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Kiran Bedi is not the only reason BJP lost
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By M.R. Narayan SwamyIt will be too tempting to solely blame it all on Kiran Bedi, the BJP's
chief ministerial candidate, for the party's humiliating rout in Delhi.
Nothing can be farther from the truth.
The Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) will be committing a blunder if it does not accept the
larger ugly reality that the main culprit for the colossal loss is the
party's leadership. Just how much of the blame should go to Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and how much to BJP president Amit Shah is a
matter of perception.
Bedi was a rank outsider to the BJP and,
until a few years ago, as part of the Anna Hazare movement, used to
publicly attack it and the Congress. But the former police officer did
not barge into the party. It were Modi and Shah who, in their wisdom,
picked her to lead the BJP in Delhi assuming she will be the antidote to
Arvind Kejriwal, her former friend.
That decision was the first
undeclared admission that the pre-Bedi BJP in Delhi was not equipped to
take on the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). This led to tremendous heartburn in
the BJP whose local leaders were not consulted. This was also the reason
why Satish Upadhyay, president of the BJP's Delhi unit, refused to
contest the election. Veterans who had been with the BJP felt slighted.
By
her utterances and conduct, Bedi didn't help matters. Too quickly she
rubbed senior BJP leaders the wrong way, ensuring their silent
animosity, eventually leading to her own defeat.
But going by the
swing in favour of the AAP, the BJP would still not have won. In other
words, Bedi or no Bedi, the BJP would have lost. The reason is that the
BJP, which, including its earlier Jana Sangh incarnation, has existed in
Delhi since the early 1950s, lost the plot months before the Delhi
election.
Some factors have been widely commented upon. There are others too.
When
Modi became the prime minister in May 2014, there were widespread
expectations that there would be definitive changes in people's lives.
This did not happen.
In contrast, when Kejriwal was chief
minister for 49 days in 2013-14, day-to-day bribery virtually
disappeared in Delhi and both power as well as water bills were slashed.
After Kejriwal resigned, day-to-day 'hafta' (payoffs to police and
corporation officials to run small businesses, particularly
street-vending) returned with a vengeance.
As chief minister of
Gujarat, Modi at one point reined in Hindutva extremists. When he
ordered illegal religious shrines demolished, he did not spare Hindu
temples. The Hindu rightwing was furious.
But when BJP and
Hindutva leaders spoke of 'Love Jehad' and 'Ghar Wapsi' and when
churches in Delhi were attacked, Modi was silent. This alienated
minorities for sure and also those liberals who had come to accept Modi.
Modi
is enforcing discipline among government staff. This is welcome. But
many complain that the electronic machines meant to mark attendance are
few in number or some do not work, leading to long queues. Some who
queue up at 5 p.m. get to punch their way out only at 6! Will they vote
for the BJP - even if they did that in the Lok Sabha election?
The
removal of Harsh Vardhan as health minister in the Modi cabinet
triggered resentment in the medical community as most doctors saw him as
one of their own. This was one reason why numerous doctors and nurses
in Delhi voted for the AAP.
It is a mystery why the BJP fielded
Congress and AAP turncoats like M.S. Dhir, Binod Kumar Binny and Krishna
Tirath in areas where BJP has plenty of dedicated activists. The BJP
did that in May 2014 but dissidence then was curbed because of the 'Modi
Wave'. That wave was absent in Delhi.
Most important, people in
general were put off by the kind of negative campaign the BJP and its
leaders, Modi included, launched against Kejriwal. Few appreciated
Modi's decision to flaunt an expensive suit when Barack Obama visited
India. The "chai wala" they voted for appeared to have changed.
Kejriwal
and the AAP in turn came out as people who could be relied upon by the
masses in Delhi, in particular the poor, low income families and the
middle class. This perception destroyed the BJP.
The Delhi rout is a divine wake up call for Modi. Making Kiran Bedi the scapegoat won't help - beyond a point.
(M
R Narayan Swamy is an executive editor at IANS. The views expressed are
personal. He can be contacted at [email protected])