, OBCs, SCs and STs voted overwhelmingly for the party.  

 

And finally, the BJP's communal politics to polarize Hindus during the past two years in Karnataka - attacks on churches and mosques, banning hijabs in schools, passing laws against religious conversation and transportation of cattle, ban on halal meat, boycotting Muslim shops and goods, the decision to scrap 4% reservation for Muslims under OBC category,its proposal in the manifesto to bring UCC and invoke NRC etc.- has backfired. The hard Hindutva and hyper nattionalism has failed to garner votes for the BJP. Education Minister B.C. Nagesh, who enforced the ban on hijab, was trounced in the election. The Hindutva poster-boy C.T. Ravi, the BJP's national secretary -known for statements like ‘Siddaramullah Khan’ and ‘economic jihad’ is also defeated.

 

As the Editorial in The Hindu (15/5) says, “The BJP has refused to be accountable for its track record in government and underestimated the intelligence of the voters by offering them communal opiates.” After its failed strategy in West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh and now in Karnataka, the party must see the writing on the wall. The Modi-Shah juggernaut got a severe thrashing. And Modi’s self-perpetuating aura of ‘invincibility’ is punctured.  Rahul Gandhi is right when he said: ‘Karnataka mein nafrat ka bazar band hua hai, mohabbat ki dukan khuli hai’- the market of hatred is closed, shops of love opened- and that this would be repeated in every state.

 

This is an emphatic rejection of the Modi brand of politics. It raises hope that the next year general election will replace the preset autocratic right-wing government by a constitutional democracy, governed by the rule of law. What people want is a good government that addresses their real problems and not a government that practices communal politics to capture power. It is evident from the Karnataka result that the subaltern sections- Dalits, tribals, poorer non-dominant backward castes-are not drawn to Hindutva ideology. The Congress registered landslide victory in Karnataka precisely on an anti-BJP consolidation of these sections based on a progressive socio-economic agenda.  According to an Axis My India survey, the Congress lead over the BJP among Dalit voters is 38%, among tribals is 11%, Kurubas 39% and Muslims 86%. 

Now what we see is ‘BJP mukt South India.’ The result in Karnataka will replicate in other states where elections are due this year and also in general election next year. The Congress inclusive vision and steadfast defence of secular ethos and communal harmony would ensure Karnakata emerging as a model of governance. The BJP is not a pan India party; it is in power in 15 states, out of 30 states and Union territories, by cobblig coalitions-ruling 45% of population. In MP and Maharashtra, it captured power by engineering defections. The BJP is ruling, on its strength, only in two major States- Gujarat and UP.  And in Assam,  it is in power by securing majority with the help of defectors from the Congress, including the Chief Minister Himant Biswa Sarma himself. The BJP is shaky and volunerable.