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| J&K in Bihar Assembly elections | | | Hari Om
Much has been said and
written about what
led to the spectacular victory in the very crucial Bihar of the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) of Janata Dal-United (JD-U) of Shard Yadav and Nitish Kumar, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Congress of Sonia Gandhi. The "secular" view on the stunning victory, which has triggered a "massive revolt" in the defeated Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), is that it was the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) itself which messed up its whole election campaign in its desperate bid to "avert Delhi in Bihar" and the result was that the Grand Alliance came out of the electoral exercise with flying colours by winning a whopping 178 seats in the 243-member House. The upshot of the "secularists'" whole view is that it was a fight between "secular and communal" forces and the politically conscious Bihari electorate rejected outright the latter and voted for "social justice forces". To be more precise, the "secular" block, bulk of political commentators and election experts have attributed the massive victory of the Grand Alliance to the BJP's "aggressive" and "indecent" election campaigning, the "failure" of the NDA to deliver on any front and the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwats's alleged review reservation policy suggestion. The DNA comment on incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and the manner in which the BJP raked up the cow and beef issue to "polarise" the electorate, sought to "frighten" the Other Backward Classes and Dalits and Maha Dalits by saying again and again that the victory of the Mahagathbandhan would mean "a loss of five per cent reservation" to them as the Grand Alliance was committed to "give five per cent reservation to the Muslim community" out of the existing 49.5 per cent reservation quota and the manner in which the BJP brought in "Pakistan" in the election campaign all contributed to the comprehensive drubbing of the NDA, they have opined. It is their view and they have the right to interpret the election verdict in the manner they wish. As for the NDA, it is a divided house. The BJP, which could win only 53 seat, as against its 2010 tally of 91, has said that it failed because it "couldn't estimate the strength of the Grand Alliance" and the "vote transferability of the Grand Alliance was quite good, and had a major impact on the Bihar elections". "The unity of Mahagathbandhan is the reason for our defeat," the BJP has said, adding that the chemistry, mathematics and geography all worked in favour of the Mahagathbandhan.
The Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) of Ram Vilas Paswan, which could capture only two seats, and Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) of Jitin Ram Manjhi, which won a solitary seat, have attributed the defeat of the NDA to the RSS' review reservation policy suggestion and the way the BJP used the cow and beef issue and its assertion that "Pakistan will burst crackers" in case the NDA lost election. It would have been "politically prudent" had the BJP avoided these issues and focused only on developmental issues, both Manjhi and Paswan have said while bemoaning the defeat of the NDA. Rashtriya Lok Samata Party (RLSP) of Upendra Kushwaha, which could capture only two seats, is also of the same view, but it, unlike the LJP and the HAM, is not that vocal.
The ongoing fierce debate on the success of the Mahagathbandhan and failure of the NDA is likely to dominate the political discourse in the country for many more months for obvious reasons. After all, the Bihar verdict has emboldened the "secular" camp across the country. It has given enough of hints that it would replicate the Bihar experiment against the NDA in general and the BJP in particular in the other poll-bound states. The BJP, too, has stated that it will revise its whole election strategy to create in the country pre-May 2014 situation. It's only natural. What, however, has been conspicuous by its absence in the otherwise ongoing intense debate on the nature and implications of the Bihar verdict is any reference whatsoever to Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), where the situation has worsened to the extent that Pakistani agents and radicals Islamists have been waving the Pakistani and Islamic State (IS) flags every Friday and holding anti-India demonstrations under the very nose of the law and order authorities and going scot-free. J&K was one of the important issues that impacted the poll verdict in Bihar, but, somehow, it escaped the attention of even those who covered the Bihar elections and wrote and commented on the people's verdict. Interestingly, it was not the BJP which raked up J&K before, during and after the election campaign in Bihar and in the Delhi-based TV studios. Paradoxically, it was the "secular" Mahagathbandhan which again and again used J&K to embarrass and corner the BJP and question its nationalistic credentials.
The Mahagathbandhan think-tanks on occasions more than one dubbed the BJP as a "rank opportunist" and charged it with flirting and sharing power with the pro-separatist, pro-Pakistan and pro-self-rule (read greater autonomy, bordering on sovereignty, for J&K) Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). They repeatedly and candidly asked the BJP spokespersons not to question the "nationalistic" credentials of the JD (U), the RJD and the Congress, saying the "BJP bartered national interest in J&K by forging an alliance with the PDP, which, in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, credited Pakistan and terrorists for the conduct of Assembly elections in the state". It bears recalling that after taking oath of office on March 1, 2015, PDP patron and Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had said: "I want to say this on record and I have told this to the Prime Minister that we must credit the Hurriyat, Pakistan and militant outfits for the conduct of assembly elections in the state".
The Mahagathbandhan think-tanks and spokespersons in Bihar and Delhi not only countered the oft-repeated BJP charge that the JD (U), the RJD and the Congress were "communal" and "soft" towards the radical Islamists, but they also charged the BJP with diluting its stand on Article 370 for the sake of power and asked the BJP to explain its stand on the political status of J&K vis-à-vis India and Pakistan. To be more exact, the Mahagathbandhan spokespersons questioned that part of the PDP-BJP Agenda of Alliance that maintains the existing politico-constitutional status of J&K under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution but also envisages a dialogue between India, Pakistan and Hurriyat leadership to settle all the outstanding "political" issues. The Agenda of Alliance does suggest that J&K is an issue that needed to be resolved by taking on board all the "stakeholders, including Pakistan and Kashmiri separatist leadership". The Mahagath bandhan calls all this a negation of all that the BJP stood for till March 1, 2015. Indeed, the Mahagathbandhan spokespersons used J&K to the hilt, with none of the BJP spokespersons really able to defend the alliance of the BJP with the PDP.
The Mahagathbandhan said many more things about the BJP's Kashmir policy during the election campaign and it is neither desirable nor possible to discuss all that it said about BJP and its Kashmir policy. Suffice to say that its fundamental charge against the BJP was that it "compromised its stand on J&K for the sake of power" and "harmed the country's interests" by entering into an alliance with a party that didn't consider J&K an integral part of India and vouched for self-rule that "empowers Pakistan to exercise sovereign powers with India in J&K". The study of Bihar elections will be incomplete if the J&K effect on the people's verdict is ignored or overlooked. |
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