FULL MARKS TO INDIAN VOTER

We can say quite safely that the Indian voter is much wiser than our politicians, political analysts and media propagandists. For the last three days we have been bored to death with endless discussions, analyses and forecasts about the hung Parliament and how numbers would be made up by the major parties aspiring to be in power. What are all the demands, can we say rather blackmail, put up by smaller parties in return for their support was the subject matter of speculation in newspaper columns and television shows. It ranged from dismissal of governments to plum portfolios and from special status to disposal of CBI cases – whether the Congress will ditch DMK and go after AIADMK, whether SP’s demand for dismissal of Mayawati will be conceded or not, etc. All this while, the Indian voter must have been laughing within himself because he has already made up his mind to give a near clear mandate to a national party, whatever may be its deficiencies and initial blunders, while everyone was claiming that the era of national parties was over and that the regional parties have eaten up that political space. The Indian voter has proved that claim wrong and bogus.

Yet another resounding message or lesson was to our Commies. No longer the Left can bark, leave alone bite. The Indian electorate has shown them their place since they have been making noises disproportionate to their sphere of influence. They behaved with such arrogance as if they hold the veto power as to who can rule this country and who cannot. They said that they would not allow NDA to exploit the numbers even if it comes closer to working majority. Even as they were hobnobbing with a communal leader like Abdul Madani of PDP in Kerala, they were preaching “secularism” to others. Besides bad governance in Kerala, what with internal bickering in the cabinet becoming more and more frequent and hushing up of corruption cases, what must have put off the voters in Kerala is the Left’s hypocrisy when it comes to labelling others with “communal” or “secular” tags as it suited them. The drubbing the Left got should come as a great relief for the UPA government as it will no longer be expected to hold periodical joint meetings with the Left to monitor the implementation of the Common Minimum Programme nor will the Left be breathing down the neck of Dr Manmohan Singh. Now, Dr Singh will have unfettered freedom to pursue his economic reforms which were put on hold due to the Commis blackmail politics.

During the run up to the polls, the Congress was in jitters because the UPA was found to be in disarray. While its 2004 allies like RJD, LJP humiliated the Congress by offering 3 seats in Bihar, relationship with SP was not cosy either. NCP’s Sharad Pawar was nursing his own ambitions. In such a scenario, it looked as if the Congress was unwise to alienate its alliance partners. But fortunately for the Congress, both RJD and LJP withered away. But going by hindsight, it was not such a bad decision after all. Among the Congress’ estranged partners, it is only the SP which has done well in Uttar Pradesh.

It was said that the Muslims of UP were angry with SP for having embraced Kalyan Singh and one of the founders of SP, Azam Khan was making it such a big issue that it was widely believed that SP’s prospects may not be brighter. But the results are otherwise and the UP Muslims did not see a scarecrow in Kalyan. Does it mean something? What is surprising is that both the Congress and the BJP seem to be recovering their past glory and it was made possible not because of any great virtues on their part, but because of bad governance by Mayawati and her vindictive politics. Otherwise, how do we explain the victory of Varun Gandhi in Pilibhit which has high concentration of minorities and despite negative publicity against him by the media. But, attempts will be made to attribute the UP success to the crown prince Rahul Gandhi. If his strategy to go it alone in UP paid dividends, why did it fail in Bihar. That may be a trifle uncomfortable question for the Congress.

There is another myth that was exploded in this election. Whichever party is found to be closer to the BJP or NDA will lose minority votes. Nitish Kumar proved it wrong. Good governance overshadows every other perceived negative factor. Muslims of Bihar did not see Nitish’s association or the company he keeps, but they gave marks to his governance. That’s how we can explain JD(U) sweep of Bihar. Naveen Patnaik’s Orissa, Raman Singh’s Chattisgarh, Chauhan’s Madhya Pradesh, Sheila Dixit’s Delhi are other examples for the reward the good governance gets.

Let’s come to the basic question. What went wrong with the NDA? In fact, it had better cohesiveness when compared with UPA and there were not much of noticeable internal bickering unlike in the UPA. It will be oversimplification if we say that it was the “weak Prime Minister” campaign that did them in. As a matter of fact Dr Singh did not take it lying down and he returned the compliments with gusto which neutralised the original attack. No doubt, the 2009 poll campaign was an abusive campaign, but the blame has to be shared equally by both the formations. Another explanation is that except for JD(U), there were no major allies for the NDA and that is true for the UPA as well. Wherever there was NDA government, they had delivered like Karnataka, Gujarat, MP, Chattiasgarh, Himachal with the exception of Punjab and Uttarkhand. But that did not help.

However, what is remarkable is the verdict delivered by Andhra Pradesh voters. They gave a split verdict. They were quite clear as to who should rule at the Centre while expressing their displeasure at the state government at the same time. They administered a warning to the YSR government by defeating many ministers, APCC chief and the speaker of the outgoing Assembly and allowing YSR to get away by a hair’s breadth. Further, what vindicates the voters maturity is that they rebuffed Chandrababu’s offer of Cash transfer scheme, free television, etc and Chiranjeevi’s “Vandake vanta saraku” (Provisions for just one hundred rupees). This is a lesson for all politicians that they can no longer lure the voters with populist measures which can be no substitute for good governance.

Well, this election has made the job of the President much easier. She does not have to burn the midnight oil to take a Constitutionally correct decision unlike her predecessors. And we will have a Prime Minister who retained his job without much strain and by addressing a few press conferences in metros. The party and its chief took care of everything and he should be beholden to her as he was during the preceding tenure.