With the grand inauguration of the Ram Mandir on January 22, attention has now shifted to the upcoming parliamentary elections, likely to be held in May-June 2024. The discourse surrounding these elections is anticipated to be dominated by the Ram Mandir, contrasting the 2019 general elections where the Pulwama bombing and subsequent Balakot attack played a major role in shaping the narrative in favour of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Ram Mandir has become a focal point, generating a groundswell of support for PM Modi and potentially paving the way for his third term in power.
Kashmir, nevertheless, remains a significant issue in the upcoming polls, especially following the Supreme Court’s December 11 verdict in favour of the abrogation of Article 370. This also goes to the favour of the BJP which counts the withdrawal of Article 370 as one of its biggest achievements. Together, with the enactment of laws such as the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC), Triple Talaq, among others over the last five years, the BJP now wields a considerable political advantage over the opposition. So, the saffron party’s victory is widely perceived as a foregone conclusion. More so, after the persisting inability of the INDIA Alliance to get its act together since its founding in June 2024. And as the elections are getting closer, the alliance is threatening to unravel. Already, Mamata Banerjee and Congress have witnessed a bitter falling out in West Bengal over seat-sharing. In Bihar, Nitish Kumar has yet again switched to the BJP – a stultifying development, if its implications for the opposition unity weren’t so grave.
That said, PM Modi after the opening up of Ram Madit has moved into a different zone. He is no longer a competitor for the opposition in the realm of governance. And fighting him solely on the governance turf will be self-defeating. For, people hardly judge him by his performance on delivering jobs or reducing inflation. PM Modi is seen as a leader on a much grander mission, and which is to fundamentally recast India as a nation. And this is to revive the imagined glory of India before the advent of Muslim rule which lasted around 800 years followed by 200 years of British rule. Establishment of Ram Mandir is a major milestone on this road. And in this pursuit, economic hardships don’t matter beyond a point. In fact, they become a kind of a right of passage to a lofty moral end. This has made PM Modi relevant to the existing political scene in the country in a way, none of his predecessors have been. He has given a certain sense of meaning to the otherwise banal lives of his supporters, above and beyond the demand of economic well-being. This is something only the leaders like Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and to some extent his daughter Indira Gandhi have done before but in a different political context with altogether different political aims. Modi is turning out to be an even more stronger leader than them in that he is in the process of altering the character of the republic. The BJP has already covered a significant ground towards this goal.
The INDIA Alliance which was expected to halt the saffron party’s march is unraveling with the parties plowing in conflicting directions. With Kumar’s exit, the crisis has come to a head. From hereon, the remaining alliance partners will have to project a credible show of unity, to inspire some public faith in their potential to take on the BJP.
But such a prospect looks unlikely considering Brand Modi remains in the ascendant. All the rival political stalwarts have been reduced to pygmies. India’s larger secular opposition is still in tatters and fighting over scraps. Rahul Gandhi may be one of the few major genuine ideological opponents now, but there is no major pan-India leader in sight to take on PM Modi. Presently, he is in a space where a large section of the Indian people has begun to associate him with divine attributes. Moreover, the pervasive influence of the Hindutva ideology he promotes is evident, with elements of it finding resonance within the opposition as well. There is no national leader in India who wants to be aggressive on secularism including Rahul Gandhi or Mamata Banerjee. Still the opposition unity and the Congress revival as a cohesive party can be expected to offer some challenge to the BJP’s overwhelming dominance. And to this end, the alliance needs to get over with the seat-sharing at the earliest and move on to formulating a vision and a narrative couched in an intelligible message. Time is running out.
Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer
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