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- INDIA
Six phases of the Lok Sabha elections are over, with just one to go before the votes are counted and declared on June 4. India is on edge as the stakes are high with both the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress led I.N.D.I.A bloc stating the choice before the voters very clearly. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the star and perhaps even the sole campaigner for the ruling party, and has made it clear that for him the Hindi-Muslim platform continues to hold sway, even over and above the Ram Mandir. His every speech is liberally sprinkled with ‘warnings’ to the majority community of a take over by the minorities if the Opposition comes to power in words that continue to shock even those who had voted for him in the past Lok Sabha elections. Developments and achievements have been clouded by the rhetoric of divisiveness as the Prime Minister of India continues to urge people to vote for him as he alone can keep the minorities at bay.
I.N.D.I.A on the other hand, has mounted an effective campaign against divisiveness pointing out that the Constitution of India itself will be under threat if the BJP is voted into power again. Peace and unity represented by true federalism, along with unemployment and price rise is the overarching theme. The conglomeration had a slightly late start, but since then seems to have patched up the differences between the leaders to put up a pretty united fight. The Congress party and Rahul Gandhi can take credit for this, as he certainly has brought in an ease into the relationships with the other partners that is far removed from the national party’s arrogance of the past.
The South is more or less clear about its choice and has voted and sealed the ballot box with relative ease. The North is going through convolutions with the embedded media and self styled psephologists busy predicting a BJP and PM Modi hattrick as part of television studio projections. Even as the footloose YouTubers from the Hindi belt bring reports from the field of the Hindi belt, in particular Uttar Pradesh, that seem to indicate a churning not seen in elections over the past ten years.
Voting has been fraught with tension and fears with suspicions and finger pointing at a peak. The Election Commission of India has not really covered itself in glory, being more reticent and adversarial than in the past decades. Activists and others have been running around almost like headless chickens seeking judicial intervention to regulate the ECI, and to prevent rigging. The fears started with EVM rigging; moved into allegations of intimidation of voters; jumped when the ECI ‘corrected’ the voting figures in large percentages; and the vote is being cast in an atmosphere of apprehension and uncertainty of a kind one had witnessed in Jammu and Kashmir decades ago but never really in the rest of India that had been more or less happy with the functioning of the Election Commission.
June 4 thus can be expected to embody these tensions as the votes are counted and results declared. PM Modi’s supporters have rectified the ‘400 par’ figures to 300 or less over the weeks. The Opposition has challenged these figures effectively, in their campaign and leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav and Tejaswi Yadav are drawing huge, responsive crowds all over the states. Lists are being floated all over the social media, each coming from “high sources’, enough figures out there to soothe the demands of both sides. It is imperative now for all the political parties, and in particular the BJP that holds power at the centre, to ensure that counting day is not marred by violence and those seeking redress do so through peaceful and legal means. India has gone through a lot, and those in power and those seeking power both owe peace and protection and security to the people and the country.
