Hindu Vivek Kendra
A RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE PROMOTION OF HINDUTVA
   
 
 
«« Back
 

How Operation Bihar undercut the foundations of the anti-BJP alliance

Author: Swapan Dasgupta
Publication: The Times of India
Date: July 30, 2017
URL:   http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/right-and-wrong/how-operation-bihar-undercut-the-foundations-of-the-anti-bjp-alliance/

There was a time in the 1990s when the BJP leadership despaired of its own lack of a killer instinct in mounting political coups. No longer. Last week in Patna, the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duo displayed an operational finesse that left both its friends and detractors awestruck. It took barely 36 hours for one of the biggest political U-turns to be taken to its successful conclusion. Operation Bihar was the political equivalent of Hitler’s 1940 Blitzkrieg and Israel’s success in the Six-Day War in 1967.

Modi’s ability to spring surprises has now acquired legendary status — the demonetisation exercise last November being a notable example. Yet, while noting the dejection and demoralisation in the anti-BJP camp after the Bihar coup and speculation over its impact on the 2019 general election, it is important to understand the quantum of devastation.

West Bengal is a good case study. On July 21, just five days before Nitish Kumar announced both his resignation and staked a claim to form another government, chief minister Mamata Banerjee had told her massed supporters in Kolkata that a “goonda” was ruling in Delhi and that she would use the next fortnight to kick the BJP out of West Bengal. Since the Basirhat communal flare-up earlier this month, the Trinamool Congress had ensured a political climate in the state that was intolerable for the BJP. Apart from being dubbed communal monsters in the Bangla media, it was made out that the saffron party was inimical to everything Bengali culture stood for, including fish and Rabindranath Tagore. Moreover, Mamata suggested that her resistance to Modi was part of the larger pan-India anti-BJP consolidation in which the likes of Sonia Gandhi, Nitish Kumar, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Yadav and even the CPM leadership were involved. The chief minister had herself taken the lead in ensuring a common candidate for the election of Vice President of India.

Politics, like many other activities, often operates in an echo chamber. Consequently, the devotees of Mamata can be forgiven for believing that India was veering towards a momentous political change that would see the ouster of a deeply unpopular Modi government by 2019 and the formation of a secular, grand alliance.

To these partisans, as well as others who are inclined to swim with the tide, the abrupt collapse of the Bihar mahagathbandhan that had decimated the BJP in 2015 was a shock. The shock was even more intense because Nitish Kumar chose to ally with the BJP rather than effect a compromise with Lalu Yadav. The question that arose from these twists and turns in Bihar was awkward. If the BJP was indeed as unpopular as Mamata had suggested, and the Modi government was approaching the end of its natural life, why did a consummate politician such as Nitish Kumar choose to ally with it?

Dubbing the Bihar chief minister a crass opportunist was an insufficient explanation. If, as Mamata was fond of saying, all opposition politicians were being confronted with flimsy and manufactured charges of corruption, why did Nitish choose to rock the boat by making a big deal of the charges against Tejashwi Yadav? The behaviour of a man who didn’t hesitate to break a stable alliance with the BJP in 2013 on the ground of Modi’s dodgy secular credentials didn’t quite add up in the context of Mamata’s narrative.

The questions from the Bihar drama have disoriented the opposition. It is one thing to confront an electoral setback such as the Uttar Pradesh assembly outcome or even the NDA’s resounding win in the presidential election. Nitish Kumar’s reconciliation with Modi has undercut the foundations of the anti-BJP alliance. Apart from demonstrating that the political use of secularism is eminently negotiable, it has shown that the basis of opposition unity is neither ideological nor programmatic but based on a touching faith in simple electoral arithmetic. Most important, the Bihar episode was a pointer that anti-BJP politics also rests on the happy indulgence of political corruption and family rule — facets of Indian democracy that are difficult to defend and yet claim the moral high ground.

It is facile to claim that the developments in Bihar have settled the outcome of the 2019 general election. Two years is a long time in politics. However, what Modi and Nitish have together done is to destroy the moral foundations on which the visceral hatred of the BJP was based. For the moment, the Prime Minister has won the political argument. The opposition will have to construct a different narrative in the next two years.
 
«« Back
 
 
 
  Search Articles
 
  Special Annoucements