Now the BJP has become vulnerable and its leaders have further lost their credibility ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha election
Soroor Ahmed | Clarion India
THE November 19 public apology of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to farmers and his announcement that his government would be scrapping the three farm laws have once again confirmed that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, as an outfit, is suffering from severe fear psychosis. The manner in which the PM had buckled under the pressure of losing election in just one state, that is Uttar Pradesh, is baffling.
The big question is: Can a ruling party at the Centre not afford to lose election in one state if the three farm laws are so beneficial for the farmers of the entire country. A nationalist party like the BJP should at least be always ready for any such sacrifice for the cause of country. If not the BJP, whom should we expect for such a gesture.
There is no denying the fact that the BJP was never a big player in Punjab and is on sticky wicket in Uttarakhand. It is only in Uttar Pradesh that it is still in contest but at the same time apprehending repurcussion of the September 2020 new legislations.
Though the Prime Minister may have chosen the occasion of Guruparb apparently to reach out to the Sikh farmers, actually the main aim was to woo back their Hindu Jat counterparts in Uttar Pradesh. Ever since 2014 Lok Sabha poll they have been considered as a strong vote bank of the BJP, but have been on the warpath for the last one year.
Throughout this period the ruling BJP machinery, along with the friendly media, have been busy maligning the image of the agitating farmers. They were called terrorists, anti-nationals, traitors playing into the hands of the foreign masters, etc.
Journalists and anchors working overtime for the ruling establishment never wasted any time in highlighting the benefits of the three farm laws. The farmers were allowed to die in the bitter cold or under the scorching sun at the height of the second wave of corona virus when lakhs of people perished across India. Nobody was ever reminded about apologising to them.
Then suddenly on November 19 the PM took a big U-turn. No, this does not happened in response to the handful of pre-poll surveys as is being made out, but on the basis of the central government’s own feedback that the BJP is going to lose UP election.
Out of panic the Prime Minister tried to play smart, but the move, as of now, does not appear to be working. Without any thought the BJP top brass exposed its weakness and the PM lost much of aura. Modi may have tried to put up a brave face, but everyone understood that he has made this climbdown only when he is sure of losing UP. It is difficult to predict whether the BJP will actually lose Uttar Pradesh or not early next year, yet it is a fact that the party has certainly lost the battle of perception in this era of psychological warfare.
Had the saffron party stood on its stand and proved that the farm laws are good for the country, even at the cost of UP, it may have been easier to bounce back in 2024 Lok Sabha poll.
Now the party has become vulnerable and its leaders have further lost their credibility. The fact is that the BJP is highly over-rated party and the friendly media and vocal middle class have unnecessarily sketched the larger than life profile of the saffron outfit and the leaders. The actual fact is somewhat opposite. No ruling party at the Centre has lost so much Assembly polls in the last seven decades than the BJP in the last few years.
Barring its victories in Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand months after the 2014 Lok Sabha poll it has become very dificult for the party to win elections in states. Even in Gujarat in December 2017 it could win by a much narrower margin than in the past. The only exception was UP in 2017, where it could do well largely because of the election-eve feud between the then CM akhilesh Singh and his father Mulayam Singh Yadav of the ruling Samajwadi Party.
As the BJP’s track record in the state elections are so bad – the latest example is of West Bengal — that its leaders go-overboard in leading the campaign.
Their friends in mainstream and social media may try to project them as a great warriors well-versed in fighting election when the story may not be so. They bungled badly in Bengal early his year and have started showing nervousness this time too.
By his speech on November 19 the PM has landed his party’s war-machine in a fix. There was already confusion and contradictions in the party’s rank and file after the second wave of pandemic. Now the sudden volte face has lowered the morale of office-bearers and workers in UP.
After all for one full year they were asked to go on offensive against the farmers. Now none else but the PM is saying that it was a mistake on his part.
