Bitter win, sweet defeat
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: May 19, 2014 -

With the dust kicked up by the staggering 16th Lok Sabha elections finally settled with declaration of the mandate given by the people, introspection and, obviously, retrospection are the two words that are doing the round these days, especially among the political parties and their leaders who have bitten the dust at the hustings.

As for the winning parties, of course, there is no time for looking back or inward at the moment, all that they need to do now is to look ahead and move forward for the formation of the next Government or consolidate the position even firmer by forging new allies.

Accepting defeat as well as the decision given by the voting public, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has already made it clear that the party would do a deep retrospection so as to rectify the mistakes made in the election this time and Chief Ministers like Tarun Gogoi of Assam and Nitish Kumar of Bihar have taken the responsibility squarely on their shoulders for the rout of their respective parties, namely Congress and JD (U), in their own home turf.

While Tarun has offered to resign from the post of Chief Minister for the drubbing of Congress in the hands of BJP in Assam, Nitish has gone a step further by actually putting in his resignation letter so that he could take some time off for indulging in the game of introspection and retrospection. which is passing through the classic case of ‘Bitter win and sweet defeat’.

Talking of introspection and retrospection in the political context of Manipur, which is passing through a classic situation of ‘Bitter win and sweet defeat’, we feel that more than the Congress, which is in a state of nervousness in spite of its electoral success in retaining both the Lok Sabha seats in the State even though party shows its worst ever performance in the National election this time; it is the BJP, which is basking under the unprecedented success of its party leaders in the 16th Lok Sabha election in other parts of the country despite its poor showing in the State, that needs to do even more deeper introspection and retrospection.

An upbeat State Unit BJP president Th Chaoba may have rushed to Delhi to take part in the oath-taking ceremony of party leader Narendra Modi as the next Prime Minister of the country with the promise of taking up major key issues of the State with the party’s National leaders for prompt action, it was very funny and at the same time very shameful for the party leaders in the State who could not capitalise on the Modi wave or magic which swept across the entire length and breadth of the country in the election this time.

While the Modi wave and magic that was witnessed in other parts of the country this time was something totally different, party leaders in the State, particularly the contesting candidates, could not even project themselves as better alternative to anyone in the electoral fray, and hence voted out.