‘BJP is in Panic Mode After Formation of INDIA Alliance’

Ajith Pillai, a veteran journalist and writer, says Opposition has played a masterstroke by calling 2024 election as an INDIA Vs Modi contest and a battle for democracy. His views:

By any yardstick, the coming together of 26 political parties earlier to form a united Opposition front against the ruling BJP-led NDA is a significant development. The move has literally rewritten the political script for the 2024 general elections. It will no longer be a fragmented or loosely held clutch of political parties which will challenge the BJP, but a closely knit alliance committed to “safeguarding democracy and the guiding principles of social justice and equality spelt out in the Constitution”.

While such proclamations can be dismissed as meaningless rhetoric by critics, the coming together of the Opposition and the imminent threat it poses has not been lost on the BJP. So, what was until recently billed as a one-sided ‘Modi vs the Rest’ contest, suddenly had to be rephrased as a ‘War between Alliances’. The saffron party, which had not paid much heed to its allies till then, went into an overdrive to rally them together. More importantly, it set off on a desperate hunt for new friends.

Even non-descript regional parties were persuaded to jump on the NDA bandwagon. The wooing exercise, replete with promises, did not stop till the BJP could parade 39 allies before the nation. That was 13 more than the 26 in the Opposition camp and was promptly projected in sections of the media as a moral victory. But, was it?

The NDA looked more like a hurriedly cobbled ragtag army — an expression which BJP supporters often use to deride the Congress and its allies.

The BJP’s troubles did not end with securing more allies. The challenge posed by the Opposition alliance also came from an unexpected quarter — its name. The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, admittedly, is a mouthful to say or remember. In its abbreviated form it becomes I.N.D.I.A, or, simply, INDIA. Certainly, whoever came up with the name and acronym had packed a punch.

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The BJP immediately smelt danger because several Opposition leaders were quick to dub 2024 as an INDIA Vs Modi contest and a battle for democracy. That was the last thing that the ruling dispensation wanted since it sent out an implicit message that Modi was fighting India. Even pitching the fight as one which pitted the NDA against I.N.D.I.A did not have a positive ring to it.

Hence, it was decided to rubbish I.N.D.I.A. It soon dithered into a ludicrous effort trying to claim that India is not India but Bharat. In a clear case of cutting the nose to spite the face, the BJP’s troll army and establishment-friendly members of the commentariat tried to run down India as a name given by foreigners. Later, the argument was recalibrated by none other than the prime minister who stated that by calling itself India, the Opposition has not earned any glory or deceived anyone. Even the much-reviled East India Company or the Indian Mujahideen has India in its name!

The very fact that Modi entered the argument reveals that he is deeply concerned. Surely, there are other signals that are equally worrying for the BJP.

Communal violence nationwide, including in Manipur, unemployment and rising prices are issues that the Opposition will surely focus on. It knows that despite the rosy data dished out by government agencies and the IMF, the rising prices of essentials is a reality that the ordinary citizen faces with no relief. It is also beginning to sink in that corporate sops and loan write-offs (Rs 15.31 lakh crores in the last ten years), deplete the national exchequer and is recovered through higher GST and other indirect levies. These inflate prices and keeps fuel costs high even when crude prices have crashed. Remember, the poor contribute more to indirect taxes than the minority rich. ‘We the taxpayers’ are not the suited-booted gentry portrayed on prime-time, but the humble citizen.

Till now, the BJP has banked on promoting religious and cultural insecurity among Hindus to hide its inequitable economic policies which robs the poor and subsidises the rich. It also masked rising unemployment through the clever use of data and by keeping the communal cauldron boiling. Hindus are in danger, Bharatiya culture is being extinguished — this has been the ritualistic war cry. It remains to be seen if this formula will succeed again.

As for the Opposition alliance, it must hold together, forget past differences, and ignore the provocations from a powerful section of the media which has sold its soul to the establishment.

(The narrator has been a journalist for over 35 years, and reported out of Bombay, Chennai, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Kashmir on a wide range of events related to politics, conflict, crime and social change for leading media publications. He has authored two books: Off the Record – Untold Stories from a Reporter’s Diary and a novel, Junkland Journeys)

As told to Amit Sengupta