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January 2019 Edition of Power Politics is updated.    Wishing You All a Happy New Year.       January 2019 Edition of Power Politics is updated.
Issue:January' 2018

SAFFRON FALL

Little for Congress to gloat over

Malladi Rama Rao

Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi Taking on the role of a Devil’s Advocate, even if one is not a Modi Bhakt or a Parivar acolyte in the wildest dreams, one can ask what is there for the Congress to gloat over its victory in the recent assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, which were no more than a semi-final bout before the April-May ballot for the Lok Sabha. In Madhya Pradesh, it won by default and there was no clear mandate from the people. The BJP made the GOP run for its money and the people watched it like a T20 cricket match.

Ashok Gehlot and Vasundhara Raje In Rajasthan, the time tested two-party state, the Congress did not get a landslide victory it expected but just managed to scrape through. Does this show the might of the Congress? Gehlot answered the question when he said that Vasundhara Raje wasted

Ajit Jogi and Mayawati her opportunity. Well, the result however shows the state of default politics in the country.
The Chattisgarh verdict was a surprise as much to the psephologist of all hues as the Congress party itself. Neither Ajit Jogi nor Mayawati read the pulse of the voters, who were waiting to teach a lesson to Raman Singh dynasty.

Lal Thanhawala Telangana and Mizoram fall in a different category. Whether the 24 Akbar Road likes to admit or not the party satraps in Hyderabad had egg on their face for their audacity of marching to Rajbhavan a day before counting and staking the right of their pre-poll alliance to be called first for formation of the government. Christian majority Mizoram turned against the Congress as Lal Thanhawala, the party’s mascot for the past three decades ignored the call of the Church and youth organisations for prohibition.

The recent verdict is hailed as Rahul Baba’s triumph. And dubbed as a setback for Modi. Brand Modi has lost its sheen, say many commentators, while the Left- Secular camp avers that Moditva has reached its limits.

Manohar Lal Khattar The short point is there was no Congress wave. And Raffle was no Bofors. Nor did Rahul’s discovery of Hindu gods matteredto the dismay of saffron camp, which had gone to the town questioning his claim to be a Kashmiri Kaul Brahmin from the Dattatreya gotra.
Still, the verdict is hailed as Rahul Baba’s triumph. And dubbed as a setback for Modi. Brand Modi has lost its sheen, say many commentators, while the Left- Secular camp avers that Moditva has reached its limits. Their case is that Modi may face a drubbing similar to the December result in the forthcoming April round. Their ranks appear to swell by the day going by the op-eds that are appearing by the dozen.

Yogi Adityanath Modi is offering more ammunition to their guns these days by his lectures to the BJP cadres from Kerala to Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh on the harm the Congress did to the Indian polity. What is the need for a fresh round of Congress bashing? If it is a signal to launching Lok Sabha campaign, this Modi comes off as a big disappointment. This Modi is not the Modi India had seen sweep the polls in 2014 by asking people to rally round him for ‘acche din’.
Politics in India is a funny game laced with loads of hypocricy and chest thumping. Victory lap does not last a lifetime. That is why the Northern comfort, as The Hindu, the national newspaper from Chennai has described the Congress's win in Hindi heartland, has had a short shrift.
The Haryana urban voters have delivered a booster dose to the BJP; the landslide victory in all the five cities of the state where mayoral elections were held in December third week gave an image makeover to the bumbling Manohar Lal Khattar just when his UP counterpart Yogi is licking the wounds from the semi-final bout what with the rejection of his handpicked loyalists in Rajasthan.

The question that demands an answer is, particularly going by Khattar-Speak, shouldn’t Modi bear the responsibility for defeat of the BJP, more so when he stands accused of “leading a campaign of calumny and half-truths”? Is the party taking shelter under the intangible antiincumbency sentiment to protect Modi? Are the eggheads unwilling to notice how the rural and urban India is no longer willing to be stuck in the demonitisation groove when they are faced with apotent mix of distress in agriculture fields and job market?Does the party hope to get away by speaking about cows to people asking for jobs? There is a deafening silence from 6 - A, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg (BJP Central Office).

Amit Shah True to the traditions of the Sangh (of course, of the Congress as well), Khattar attributed the Haryana result to the charisma of Modi. In neighbouring Rajasthan, however, Vasundhara Raje made no mention of Modi factor. While accepting the poll reverses, she simply thanked the electorate and congratulated the victor. Congress party; Shivraj Singh Chauhan and Raman Singh blamed themselves for the misfortune that has visited BJP in their states after three terms in office. There was no mention of Modi, the star campaigner, and his Sancho Panza, Amit Shah, whom the BJP has been projecting as the modern day Chankya. Also absent was any introspection for their display of what a commentator terms as conceit and braggadocio.

Markandey Katju The question that demands an answer is, particularly going by Khattar-Speak, shouldn’t Modi bear the responsibility for defeat of the BJP, more so when he stands accused of “leading a campaign of calumny and half-truths” ? Is the party taking shelter under the intangible anti-incumbency sentiment to protect Modi? Are the egg-heads unwilling to notice how the rural and urban India is no longer willing to be stuck in the demonitisation groove when they are faced with apotent mix of distress in agriculture fields and job market?Does the party hope to get away by speaking about cows to people asking for jobs? There is a deafening silence from 6 - A, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg (BJP Central Office).

Manmohan Singh Modi, too, has not answered these questions as yet. But he surprised everyone by landing on the Sonia turf after the results, and by crediting himself as the job creator at the local rail coach factory. From Rai Bareilly to Praygraj and Varanasi and to Pune and Mumbai,he has made Nehru- Gandhi family the focus of his alliterations, acronyms and jibes - a clear signal that he does not want to allow the First Family of Indian Politics the breathing time to assess and rejig its strengths and to force him on the back-foot. He has left Hindutva agenda to his brain’s trust, Amit Shah. And Shah is going around the town after the semi-final bout expounding on the Ram Temple with a caveat. It is that the Supreme Court should settle the Ayodhya title suit in ten days by holding daily hearings.This is akin to the demand of the Parivar affiliates. The dispute which has been lingering from Nehru days may be listed before an appropriate bench of the Supreme Court in the first month of the New Year – 2019.

So will the coming Lok Sabha elections be like the historical wars for the Delhi sultanate in which no holds are barred and rivers of blood have flown, as Justice Markandey Katju opines. Rahul’s Congress has not yet taken the temple bait. It wants to get its manna from farm loan waivers. This is surprising. It shows how short is the memory of the Grand Old Party (GOP) which has economists steeped in Nehruvian socialism and market liberalism in equal measure.
The UPA Government’s 2008 Farm Loan Waiver did not pay electoral dividends, and left hundreds and thousands of farmers seething with anger, who saw it as a half measure in the absence of relief from money lenders (See Power Politics June 2012). Otherwise, Rahul Gandhi will not say “We will not let the prime minister rest until he waives loans. Congress manifesto for 2019 would promise farm loan waiver. We will do it – guaranteed 100 per cent – if the Narendra Modi government doesn’t do it by then.” Now returning to the role of Devil’s Advocate, it is tempting to disagree with the high decibel rhetoric on the tube and pontification in the mainstream print that Modi has run out of his steam. More than you and me, he heard the assembly beat and, therefore, did not go all out campaigning in the way he did in the Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat or Karnataka elections. He addressed few poll rallies. In fact, he hopped in and out of the country leaving the battle to the satraps.
Unlike in the past, he did not even dominate BJP posters, and according to Raman Singh, the poster designs came to them from the headquarters. What is more, Modi readily conceded defeat in Madhya Pradesh on Twitter long before the official results were in and even as his colleagues were working on mission to woo independents to cobble a majority.
So much so, Manmohan Singh- Speak “I was neither a silent PM, nor afraid of talking to the press,” makes no mocking impact on Narendra Damodardas Bhai Modi, whether you and I like or not.