Brij Nath Betab
I am reminded of dialogue in a Hindi film ‘Ek machhar admi ko hijda bana deta hai’. (A mosquito turns a man into a eunuch). In the case of Delhi State assembly elections, the mosquito has been made out of a sentence of a BJP leader using words that cuff out hatred. If this was fair, then Aam Admi Party’s win is in no way unfair. I respect the verdict of the voters but what disturbs me is the narrative created to justify BJP’s debacle.
Credit will be given to Arvind Kejriwal for leaving no stone unturned to woo the voters. At the end of the hectic campaign, the “muffler man” of Delhi politics has now occupied the seat once belonging to Congress stalwart late Sheila Dixit. However, the new occupant’s image is quite different from that of his predecessor. Ever since Ana Hazare’s campaign against corruption, Kejriwal, then one of Anna’s standard-bearers, presented himself as one caring for the common man: he didn’t wear the hat of a leader. He did not behave as politically oriented. His stated dream was to speak for the common man suffering at the hands of the greedy and big-headed politicians. To create a niche for himself and his party, he adopted a low profile and behaved like a neighbour’s obedient son. As a bureaucrat, he knew the problems and as Chief Minister, he tried to find a solution.
One, who has lived in the National Capital Region (N C R), knows that Delhi’s population has rapidly increased in the last few decades. Understanding the needs of an increased population of the capital city and finding ways of how this could be done could be a key to the success of grabbing power in the Delhi Assembly election. The incumbent CM ably rose to the occasion. His predecessor, too, did know the tricks of the trade, and perhaps better, minus the freebies. The voters felt Kejriwal understood their problems and, therefore, returned him to power once more.
This is how things looked outwardly. However, scratch the bottom and you will find that all is not as simple as it is made to look. There is something more than what meets the eye.
The voting pattern in Delhi has nuances deliberately wrapped in the garb of freebies. I need not a testimony to vouch for my assertion. My personal experience forbids me to accept the stuff fed to us, viz. the simplistic pattern of voting.
Election Commission’s figures show AAP getting 53.57 percent and BJP 38.51 percent of the polled votes. Let us look at it carefully. We begin with Freebies. Assuming that AAP did perform in improving the civic amenities like water and power supply, education, healthcare and a free bus ride for women, but the voters had already voted for these perks in previous elections. These measures were already provided. In this context what baffles me and many others is the question of whether the voters of Delhi are so poor as to feel overjoyed on freebies and ignore the larger interests of the country and our democratic dispensation. If they are so poor and famished, then how come to the tax receipt by the government from NCTR is higher than the rest of the country barring Maharashtra, the economic capital of the county? Arvind Kejriwal himself admitted that people are paying more taxes. Mind you, the US trade representative has declared India as a Developed Nation now.
In AAP’s 2020 manifesto no promise for freebies was made. From a nationalist standpoint, BJP had a versioned and implementable Election Manifesto. The crucial question is whether the Indian voter should place a higher value on freebies than the larger and much more serious national interests. Nation-building presupposes sacrificing smaller and less consequential benefits for bigger and lasting objectives especially those involving the entire nation and not just a fragment of the Indian population.
BJP’s adversaries allege that on occasions some of its leaders used un-parliamentary language which cost it direly. Home Minister Shri Amit Shah publicly said that words likely to be misunderstood or misinterpreted had to be avoided. Anybody who kept the track of election campaign for Delhi Assembly will tell you that indiscreet use of language was not attributable to only BJP. Other party leaders did not lag behind and perhaps much more undesirable like “‘Ranga Billa'”, the criminal duo executed for the murder of two school-going kids in mid-seventies. Isn’t the comment like “danda marenge” a spiteful phrase revealing the lack of a culture of the speaker? Why do some sections of media condemn one pattern of speech but underplay the same pattern when adopted by a different politician?
Not to speak about the political acumen or skilfulness of this or that party in the fray of Delhi election, the question is if a hate speech was the cause of BJP’s rout, then was ‘Jinnah wali Azadi’ speech something to be welcomed? Why is it that Shaheen Bagh was not in the minds of voters? Or is it that Shaheen Bagh was in their mind and that is why they did not vote for BJP? Is a Delhi voter just non-sensitive and non-serious towards serious issues confronting the nation? Did Delhi voters care for nothing else but the free bus rides?
Delhi being the national capital houses top economic brains, policy planners and intellectual elite. Why no one raised a voice against freebies in an economic slowdown?
There was a time when slum-dwellers of Delhi had become a vote bank. Giving ration cards would fetch votes for the interested political parties. Today the population has more than doubled since those Ration Card days and so have the civic amenities. Delhi Metro has revolutionized people’s lives. Who is to receive the credit for these achievements? Who among the citizens of Delhi does not live a better life today? Official figures indicate that the per capita income in Delhi is the fastest, increasing year after year. It is the national capital. All the facilities of life are much cheaper than any other place in the country. Why this “All Free syndrome”. People raise questions. Is this eyewash for something else?
Who needs the freebies? Do India’s top businessmen need them or do central and state government employees residing in Delhi need them. The question is whether a change has taken place in the voter perception of governance or voter demographics of the national capital has changed? My instinct wants me to find out if a chain of symbolism underscores the contriving at Shaheen Bagh, JNU, Jamia Millia, Kerala, West Bengal and Chennai culminating in the rout of BJP in Delhi assembly election. Looked at from a broader perspective, some disquieting questions arise. Why establishing a national memorial for Pulwama martyrs are opposed? Why repeatedly questions are asked about the army’s calibre and capabilities? Why is proof of every security action demanded?
We notice that BJP has lost some elections after the abrogation of Article 370 and the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act. Delhi, the national capital could have sent a message to the world that India supports her Prime Minister’s far-reaching constitutional and administrative measures. Unfortunately, Delhi voters have failed the Indian nation, not Narendra Modi. Does not a voter living in the national Capital realize what is happening on our borders? Should the Delhi voters betray no qualms of conscience for the precious lives of Indian jawans who lay down their precious lives defending the territorial integrity of India in 15 degrees Celsius on the Himalayan precipice of Siachin? Why did not this voter deem it fit to strengthen the Government that had taken on the jihadist terrorists and is fighting it with its back to the wall while all countries in the West where jihadism has raised its head, the governments are trying to seek a compromise? Does not the voter of Delhi understand that what the Modi government is fighting is the ghazwa-e-Hind and not just a proxy war unleashed by our neighbour? And will India win this war by its Delhi citizenry voting for freebies and not readying itself for a showdown with an enemy that is seeking to parcel it out into fragments and then rule the roost?
There is another class of analysts who put forth the theory that for local issues people will vote for local candidates and for national issues they will vote for national leaders. This seems quaint logic. Does opposing a law passed by a majority vote in both houses of the Parliament strengthens the federal structure or does it weaken and derail it? Not implementing legislation passed by two houses of Parliament through a free vote tantamount to the abuse of the parliamentary system. If BJP keeps on losing state after state like this, they shall lose the moral ground to rule at the centre. In that scenario, a situation may arise where Parliament will have to be dissolved and fresh Lok Sabha election announced. I pray that is not the game plan of the opposition because it will be difficult to recover from the disaster brought to a democratic dispensation in this mosaic of cultures and identities called India. Delhi voters regale at having won the election for freebies but they are ignorant about what they have asked for in reality. We have yet to find any democratic society in the world that aspires to vote for a party that promises free water, power, and bus ride to the voters. World democratic societies aspire to be the masters of their destiny as proud and upright people and not as beggars of free water and power.
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