India reckons Narendra Modi
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 17 , 2014 -

BJP Party's Prime Ministerial candidate and Gujarat CM Narendra Modi arrives at Imphal on 08 Feb 2014 :: Pix - Deepak Oinam

The rout is complete.

NaMo wave has decimated the country's oldest political party.

Apart from decimating its main rival, the NaMo juggernaut did not spare many formidable regional parties too.

The saffron party has scored an epoch making victory riding on NaMo wave.

BJP's performance is simply awesome.

It made a clean sweep in many big States such as Gujarat and Rajasthan.

As the poll results demonstrate, NaMo wave indeed swayed Assam otherwise how could one explain BJP's victory in nine seats as against two seats won by the ruling Congress.

While BJP's record-breaking victory can be attributed to Narendra Modi's new found popularity, fame, fortune and charisma, it would be too harsh to blame Rahul Gandhi for the Congress party's crippling defeat.

The verdict is indeed pro-Modi but is it anti-Rahul? Pro-Modi cannot be simply equated with anti-Rahul.

Many other factors certainly have had their hands in toppling the UPA Government.

Anti-incumbency, projection of a green horn like Rahul Gandhi as Congress party's prime ministerial candidate and of course all the scandals, scams and corruption charges which implicated Congress Ministers and MPs had a cumulative effect on the credibility of Congress and this cumulative effect is reflected most glaringly on the poll verdict.

Congress leaders, particularly senior leaders have none to blame but themselves for the crushing defeat.

More and more people are disenchanted with the vice-like grip the Gandhi family has on the country's oldest political party.

It is surprising that not a single Congress leader ever dared to raise a banner of revolt against the Gandhi family's dynastic control over AICC.

Since the Nehruvian era, Gandhi family has been controlling AICC like their own fiefdom.

There is no democratic element within AICC. It was Jawaharlal Nehru, then Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and now Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi who controlled and is controlling AICC. AICC, so far, is strictly a Gandhian affair.

AICC had produced many leaders who ruled the country but none of them was capable of leading AICC.

When a Congress man is the country's Prime Minister and AICC is controlled by a Gandhi, the same Gandhi is literally ruling the country.

It appears there is no room for outsiders for the AICC's top post. This is a tragedy for Congress.

On many occasions, many capable Congress leaders were subdued and sidelined to make room for one or another Gandhi scion even though the Gandhi scion had no political acumen.

The situation demands serious introspection. For Congress party to rise again, AICC needs decentralization and democratization. Another way of reading the poll verdict is, it is pro-Modi and anti-Gandhi, not particularly against Rahul Gandhi.

Switching on to the BJP camp, the NaMo wave has heralded a new era in the electoral history of India.

It has somehow transformed the country's electoral system into a virtual bi-party system.

With due acknowledgement of the spectacular performances of AIADMK in Tamil Nadu and TMC in West Bengal, and a few other parties in some States, BJP by winning more than half of the Lok Sabha seats, can comfortably form the Government on its own without support of any other party.

Nonetheless, senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj stated that the party would go together with its allies.

BJP's unexpected but astounding success in North East, more precisely in Assam merits thorough analysis given the fact that the North East is generally considered a tribal region while BJP's political ideology is understood to be Hindutva.

This is rather interesting in view of the raging issue of large scale influx of Bangladeshis which has even fuelled communal clashes in different parts of the State.

Remember, what Narendra Modi said during his election campaign in the North East. "Illegal Bangladeshi immigrants should be sent back", were his exact words.

As the poll results indicate, this single sentence hit the right chord with the voters of Assam threatened by incessant influx from the neighbouring country.