Opinion View from the left: BJP myth

Claiming that the people’s discontent with the Congress-led UPA government’s policies was “successfully exploited by the BJP to gain this electoral victory”, the CPM’s People’s Democracy says that the BJP mounted an “effective campaign”, combining it with the party’s strategy of “polarisation”.

“The successful projection of its prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, was forged through a combination of Hindutva agenda and the promises of ‘development’ and ‘good governance’,” an editorial says, adding that the party succeeded in building a “myth of the Gujarat development model which can be replicated all over India if only Narendra Modi became the prime minister.”

Comparing the Congress campaign with that of the BJP, People’s Democracy says the former was “utterly ineffective and unable to take on this challenge of myth-building… Further, the Congress leadership failed to enthuse its own cadre and following in even communicating to the people the extension of constitutional rights — right to education, the right to information… the right to rural employment, etc — however halting and inadequate they may have been,” the editorial says.

Emphasising the display of “money power” that has been “unprecedented” in this election, the editorial claims the “use of terror and intimidation as weapons of political mobilisation were in full display in states like West Bengal.”

“The myths leading up to the BJP victory are bound to explode sooner than later. This throws up the challenges for the future. We are on the morrow of the payback time to those who financed this election campaign. This can only mean further impositions of burdens on the people, forget providing them any relief,” it concludes.

COMMUNAL POLES

The CPI’s New Age, in its editorial written before the verdict, says the BJP went back to its “communal agenda” once the “hollowness” of its campaign based on “good governance” and development in Gujarat was “exposed”. It claims the “danger to the secular polity has not to be judged just from the action of the Modi dispensation, if at all it materialises, but also has to be viewed from the actions and movements that the emboldened RSS outfits will launch.”

Talking about the riots in Meerut and the communal clashes in Hyderabad, the editorial says, “The two incidents clearly point to the fact whether Modi government becomes a reality or not, the country has to be ready for a more vicious offensive by the communal outfits… The Sangh Parivar that has staked everything on Modi [and] will use the opportunity to re-establish its dominance on its political wing and take every step to further polarise the country…”

VERDICT’S SURPRISE

Emphasising that the surprise element in the verdict was the “kind of majority the NDA has secured”, the CPI(ML)’s ML Update says it was “clear that in large parts of the country the BJP was destined to be the most dominant beneficiary” of the anger against the policies of the Congress-led UPA government and the “consequent desire for change”. The editorial says Narendra Modi winning on the promise of being a “harbinger of better days”, 10 years after the BJP-led NDA was voted out of power despite claiming Indians were “feeling good” is ironic, which “tells us about the immediate situation and the developing context as well as the peculiarities of the Indian electoral system.”

“The BJP victory has also benefited immensely from the inherent imbalance of the first-past-the-post system,” it says, calling for a reform of the electoral system to introduce aspects of proportional representation.

Compiled by Ruhi Tewari