So the results
are out today, May 19, and as expected as the exit polls, with Congress and its
allies losing in all the four states of Kerala, WB and Assam and TN. Its only
in tiny Pondicherry that they have made miniscule gains. The Left too has been
defeated for the second time in a row in its former bastion of West Bengal
where it had ruled unopposed for 34 years, way worse than it had been in the
last election. In effect, its just Kerala where the Left holds power and
Karnataka and Uttarakhand , among the larger states which have Congress
governments. So is this the end of Congress and Left?
Hardly.
We often forget
that being in power is not limited to being elected into public office. The
real power lies in dominating the psyche and memory of the people and
controlling the narrative. It lies in having built a strong base from which
multiple attempts to gain power can be made, and also successful attempts to
stall the programmes of the government in power.
Out of the
nearly seven decades of our country’s independence (haha), it has been largely
a one party state, ruled by the Congress, with the only exceptions being
1977-80, 1990-91, 1998-2004 and the current scenario post 2014. In that time,
it has moulded the entire structure of the polity to suit its own needs.
Bureaucracy is the biggest of them. Politicians come and go, but its the
bureaucrats who run the actual wheels of the government machinery. It is them who
implement the government directives and also help to formulate them.
And we all know
that there is no one who can insure their self interests better than
bureaucrats in India. The very strength of the bureaucratic lobby in India can
be gauged by the fact that not a single bureaucrat has got a long prison
sentence for any crime, and none of them have ever been dismissed for
incompetence. To stay in plum posts , the bureaucrats develop good relations
and nexus with politicians, preferably the ruling party ones and those given
cabinet posts. It helps not only them in the long term, but also their future
generations. In turn, the ruling party does everything it can, to ensure that
its legacy and rule stays, whether it be the education system (to make sure the
students grow upto the citizens who become lifelong voters and if not, have no
thinking power to change the status quo), populist measures (freebies to the
working class , making them devoid of self reliance and making them into
entitlement leeches) or the recruitment of govt servants including
bureaucrats (to make sure that they remain loyal to them, implement their
policies, ensure that the state machinery is always favourable to them, even
when they are out of power). And yes, this extends to judiciary too, favouring
certain judges to rise up in the ranks to be appointed to high courts or to the
supreme court, so that the verdicts are always in their favour to buy more
time.
Congress has
done all of the above exceptionally well during their five decade plus rule on
India. Most of the bureaucracy and judiciary is pro Congress, as most of the
senior career bureaucrats and judges have started their careers during the time
when Congress enjoyed absolute majority, and therefore made long term relations
with them. Noone rewards loyalty as well as Congress, and the party shields its
leaders as well as associates against all legal consequences in case of any
wrong doing. Congress may be down to just 44 seats, but it has stalled the
parliament again and again and has not allowed key bills to pass. BJP has been
helpless, inspite of being in full majority in the Lok Sabha. Congress does not
need to be in the government to be in power in India, anyone who thinks
otherwise is far from reality. It will keep using its judicial and bureaucratic
machinery it has nurtured to undermine their detractors . Being out of power
for one or two terms wont deter it anyway.
The left has
lost its bastion of West Bengal completely in 2011 which they ruled with an
iron hand for 34 years. It was under them that West Bengal became Waste Bengal.
Today, the left is in power in Kerala and Tripura, which do not amount to even
5% of India’s population combined. Communism is a shape shifting monster. It is
still alive and kicking today, in the garb of progressivism, which is
deceptively called liberalism. A progressive in reality is not a liberal, it is
an individual who is “progressing” towards a common goal of the collective. All
the world over, it is the left that controls the media and academia and India
is no exception to this rule. They completely control the narrative, and when
you throw in the fact that they control history writing too, the picture is
complete. Whenever the name evil comes up, people have Hitler on their mind.
But not the faintest of thought is given to Stalin and Mao whose combined tally
of victims today extends the population of many countries. All the crimes of
communists have been white washed from history. In India too, seculibs keep
barking about Modi and 2002, but not one word is uttered about how CPIM
supported the Pakistan demand and how they murdered over 50000 plus people
during their reign in WB. No word about hundreds of RSS workers murdered by the
communists but if one communist student leader gets arrested, all hell breaks
loose. Thats the power of narrative.
No amount of
grandiose schemes of economic reform will be of any use, unless the
bureaucratic red tape is cut down, or the power of the bureaucracy is
curtailed. And the left dominated media and academia cannot be allowed to carry
on their vicious propaganda if any sort of good doing by the government is to
be made known. Thats where any new government faces its challenge. Congress and
Left have been each others enemies, but they are totally fine with burying the
hatchet temporarily to fight BJP.
The RSS/BJP have
still not learnt media management, and always seem to fall for the trap of
playing by the enemy’s rules and viewing the world through the enemy’s glasses. They are too full of themselves and
this costs them heavily. They have got another chance to consolidate, if they
lose it now, they might not get another.
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