16th General Election has been historic and was being rightly said as a watershed moment in Indian democracy for many reasons.
Large number of first time voters, record voter turnout, role of aggressive media-especially that of electronic and social media, first time use of NOTA in General elections,Constitutionally formed bodies like EC coming under attack from different quartets for its handling of polls, BJP’s conscious attempt at making this a kind of a presidential election for obvious reasons. All these have been unprecedented in the electoral history of post independence India.
And then the election results themselves. People giving decisive mandate to BJP, the way Congress has been decimated almost across all parts of India, the way the ‘so called Secular parties’ like Congress, JD-U, BSP, and SP have been wiped out in their respective states is historic and unprecedented as well.
BJP’s coming to power was expected but the kind of numbers that this election has thrown up is staggering and point to a Modi Wave too (Some are calling it a TsuNamo too). For the first time in the history of independent India a non-Congress party has come to power on its own. Further after 1984, this is the first time a single party has got a majority on its own.NDA got approximately 40% of the vote share as well, which is quite incredible considering the varied and diverse political landscape of the country.The Saffron has literally swept the north, central and eastern India. Clean sweeps in states like Gujarat, Rajasthan (Which have traditionally been BJP bastions) ,Delhi, Uttrakhand, Goa. Mind boggling numbers have come from UP(Where Modi’s master strategist Amit Shah was in place), Maharashtra and Bihar. Seats have even come from unexpected states like Assam,West Bengal as well.
Also, this election has proven to be a wake-up call to the Grand Old party of Indian Politics. Six months ago it was expected that battle of 2014 will again become the communal vs. secular battle and Congress will subsume the corruption case deep beneath the ground. But they have been proven wrong. For Congress it’s the lowest number that this election has thrown up in their electoral history. Many people have started arguing that Congress may have outlived its utility as well. Most of their Cabinet ministers have lost their seats and the party is surely headed for a leadership crisis at the Center. One major complaint against Congress is that it does not allow its state leadership to grow and everyone wants to be a part of Dilli Darbar. I guess this is the right time for them to have an introspection on their way of functioning.
Though there is a lesson inherent in the debacle of the DMKs, The Akalis, and the Congresses of the world that political parties should stop being family firms but how that transition takes place or will there be any change at all ,will be interesting to see.
This election has defied the generally prevalent Political wisdom regarding caste equations as well which can be drawn from the defeat of SP ,BSP and JD-U where the electorates thought to be their respective vote banks have voted against them.
The new aspirational India is changing the rules of the game where they don’t vote along the caste lines, where the regional identities do not matter much, where the only thing that matters is high growth, jobs and a respite from inflation. These first time voters, which were around 10 -12 crore have voted in huge numbers for Mr. Modi and have been instrumental in Mr. Modi’s and BJP’s phenomenal success.
Finally, this 16th Lok Sabha election has restored the faith of people with the representative politics to some extent which had hit a rock bottom during the last decade or so. The excitement with which voters came up in huge numbers was very encouraging too. But to me the sight of the election was 97-year-old Shyam Negi in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh, the first Indian to vote in free India in October 1951, again casting his vote along with his 92-year-old wife, Hira Mani on May 7 — to keep alive the flame of freedom. Kudos to your unflinching belief in electoral democracy sir .