People of Uttarakhand will choose Congress. BJP has betrayed them
A number of convincing factors and developments have brought a win for the Congress in sight in Uttarakhand, despite the huge spend of money by the BJP and high decibel campaigns unleashed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Piyush Goyal, Smriti Irani, Uma Bharti, JP Nadda, Gen. VK Singh and other star campaigners like Hema Malini, Yogi Adityanath, Manoj Tiwari, etc.
The PM himself allocated a disproportionate three days and four rallies for the campaign, thereby reflecting nervousness, desperation and non-confidence in any of the eight faces chosen to be projected in profusely visible advertisements.
Why this election in the hill state of Uttarakhand has become such a high profile and high stakes one for the BJP is a point to ponder, and therein lies the answer. The issues raised by the BJP throughout are issueless.
The desperation to clinch power was laid bare by the failed attempt via an unconstitutional and illegal effort to usurp power and depose the democratic government of the Congress led by CM Harish Rawat by engineering defections, but the sinister plan was foiled by the high court and Supreme Court, which upheld democracy.
Wounded, deflated and shamed, this was the second major setback for the BJP in achieving a "Congress-mukt Bharat" after the Arunachal Pradesh fiasco. The wisdom and management of BJP managers in their blind hurry led them into an abyss - while driving in the hills one has to negotiate every curve very carefully, as every signboard says. The power drunk never anticipate an accident.
In the entire campaign, the body language and the language used by the top BJP leadership smacked of arrogance, defied the stature and dignity of the high offices they hold and belies the facade of outwardly confidence and slogans of parivartan or vijay sankalp.
While the BJP is contesting with all means, what it fails to contest are the questions being asked, such as why all five of its Lok Sabha MPs from Uttarakhand, despite the absolute majority, failed to get the state its legitimate dues from the Centre.
Over and above, they even failed entirely in raising a voice of concern over the injustice meted out to their state by the Centre where their own party has an absolute majority. The funds allocation was cut down to the deserving state in key areas like e-governance, backward areas, police modernisation, panchayats, model schools, tourism, food security, etc.
The Centre failed to stand by Uttarakhand in reconstruction efforts in the aftermath of the massive tragedy of the Kedarnath floods. The horse-trading triggered by the landslide, of naked money power to capture power through the backdoor, shook badly the faith of the simple folks of Uttarakhand.
The state, denied of its share of support during the last ArdhKumbh, was also not allocated any funds for the nationally publicised Namami Gange project. The state was not granted its rightful share of the green bonus.
Inflation in commodities, especially pulses, touching Himalayan heights has hit the poor hill people very, very hard. The situation has been aggravated by subsidy withdrawal by the BJP central government on sugar, and wheat quota reduction in FPS had a tremendous impact on the residents of the state. Adding insult to injury, was the effort to eject popular CM Rawat.
The nation in the last 34 months is witness to relegation of the law of natural justice and the preponderance of misrule with mere slogans. Demonetisation made the poor people of the state - which is interspersed with mountains, valleys and one of the most difficult terrains with scant presence of banking facilities in the rural countryside - suffer profusely.
The Pyrrhic victory speeches and parochial defence of humungous after effects of demonetisation were like rubbing salt on the wounds of the populace.
The lame duck rule after pre-election promises exposed the capability of the BJP to serve. The failed efforts of masking the answers the nation had started demanding were replaced by diversions, digressions and divisions.
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| The lame duck rule after pre-election promises exposed the capability of the BJP to serve. |
The major commitments on bringing back Rs 80 lakh crore from Swiss banks, redistribution of Rs 15 lakh in every account, One Rank One Pension for the armed forces, two crore jobs per annum for the youth, women's safety, and implementation of Swaminathan Commission wherein farmers were promised 50 per cent profit over costs, all came a cropper.
In such a massive betrayal of faith, the nation has refused to be taken for a ride again, the people have refused to buy the explanation that these were mere jumlas, pre-poll promises not meant to be kept. Wooden pots can only attempt to cook once.
Being long on rhetoric and short on delivery is the biggest undoing of BJP's campaign. The misgovernance of the economy, falling exports, dwindling rupee; petrol and diesel prices on upward trajectory despite international crude prices softening, falling investment, increasing exit of institutional investors, worsening rural distress, overall setback to demand and massive retrenchment across sectors, especially MSMEs, demolition of institutions and development of acute intolerance, hatred and fuelling of sentiments, orchestrated provocation, inability to answer on Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Pampore and increasing cross-border firings and worsening soldier casualty figures, despite claiming surgical strikes, ill-treatment of jawans and their families have been the hallmarks of 34 months of BJP rule at the Centre, and not at all appreciated by the people of Uttarakhand.
The tipping point comes with the crossover of the very faces which the BJP had accused of massive corruption when in the Congress, and making them star campaigners and potential CM faces now for its own campaign.
The dilemma and confusion and inability to project a credible local face as its CM candidate to counter the clear-cut projection of Harish Rawat by the Congress will result in a Waterloo for most BJP candidates, especially the most prominent faces. The decisive projection, the credibility of Rawat and the resonance of a campaign centred on a delivery-based vision for the future is going to further edge out BJP.