KS Muralidharan
When is the worth of a tree known? Only when you are out in the blazing sun. When is a journalist’s ability to spot an electoral trend known? Only after the election results are out.
Getting it wrong is no sin or shame. But it is glaring, if you are a pedigreed hack backed by four decades of experience.
Swaminathan S. Aiyar, a veteran columnist of Times of India, writing just a day before the exit polls, predicted a close shave for the BJP in UP. The results show it is only his prejudiced mind that is in need of a close shave, to shave off his hatred for Modi.
But even this blunder is passable. After all, he has a reputation for “hacking” what people actually think. But when he referred to being trampled by the surging crowds at Akhilesh Yadav’s rally, and the overweening and visible enthusiasm shown by the people, as against a listless, lackluster and unresponsive crowds at Modi’s rallies, his jaundiced eye popped out of his secular spectacle. He was back to his old liberal game of raising Cain, whipping up red herrings, and having one last crack at the wistful pleasure of seeing Modi defeated.
With forty years of experience, if you can’t even spot a trend right, it’s time for this moribund relic to march into oblivion.
But like politicians, the liberals don’t have a sell-by date.
A few other secular stalwarts like NDTV’s Ravish Kumar said, “Despite price rise, no jobs, Covid deaths, and inflation, the BJP led in 4 out of 5 states”.
Well, even the government-leaning channels like Republic, Zee News and Times Now, said exactly the same.
The difference was in the emoji that accompanied the statement. Ravish Kumar said it with tears, while the former said it with cheer. The meaning is clear.
Yogendra Yadav, the self-appointed pontiff of the liberal ecosystem, compared the BJP’s 4–1 victory to a dismantling of the Republic by the people. So, millions of voters exercise their franchise to defeat democracy? That’s oxymoron to the power of oxymoron!
In essence, all these worthies proved that hatred for Modi, will, rather than decreasing, only increase if people voted for Modi again and again and again. The more Modi becomes popular, the more India’s constitution and democracy is in danger! No point trying to make sense or see any logic in it. It’s like asking questions that are answers in themselves, like asking, have you stopped hating Modi?
The decline of the Congress surprises no one, but its response to the results — winning 2 out of nearly 400 in UP, gifting Punjab to AAP, snatching defeat from victory in Goa and Uttarakhand — tells you why it will continue its southward march. The party spokesman looks you in the eye on TV with zero remorse and says “it is neither a loss nor a win”!
And in Karnataka, a former Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, insists such a traumatic loss will have no bearing in Karnataka, and to make it more absurd brags that the Congress will throw out the ruling BJP in the forthcoming elections in 2023!
With such an attitude towards the voter, the only surprise is that they are still able to win an odd seat or state. Their classic wag-the-dog tantrums and dog whistles to their liberal supporters to distract the people from real issues may at best impress a few secular satraps like Rajdeep Sardesai and Saba Naqvi, and the upper circuit liberals in the international media, but not the last man in the last mile voter. Or, for that matter, voters, numbering a little less than a billion.
Now the secular media’s new next hope is Arvind Kejriwal, after the conquest of Punjab, who is already being pumped up as the national alternative to Modi.
The irony is, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is nothing other than the new-age Congress, with a twist. Like the Gandhis, Kejriwal singularly believes in privileging conflict over cooperation. Like Rahul & Priyanka, Kejriwal too plays the game of fake secularism, viz. temple runs before elections and appeasing the Muslims. He too talks of inane things like love wins all. And like the GOP, his model of governance is built on freebies. The only difference is that while the Gandhis have become a liability for their party, Kejriwal is the vote-winning Gandhi of AAP. While Sonia is an alien Indian, and Rahul & Priyanka, a pair of electoral ducks, Kejriwal is young, disruptive and from outside the conventional political system, which is a novelty at least till it wears off.
That’s perhaps why AAP is eying states where it can cannibalize the Congress votes, like it did in Punjab.
2024 will see the opposition and its secular surrogates in the media, as usual playing all sorts of games against Modi and the BJP. And Kejriwal, the acknowledged master disrupter, is already over-playing his hand by positioning himself as the national alternative to Modi. But beating the system is not always romantic. The BJP is a ruthless electoral machine with a well-oiled system purred to perfection, that doesn’t run only during polls. And Modi’ is now beyond merely battling his opponents; he is chasing his destiny.
The moot question is: Is India destined for a better hope for tomorrow or for greys of gloom and greed, glued together left, right and center?
A billion Indians know the answer but expect the gang of liberal veterans to keep looking for false straws in the wind.