NEW METHAPHOR
   Date :04-May-2021

NEW METHAPHOR_1 &nbs
 
 
THOUGH the outward picture looks more or less the same, a new political metaphor is making its presence felt at subterranean levels -- which can be sensed from the way five States voted in the legislative elections. On the surface, most States behaved in a traditional manner, but all indicated that new equations and new alignments can be sensed in the distance. There may not exactly be an anti-incumbency wave sweeping the country as the voters opted for continuation of Bharatiya Janata Party in Assam, Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the Left Front in Kerala. Even in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, the lateral shift took place on traditional lines, which did not speak exactly of an anti-incumbency sentiment. Despite this, the nation can sense a slow but invariable change deep below the surface, thanks to the strong narrative the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is promoting in the country for the past some time. Until the current moment, that narrative might not have been able to influence the element of regionalism in different parts of the country.
 
Nevertheless, it is asking questions about the credibility of regional leaders’ approach to politics of power. In the recent elections, most regional leaders were seen re-adjusting their electoral narrative in response to the strong centralist ethos the Bharatiya Janata Party is promoting. No matter the actual outcome of the current legislative elections, the nation did sense that it was the BJP that was actually goading the national discourse in the direction it desired. Thanks to that irresistible ideological draught, most regional outfits could be seen re-adjusting their respective narratives to take a better control of the electoral response of the people in their areas of influence. This is the new metaphor of the emerging political scene in the country.
 
Of course, the details of the story of how the BJP failed to rise to the top in West Bengal and how the Trinamool Congress could hold on to its bastion like never before are interesting. But more interesting is the reality that Didi Mamata Banerjee had to keep shifting gears continually during the campaign to counter the BJP’s ideological thrust. It was that recalibration of priorities and practices that helped the TMC in the ultimate analysis, a process that the BJP’s think-tank could not assess accurately. On the surface, thus, the BJP’s narrative appears to have failed, but beneath the surface, a subtle shift indicated itself from the distance in terms of the way the people in power must think about issues such as a truly non-partisan governance and genuinely unbiased delivery of administrative benefits to all societal sections. There is little doubt that West Bengal will see a shift in its political culture from now on -- with the emergence of the BJP as a great force to affect public discourse.
 
Next door in Assam, a similar adaptation helped the BJP to retain its hold on power. It made subtle and intelligent changes in its narrative by handling issues such as Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens far more tactfully than ever, to counter successfully the Congress party’s campaign refrain. Having returned to power for a second consecutive term, the BJP will now tell itself not to take the public opinion ever for granted. There is no doubt that Assam will see a raised level of people-oriented governance in the next five years; its bosses would not be able to ignore the fact that despite it being an ever-weakening party, the Congress also has some strong points in its narrative that needs to be countered in thought and action. At the other end of the country in Kerala, even though the Left Democratic Front led by Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan made a comeback for the second term in a row, it was seen making serious but silent re-adjustment of its narrative to counter the BJP’s thrust. In spite of the fact that the Congress-led United Democratic Front has a strong presence in the State, it was BJP that was making all the right noises with its forceful ideological thrust.
 
Despite its own plus points, the UDF appeared to have been pushed to sidelines in the Kerala contest. There is little doubt that from now on, the Kerala politics will always have the BJP component marking its strong presence. The election rejected all the BJP candidates, including the legendary Metro-man Mr. E. Sreedharan, but the party’s vote share appears to have increased reasonably in the State, which was on the BJP’s agenda. Who can question the strong traditionally-driven electoral behaviour of Tamil Nadu voters? Yet, the current elections did demonstrate the power of the BJP’s narrative, in the sense the Dravida Munetra Kajagham (DMK) that returned to power after ten years also re-adjusted its political positions in the electoral battle. Again, the BJP may not have made much mark in Tamil Nadu all right, but there is little doubt that in the years to come, the party will become a critical factor in the political discourse there. Tamil Nadu politics will never be the same from now on. The Puducherry elections may not have been a big media draw, but their importance in the national scenario got enhanced naturally with the manner in which the BJP took care of the electoral battle there. Some motives were attributed to the unscheduled removal of Lt. Governor Ms. Kiran Bedi from Puducherry a little earlier, but all those allegations got forgotten quickly, thanks to the pro-BJP tilt the voters there showed.
 
The purpose here is not to talk about the BJP as a political outfit. The purpose here is to explain the new political metaphor making its presence felt no matter how subtly. When most other so-called national parties representing different ideological positions are shrinking and the regional satraps are finding themselves under pressure to re-adjust their respective narratives to counter a centralist party, the political arena will see emergence of a force that cannot be ignored. In the past seven years since the emergence of Mr. Narendra Modi as Prime Minister, India realised the importance of a truly strong central leadership. No matter what they do or say, most other political parties are obviously clueless about how to counter the BJP’s juggernaut. The reason is not impossible to comprehend. What the BJP represents as a political party may have an ideological tinge all right. But, the core of that ideology is to be identified in the overall socio-cultural ethos of the country supported by thousands of years of a historical perspective unique to India. In the years to come, this will be the implied simile of India’s domestic political discourse -- which the current elections have endorsed again.