For Modi, road to 2019 will be steeper
By Amulya Ganguli
For the Bharatiya Janata Party's supporters, the growing belief that the party is no longer as favorably placed as before must be both bewildering and disheartening.
They must be wondering what could have gone wrong when the BJP was looking forward to not only a comfortable victory in 2019 but was also planning to celebrate the 75th year of India's independence in 2022.
The talk of a "New India" under the BJP's near-permanent control was in the air with both Nitish Kumar and Omar Abdullah from two opposite sides of the political spectrum saying that Narendra Modi faced no challenge.
Yet, the scene has changed. What is more, it has happened so over a rather short period of time. Among the reasons for it may be the BJP's electoral setbacks in, first, the Chitrakoot assembly byelection in Madhya Pradesh in November last year, the near-defeat it faced in the Gujarat assembly polls in the following month and finally the huge margins by which it recently lost three by-elections in Rajasthan.
Before these contests, the successes of the Congress's student wing in the Delhi University and of a leftist union in the Jawaharlal Nehru University student union elections over the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the saffron brotherhood's student wing, were significant pointers to the emerging trends.
The new scenario has now led to conjectures about a fall in the BJP's number of Lok Sabha seats to 200/220 from the present 282 in a House of 545. Since these figures have been mentioned by a saffron scribe, it is obvious that assessments on these lines are currently on in the BJP. Another scribe has identified the absence of effective speakers other than Modi as one of the factors behind the BJP's slide in popularity.
Perhaps one of the first to say openly that the Modi magic was fading was a Shiv Sena spokesperson, who also noted the change in Rahul Gandhi's "body language" and his transformation into a credible leader. Not long after, the Sena decided not to align with the BJP in 2019.
The BJP's old ally is not the only party to begin thinking of greener pastures. The Telugu Desam Party, too, has expressed its displeasure over the "neglect" of Andhra Pradesh in the Union budget. To forestall a rupture, the BJP has offered the Shiv Sena 144 seats in Maharashtra in an assembly of 288 seats, but the generous gesture is more indicative of the BJP's nervousness than of magnanimity.
So, what went wrong for a party which was riding high during the first three years of its tenure?
First and foremost reason is its failure to usher in the promised "achhe din" or better days because of a sluggish economy. The scene might have been better but for the twin blows of demonetisation, which dealt a blow to small businesses, and the shambolic rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which also unsettled the traders and businessmen.
The second reason is the widespread rural distress which eroded the BJP's influence in Gujarat. As a party essentially of urban lower middle-class areas, the BJP's connection with the countryside has never been very strong. In its Jan Sangh days, the party once even forgot to adopt a resolution on agriculture till the lapse was noticed at the last minute.
Modi is now said to have sought the advice of farming experts to reach out to the cultivators. But the move is unlikely to pay immediate political dividends.
To compound the BJP's problems, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the Sangh Parivar's labour wing, has raised the red flag over the "disappointing" Union budget.
Another explanation for the BJP's woes is undoubtedly the inability to control the saffron goons, who have been running amok to impose their diktats on diet, inter-faith romance and film scripts, among other things.
The rampages of the cow vigilantes have hit the meat and leather industries and resulted in aging cows being let loose by their owners to roam the countryside and city streets to forage on their own. Hence the proposal to impose a fine on the "guilty" owners.
The result is the prevalence of an atmosphere of intolerance of the kind which made a section of the intelligentsia return the awards which they had once won in protest against the deteriorating state of affairs in the country.
Perhaps the BJP's only solace at the moment is that its opponents haven't been able to get their act together. Moreover, the fissures in their ranks are palpable with a rift in the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) over whether to align with the Congress in an anti-BJP front, and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) teaming up with the Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka on the eve of the assembly elections.
There are also said to be reservations among the senior opposition leaders about accepting Rahul Gandhi as the leader of an alliance.
Karnataka will be the next big electoral battle for the BJP. If it can dislodge the ruling Congress in the state, it will be able to brush aside the party's setbacks in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Otherwise, the road to 2019 will seem steeper.
(Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at amulyaganguli@gmail.com)
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Kejriwal responds to EC, says water received from Haryana 'extremely poisonous' for human health
New Delhi (PTI): AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday responded to the Election Commission notice over his claim the Haryana government was "mixing poison" in Yamuna, and said raw water received from the BJP-ruled state in the recent past has been "highly contaminated and extremely poisonous" for human health.
In the 14-page reply to the Election Commission, the former Delhi chief minister said if such "toxic water" is allowed to be consumed by human population it would lead to grave health hazard and fatality.
Kejriwal said he only wanted to highlight the "urgent public health crisis" due to the quality of drinking water in the city, and he violated no law or Model Code of Conduct, hence the issue should be closed.
He said the "alleged statements" attributed to him were made as it was his public duty to red flag the "severe toxicity and contamination" of raw water received from the BJP-ruled state.
Following a complaint filed by the BJP over the matter, the Election Commission issued the notice to Kejriwal on Tuesday, giving him time till Wednesday 8 pm to furnish his reply.
Kejriwal also said the ammonia level in raw water received from Haryana was so "extreme" that water treatment plants in Delhi are unable to process and bring it down to safe and permissible limits for human consumption.
Following their party chief's response, the AAP issued a statement, saying, "It is an undisputed fact that there is 7 ppm ammonia in Yamuna water, A Delhi Jal Board CEO letter admits toxicity is 700 percent higher than the permissible limit."
In his response to the EC, Kejriwal also alleged that Haryana's "failure" in controlling pollution in Yamuna has resulted in an "unprecedented public health crisis" in Delhi. He alleged "indiscriminate" discharge of industrial waste in the river by the state.
The AAP supremo said Haryana is an upper-riparian state and Delhi, ruled by his party, has no role to play in the high level of toxic water being made available to the city.
"Due to such high level of toxic content in the raw water supplied by Haryana, the water treatment plants in Delhi are operating below capacity and there is a shortage of treated water in Delhi," he claimed.
Saying that access to clean water is a basic human right, the AAP chief asserted that raising this critical issue cannot be considered an offence.
"The said statement by no stretch of the imagination can be termed inciting enmity between different groups or prejudicial to national integration," he said.
On the contrary, the substance and purpose of these statements are rooted solely in the public interest, aimed at highlighting a legitimate civic concern that requires urgent institutional intervention, he asserted.
He requested the EC to intervene in the matter and issue appropriate directions to Haryana so safe water is made available to the people of Delhi.
