What an amazing result! In their near unanimity in predicting the direction in which the “close” contest would go, the exit polls proved to be the spoilers. But then no one would have dared to believe them to be the gospel truth. May 23 was the real Day of Reckoning and it proved to be one that knocked out many astrologers as having been too clever by half in playing a guessing game in which they hedged freely while the pollsters stuck their necks out in making their brave predictions and proved right.
South India is a different world, or at least its inhabitants believe they live in another planet. Maybe, they didn’t get a whiff of the Hindu sentiment that drove the voters further to the Right in a clear show of majoritarianism. The distrust of the exit polls in the south may have been largely because of the distance. There was no “I told you so” gloating here, only a quiet acceptance of the will of the majority of the nation. The fact is 112 Parliament seats from four southern states meant little to the overall result although there were significant events in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala where the voters’ impulse came from the wish for a change.
They dislike me because of my humble origins. Can a party stoop so low?” Modi had said during the campaign. “Yes, a person belonging to a poor family has become prime minister. They do not fail to hide their contempt for this fact. Yes, I sold tea, but I did not sell the nation.” True because he did not sell the nation like some before him. His personal integrity was an integral part of his appeal irrespective of whether those opposed to him accept that or not. They are the ones on whom much could be pinned.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presidential style of campaigning seemed to go well in a swath of India from the west through the north to the east and northeast, and in Karnataka too (where the sympathy factor of the single largest party not being able to govern after the last assembly poll may have been the reason), but not in major parts of the south. But that is hardly relevant to the story of triumph and of the upending of an unceasing flinging of charges at the Modi I regime from not only the opposition but also the entire liberal crowd.
The motley collection of people were entitled to their view, but the one thing that may not yet have impinged itself on their consciousness is that everyone need not think like them every minute of every day. Their idea of India is not the only idea of India, however idealistic it is in its adherence to secularism and plurality. An even greater idea may be true equality in India. That equality may be challenged in the new regime as opposed to the “ancien regime”. But that is a challenge society as well as every individual must face.
It is to be considered a pity that Modi’s nearest challenger in this presidential race was an effete scion of a family with a dynastic claim to rule India and the person may have had a dilettante past too.
The projection of a strong leader a opposed to a “Love Guru” helped too. If Rahul Gandhi thought his cleverest line, apart from some good internet humour, was chowkidar chor hai, he may have learnt that vague charges didn’t stick at a time when the armed forces were held in the highest esteem after a real strike across the PoK border - call it surgical or otherwise - in a muscular response to Pakistan-sponsored terror.
At no time in the past had India responded so vigorously in at least showing intent, not even after the atrocities of 26/11 in 2008, an extended attack many times the intensity of Pulwama. Considering the contrasting background, the nationalism plank was bound to pay electoral dividend. How could the political debate then descend to an one-track ‘oust Modi’ cry when nothing bound those making that call except their lust for power? They did not realise that there is a new India out there that is least bothered about their entitlement to an old order just because the new came with a few faultlines when it replaced the old five years ago.
The idea of an aspirational India willing to look beyond the shibboleths was beyond the grasp of the liberals, the left and the idiosyncratic illiberal of the east. It may be the triple factor of Hindi-Hindu-Hindutva that cut through the others to produce a verdict bigger than 2014.
To be able to accept that and adapt rather than throw in the towel is the challenge that lies ahead of the career politicians who oppose Modi and his lieutenant in chief, Amit Shah. If they continue to do it in the same vein as they did at the hustings they will be the losers forever. The poor and the middle class have more champions to take up their cause now than those who ruled in days of yore with the promise of crumbs.
(R. Mohan is the Resident Editor of the Chennai and Tamil Nadu editions of Deccan Chronicle)
