BJP is now the world’s largest party with 18 Cr members as per their claims. I won’t be shocked if it rises to 20 or 25 Cr. How large is the number 18 Cr? The total amount of votes received by the Congress party in 2019 was 12 Cr. 18 Cr is 1.5 times that. This is just their active members, their vote share is all about double that ie more than 50% of India’s electorate. BJP now has come into power again, the only party to come back into power after the first term with a bigger mandate, and we discuss that how the past recent years has totally changed the landscape of Indian Politics into a singular dominance without much effort, just by showing Indian society its mirror. It didn’t take a much bigger effort than just to win few elections to change the landscape.
DICTATORSHIP
Dictatorship in classical terms means One man rule. He is pretty invincible because he has control over the entire system. These systems are kind of stable, unlike democracy where a govt loses overnight, etc. The most popular dictator we had ever was Hitler, then we had Mussolini the fascist dictator of Italy. After that we had Army Generals soon taking up power soon after WW2 like Ayub Khan in Pakistan, Kim in North Korea, Mao in China, Stalin in Russia, and even today Pakistan is a semi-democracy with more powers under General Bajwa, you have Bashar Al Asaad in Syria, Fateh Al Sisi in Egypt, Late Ali Abdul Saleh of Yemen, Ayatollah in Iran and Kim Jong Un of North Korea. You have also had dictators like Shah in Iran, Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and Libyan Muhammed Gaddafi.
Most of the dictators are secular contrary that they are religious fanatics. The big reason is that they want to save their seat so they won’t allow religious fanatics to overtake power. That is why Islamist groups fought against Saleh, Assad, and Gadaffi because all of them encouraged Secularism. But for sure, the system entirely discourages free speech and free press.
Today as we speak we also have states which will soon fall into dictatorship from a democracy like Turkey, Bangladesh, and Russia.
INDIAN POLITICS AND DICTATORSHIP- HISTORY
It is not a surprise that India never had dictatorship as per the classical definitions. But India was neither a democracy before Independence. So technically the entire world is new to a system called democracy. Most of the people still have confusion what is democracy. They reduce it to just conducting elections. That is why people try to win elections even if the country is not a democracy like how Syria, North Korea, and China conduct fake elections. Democracy stands for values like Liberalism where individual rights are given more preference than community rights or a system which allows you to go against your age-old traditions. You can’t be a conservative democratic supporter because there is no way conservatism allows democracy and freedom of opinion.
India saw its birth of democracy with Jawaharlal Nehru ruling for 17 years without even an opposition. The most relevant opposition then was CPI which later-on split. So, India just had nothing more than one party- system just when democracy was born. This continued even after Indira Gandhi was shot dead. Even she herself endorsed one-sided dictatorial slogans like India is Indira and Indira is India. Under her tenure, we had the emergency declared where opposition leaders were jailed. Only after Rajiv Gandhi entered the fray we have got some local parties and more parties opposing the government.
From then on the Congress party started to crumble, coalitions came up. The Congress lost many of its Stalwarts like Sharad Pawar, Mamata Banerjee, Chandrababu Naidu, and many big and small leaders. They floated their own parties which even today work like good political parties.
The democracy in terms was also between the terms say 1990 to 2014 where healthy politicals started to take place, ideology was given importance, we had a literal opposition, we had proper economic growth, and liberalism had its good times. Before that Indian System switched between both.
INDIAN SOCIETY AND AFFECTION TOWARDS DICTATORSHIP
Hard to imagine and hard to agree for many of you include me, because we belong to a liberal class, at least that we are open to different ideas. You say to a random Indian person, he will never agree with any liberal principles nor agree with Secularism or a caste free society.
Indian society is debited with caste and religion. Each person has his own identity which agrees with a similar personality. That is why the Hindu rastra itself is an acceptable concept even in the 21st century or no-one literally wants to clean the caste system or wants to have a uniform civil code. We think like a group, we think of our caste and religion. We vote just the way our parents say, were are just fed by someone else, it may be our religious teacher, parents, or a politician. That is the same reason, we don’t agree with basics in the Indian Constitution like Equality. Women were never given rights for ages they are not equal, how on earth can they see a woman being a leader, an army officer for that matter.
Similarly, Indians are asked to obey their elders without question, it may be your parents, guru, or the king, and you believe that they shouldn’t be questioned, then how does this country ever have equality before the law or freedom of speech. You can’t speak your mind against the ruler, we still followed, just open you FB and post something, within minutes your account is no more worthy enough to be used. Just because we say 20% of liberals want India to be a free democratic liberal country doesn’t make India one, because a majority of them will not agree with you. Also, they will agree to give Modi the right to rule forever. For them, democracy is just to choose a leader that too, from one’s own religion/caste, region, etc.
Dictatorships, as said, are more stable, that is why people may not oppose one person being PM for the entire. That is also the reason, why you must have heard saying that people are not interested in politics because it’s a disturbance and leads to instability. There have been multiple cases of govt falling apart just because of instability and horse-trading. So, people will automatically opt for a Strong leader. Just like how people still say if not Modi them whom, if not Kejriwal them whom? Indian elections are turning presidential. You no more vote for your constituency but also for PM (it doesn’t work like that). So you are part of a referendum which makes people fall for a dictatorial face even if that candidate is not the best option.
THE AGENDA OF BJP AND MISTAKES OF THE OPPOSITION
BJP, whether you like it or not maybe the first party to truly understand the crux of Indian Society and worked accordingly. In other words, they showed society the mirror. It helped society remove the fake mask it wore for 3 decades in the name of development or liberalism.
BJP FOCUS ON-
- Understood that India is a diverse place, so tried to divide everyone into those lines.
- Understood that the Indian population is conservative and the easiest way for them is to bring back traditionalism and religious issues.
- Making and breaking up of vote banks- The traditional caste vote banks were broken and religious vote banks were installed.
- Appropriate use of news, emotional manipulation, and social media. Social Media is where you are selecting what you want to see, so what happens that more you like your one-sided stuff, the algorithm brings you more and makes your feed more polarised. This happens in real life too. When Jio was released in 2016 for free, no one knew that Social media was a far too dangerous weapon to sell propaganda.
- End of opposition- The BJP was successful in the elimination of opposition it had through money power and tactical news.
SUCCESSES OF BJP
The main success will be the entire wipeout of opposition, they will soon have the majority in Rajya Sabha too. They can pass any legislation without any hindrance. BJP will turn invincible. Convert narcissism into a positive aspect.
- Well structured lubricated party structure
- To be able to change the narrative of Indian elections.
- From ache din to NRC-CAA-Ram-Mandir everything is going good
- The secularism-liberalism mask of opposition is no more
- The opposition is just dancing to the tune of Govt.
If you think that by bringing CAA-NRC on the table, BJP has a done a blunder you are wrong. BJP now has portrayed more successful as it is determined to take any strong decision as well as that BJP’s core voter base lies on the Soft Hindutva-Middle Class which it has made even stronger. That is the same reason why Congress which is now no more can’t afford to lose its Hindu voter base.
If you think that the Delhi riots would have harmed BJP’s image because it was responsible for law and order, then you are wrong again.BJP has been to convey that riots were not govt’s failure but an orchestrated attempt by the opposition parties and radical Islam to pull down govt and kill Hindus.
In August 2019, art 370 was abrogated, before that TTT bill was passed, In December CAA was passed. In November Ram-Janmabhoomi verdict came. In all these cases BJP was strong in its place while the Opposition protested they never said to bring art 370 back, or TTT back or to scrap CAA or even to reverse the verdict. The Congress party even supported abrogation as well as the SC verdict. So literally even the opposition is out of ammo and is virtually speechless. Similarly today pretty much all opposition parties agree that SC’s Sabarimala verdict of 2018 need not be implemented.
People still believe Modi is capable and charismatic enough. That is why whenever he speaks at 8 pm, people are ready to watch him and support him whether it’s demonetization, surgical strikes or even to clap. Modi, understands that his followers are ready to do anything, we have seen it multiple times, so he uses media and social sites very effectively.
HOW BJP PRESENTS ITSELF
BJP presents itself as a binary. For its hardline voters, you have Yogi Ji, Sakshi Maharaj, Amit Shah, Pragya Thakur, Tajinder Singh Bagga, who are always are negative and also make a lot of hate speeches while for a pro-development guy you have Modi, Shivaraj Singh Chauhan, Fadnavis who are moderates who always talk about positive things development.
Thus BJP keeps both camps extremely happy. So when you vote for BJP you vote for a pro-development set at the time, you also vote for a hardline society. Highly manipulative, right? Explaining in simpler terms yo have Hegde, Pragya, etc supporting Godse, but Modi who acknowledges Mahatma Gandhi, you have a polarity within BJP itself, which pulls BJP towards the center.
FAILURES OF OPPOSITION
- Highly fragmented
- Its weakest point itself- Congress party- The most useless that even Stalwarts are moving away
- Everyone is looking to save their states like Mamata in Bengal, SP-BSP in UP, CPIM in Kerala. They may not be interested in aligning with the sinking congress which is also their rival in respective states.
- Lack of strong face which may match Modi
- The selection of issues by the opposition is not properly conveyed.
- Communication gap amongst the people and the parties
The Left parties which had over 60+ seats in 2004 Lok Sabha have now a single-digit figure. They were part of the UPA-1 govt but dropped the alliance after the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, which itself was the biggest blunder they could commit. They follow pseudo leftism, losing the grassroots connect, and ended up losing Tripura and Bengal. That part should grow up from internalized issued to national issues. The parties need to be a new face like Kanhaiya Kumar to be its leader.
The congress party has been shaky ever since 2014, they haven’t even recovered once since losing that election. Their leaders are unhappy with the party structure, high command, ideology is non-existent, etc. The party has failed to keep its leaders intact. The states are also finding it difficult to hold back. It is not able to highlight the failures of the govt, nor is being able to arrange protest programs. Out of 186 seats, 172 of them were won by BJP, where Congress was its contender.
The local parties can’t fight anymore because the elections are highly centralized. All the parties are unable to see and keep in pace with BJP on national issues which are giving Modi a thumbs-up. This is the reason why even if acche din didn’t come, or even if there is no economic growth, no development people will be still ready to vote for BJP. The people of India have taken a strong stance against dynastic politics, even then the local parties are not ready to let it off.
The populism is at its peak. India will now be like the UK, Russia, Turkey, and Indian Politics itself as turned transactional where leaders just want to get power and not stick to their ideology. That is why they keep on changing parties, especially to the ruling parties. People or voters have now started to differentiate between state and national elections, which is a piece of good news for the opposition, but it’s a fact that those parties didn’t do anything much, everything was done by state leaders like Bhoopinder Hooda, Kejriwal, and Sharad Pawar. In Goa, the entire Congress opposition joined BJP and they were given high posts, so in Karnataka, Sikkim, Arunachal. Now it has happened in AP, where TDP MLAs are going to YSRCP. Jyothiraditya Scindia has left Congress for BJP and was given a Rajya Sabha seat.
FINDING
India has always been a pro-dictator than a pro-democracy because, stability was required, but due to diversity India couldn’t stay under dictatorship for so long. So remained a semi-democracy where the PM is worshipped like a God and the ruling party tries to destroy the opposition and crush dissent.
BJP has won the hearts of ordinary Indians. It has made sure that its Hindutva is a strong binding force whereas failure of opposition is its attractive force. The Congress party and other opposition for the past many years have been useless and has failed itself. This has led BJP to become stronger and invincible. BJP is all prepared to tackle all its obstacles and move forward while Congress will spend more time, behaving headless and drowsing. BJP’s biggest success is lack of opposition, while the oppositions’ failure is lack of leadership and no clarified agenda. BJP is all set to get the majority in Rajya Sabha, putting India to a semi-dictatorship, and winning 2024 is just a piece of cake, also it can add more states to its kitty.
As a voter, one must be worried that we can’t be in a dictatorship whether it’s Congress or BJP. We need to safeguard the Freedom of Speech and Press. We need to vote wisely every time. We must always read the manifesto of parties and elect the best representative from your constituency and not by PM/CM face. Reject the candidate who spews venom, create communal hatred, and divide people. At the end of a leader’s term, question his credibility, and ask him; his track record. You can access his spending of MP LADs fund from govt websites. I am grateful that India is a democracy and I thank all the people who drafted the Indian Constitution and tried to make India a liberal, secular, socialist democracy.
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