Barack Obama's victory in the US presidential election was epoch-making in more ways than one. Among other things, it was a stunning defeat for the Republican Party's politics of hate and fear. Is there a parallel in the results from the recently concluded elections in key battleground states in India?
The answer is in the affirmative. We can say with certainty that the politics of hate and fear lost, even if we cannot vouch for the victory of politics of hope. The BJP, the party that made terrorism a central theme of its campaign, lost the elections in two battleground of states of Delhi and Rajasthan to archrival Congress.
State elections in India do not usually offer much except a show of regional power politics and showdown over local issues. The story this time is significantly different. The Mumbai terror attacks occurred just before the scheduled state elections. In fact, it was observed that the perpetrators timed the attacks to coincide with the elections, perhaps in a bid to influence the outcome.
It was widely anticipated that the party that takes a tough anti-terror line on the issue of national security would exact political mileage out of the Mumbai attacks. Those who saw terrorism as a non-partisan problem feared that the right-wing BJP will leave no stone unturned to make the most of the Mumbai mayhem, and win the polls. One commentator explained how Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP's poster boy of ultra right politics, has moved center stage after his visit to Mumbai and that "nobody will dwell more emotionally on this than Mr. Modi".
The results from Delhi and Rajasthan have come as a shock to the punditry. Not only Congress has retained power in Delhi, the party was able to wrest the control of the western state of Rajasthan from the BJP. Since both these states went to the polls immediately after the Mumbai attacks, the BJP's anti-terror rhetoric hit new highs during the last days of campaigning.
The party's initial reaction to the Mumbai incidents conveyed a message of unity and intent not to engage in the criticism of the government- a posture that was widely welcomed. However, the party could not hold on to this non-partisan attitude for more than a few hours. The party's leader L.K. Advani skipped the all-party meeting called by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the Mumbai situation, citing campaign engagements in Rajasthan. The party ran advertisements on the polling day in Delhi instilling an atmosphere of fear and hysteria. The aim was to capitalize on the anxieties of concerned Indians.
In the event, the people in these states rejected the BJP's claims on the issue of security. After all, the country had seen some of the brazen acts of terror during the rule of the BJP. The attack on the Indian Parliament and the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane are cases in point. Digging deeper, it shows that the voters in areas where Advani campaigned after the Mumbai attacks showed particular disdain for his message.
Not that the voters in Delhi and Rajasthan were unconcerned with terrorism. Both the states have witnessed serial bomb blasts in the recent past and have endured loss of lives and property. Indeed the people in these states, like the rest of India, were subjected to nonstop TV images of the siege in Mumbai. In fact, Modi had personally campaigned in Delhi using terror as the main theme.
The voters in these states may not be satisfied with the way Congress is addressing the issue, but they were against using terrorism for political gains.
Moreover, the BJP's hypocrisy on terrorism was obvious to the voters. On one hand, it calls for uncompromising stance and stringent laws to deal with terrorists. On the other the party shows no remorse in defending those accused in the Malegaon blast terror case. The man leading the Malegaon investigation was none other than Maharashtra's Anti Terrorism Squad (ATS) chief Hemant Karkare who lost his life in counter-terror operations during the Mumbai siege. The ATS hero and his colleagues were victims of a targeted campaign by the BJP for implicating Hindu religious leaders in the Malegaon probe. Yet, the party had no compunction in showering praises on Karkare for sacrificing his life in the line of duty. The doublespeak, however, was not lost on the voters.
— Abdul Rauf is an independent commentator.
