Recently, the elections to five state assemblies were held, and the results were announced. Many political pundits branded this as a Semi-Final to GE2024 as they did in 2018 when all these five states had their assembly elections. The striking outcome of the 2023 five-state elections is: that all the political parties that won this time have got absolute majority unlike in 2018 irrespective of their ideological affiliations. This means the voters have given clear and decisive mandates. Whether it is due to the voters’ fatigue in the ongoing ‘aya ram gaya ram’ politics in Maharashtra where the Assembly election was held in 2019 and in Bihar where the election was held in 2020 with hung assembly results, and in MP and Rajasthan where the election held in 2018 with above kind of results that need in-depth socio-political research to ascertain.
Apart from the four state election results discussed above, a glance at 16 state assemblies’ elections held in 2022 and 2023 including the recent five, it is found that out of the 16, 13 state assemblies’ election results have similar results of an absolute majority. And in the other three states with marginal implications to national politics such as Goa, Nagaland, and Meghalaya, the ruling-led parties have a higher number of elected representatives than earlier.
What could be the reasons for this new trend after nearly three decades of unstable governance in many states? After two decades of unstable central governance started in 1989, they chose a stable government of one party with an absolute majority in GE2014, the first non-grand old party and non-family-owned party since independence, which continued in GE2019 with increased vote share and number of MPs. Have the voters in the amritkaal become more mature, looking for stable governments in the states?
The other important aspect is in these five states, two national parties from two ideological poles and one less than one-decade-old regional party having no clear-cut ideological adherence formed by a retired policeman are elected. Does it mean that the voters are less concerned with so-called political parties’ ideologies and welfare schemes the parties have been competitively announcing now and then to differentiate each other? Is it that they focus on the performance of parties in power? The writing on the wall is crystal clear. Either read and understand the message or leave politics.
Introspection in the Press: On December 3 as soon as the assembly election trend was clear, this author read a very interesting tweet on the micro-blogging site X (formerly Twitter) of an eminent journalist Malini Parthasarathy, who had edited her clan-owned English newspaper ‘The Hindu’ years back. The paper is now highly critical of the BJP Government led by PM Narendra Modi on ideological grounds. Here is the tweet of Malini, “As @BJP4India storms to power in key states of the Hindi heartland defying predictions of defeat in Madhya Pradesh & Chhattisgarh, it is clear that the strong charisma of PM @narendramodi & the projection of a new political script oriented towards welfare & development has struck a deep chord with Indian voters. @INCIndia ran a campaign that was negative, alarmist, and mocking, leaving the voters with no real alternative. Time for us to wake up to the ground reality that aspirational India only wants development and growth! Empty slogans are fast becoming a thing of the past”. Malini’s tweet was in response to External Affair Minister Dr S. Jayshankar’s tweet message “desk ka varsha, Modi ki guarantee” tweeted minutes before.
Before discussing Malini’s observation of the Modi government, it is necessary to discuss The Hindu’s journalism since independence. In post-independent India, the journalism in ‘The Hindu’ can be segregated into two phases. Phase-I: the founder S. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar’s grandchildren phase. Phase II: Founder’s great-grandchildren phase. Phase I, I was less political and more focused on record journalism. And Phase-II, it is allegedly more into politics which has a direct negative impact on the paper’s brand image as often discussed in media circles nowadays. Malini belongs to the latter phase. Apart from the above, it is better not to discuss the professionalism being practised in the newspapers owned by families in the 21st century. Given the above, Malini’s comment with the choice of verbatims carries a lot of significance. She deliberately has not pointed out anything related to her family paper’s fondness to accuse the Modi government of its so-called majoritarianism. She appreciated Modi’s welfare and development politics and flatly rejected the Congress party’s negative, alarmist, and mocking politics. Terrible change, indeed!
Divisive politics: On December 3 afternoon after the result trend was almost clear, there was a tweet and I quote “The South-North boundary getting thicker and clearer!” along with a picture captioned “South Vs North” from Praveen Chakravarty, the Congress Party owner Rahul Gandhi appointed Chairman of party’s Data Analytic department. Within minutes of this tweet, there was a backlash with comments in support and against the tweet. Good that within a minute, Praveen’s tweet was found missing in the micro-blogging site. Yes, the tweet was deleted. But I doubt the divisive mindset that is responsible for the dreaded Punjab crisis squarely responsible for the assassination of Congress’s present owner’s grandma and the massacre of more than 3000 innocent Sikhs among many others.
Congress spokesman seems a sane mind here, Tehseen Poonawalla warned that indulging in the north-south-divide argument would backfire. “Warning: The North-South divide will BACKFIRE! Don’t indulge in it & and reduce the legacy of the Congress, the first Nationalist & and the oldest political party of this great nation! Just like people did not like the abuse of Sanatan DHARMA they won’t tolerate the NORTH SOUTH divide!” Poonawalla tweeted.
C. R. Kesavan, the newly joined BJP leader, and a former Congress spokesman, tweeted, “The Dynastic Congress party’s agenda to divide Bharat on caste lines and uproot #SanatanaDharma, has been outrightly rejected by our people. Now their toxic plan is to attack Bharat with the North-South divide. In 2024, the Congress will be consigned to the dustbin of history.”
Here the big question is: Will Indian Democracy be deprived of a strong opposition having an Indian presence, which looks certain?
Odisha CM and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik PM Modi’s shield against latter’s political fight with opposition: On December 4, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik over the phone congratulated PM Modi for his party’s emphatic win in just concluded Assembly elections. Rare in the present political environment in India! This has been big news and is being discussed in political circles in Odisha and opposition camps under the I.N.D.I.A. banner. In February 2022, PM Modi praised Naveen Patnaik in Parliament and advised the opposition to learn ‘cooperative federalism’ from the regional party supremo on the day and exact time when BJP Odisha had organized a road blockade and demonstrated in front of Naveen Niwas on the issue of alleged deteriorating law-and-order situation in the state. This is not all. Post-Karnataka Assembly election in which BJP had to face a huge electoral setback earlier this year, Naveen Patnaik, who broke the one-decade-long alliance with BJP just before the GE2009 and since then contesting state election without any alliance and won three assembly elections with 3/4 majority, in front of PM while jointly flagged (through video conference) Vande Bharat Express, announced that ‘PM Modi will inaugurate Sri Jagannath International Airport in Puri in three to four year time’ though GE2024 was more than one year away then.