modi jee pulled it off . 80% plus. unbelievable ? yes. for all . till a few hours back.
but it is a reality now. no use disbelieving. better to assimilate. and
try to analyse.
the facts first. 80% plus seats in the assembly election. similar
number in the parliament elections two years back. so it is a solid
foundation . no passing wave or anti incumbency as many of us would
like to deceive ourselves. fact number two. no communal divide. muslims
voted hindus as their MLAs . and probably vice versa at least in a few
cases. those the dalits sent to the assembly are definitely not all
dalits . if there was any divide ever it is surely something else . not
communal. fact number three. no communal card. election campaign was a
near wonder. in spite of the sure fire lure , the communal card was
never played up. except may be a few instances like the kasab comment.
which is more a play with words than an attempt to incite communal
feelings. fact number four . no violence worth the name. the entire
election process was almost devoid of violence. which again is
unbelievable given the history of elections in the country and in U P .
all these in spite of the fact that demonetisation was an unqualified failure .
so let us start the dissection . last in first out. demon was indeed a
failure . some knew it for certain. many had suspicion. a lot more
people didn't bother. but almost every one thought it was time for such
actions. impatience of waiting for too long was palpable. failure
didn't bother them . after all it is rare that they see success . in personal life or in the public domain. but what they despised most is
probably the tendency to use the risk of failure as an excuse for
inaction .
now rest of the facts. the only common point is that
there was a massive polarisation . on what lines or terms is not clear.
rich versus poor ? no. had it been the case the communist parties should
have got at least a thousand votes in total. middle class consolidation
? difficult. as they are the most unlikely class to stick together.
the third option . probably we have all along been misreading the
people. to feed our own prejudices. to serve our own partisan ends. we
have been keeping the people in this imaginary mould which we have
designed for them. we have been feeding them opium. of the dalit
minority mix. to keep them in slumber. and someone has woken them up all
. in one big shout. and they went directly to the voting booths.
electorate in UP and erstwhile UP made it very clear thru the ballot .
and that way made themselves role models for the rest of the country .
who enjoyed calling UP undeveloped , communal , violent , uneducated
and what not .
here is a personal experience before signing off.
i was in lucknow for a few years. we visited varanasi a few times with
family. the great temple indeed was an experience. much bigger in size
than the guruvayoor temple in kerala. same air of divine grace if not
more.
we went to the mosque deep inside the temple complex too .
with police guarding the entire route. we went in and out just like any
other tourist. none raised an eyebrow . neither the muslims nor the
hindus. and i belong to neither of the group.
coming out of the
temple complex we went to a few shops outside. almost the entire
circumference of the circular temple complex is occupied by thousands
of shops . dealing in pan to sweets to curios. i had known that these
shops are all run by muslims. i talked to a shop keeper. i asked the old
gentle man ' how come you are all muslims around this famous hindu
temple here ? don't you feel any threat ? aren't you aware of the great
tension ? '
he looked at me with unconcealed anger . his answer
which is reproduced below with which i sign off may give some clue to
the questions we discussed in this article.
' i am sure you are
not from this part of the country . it is aliens like you who create all
the troubles. we have no such problem. get out of here. quick . before
the people get wind of your evil designs and react. '
