Now that the din and dust of the elections has settled, it’s time to sit back and think about the future and how it will unfold. No doubt the BJP scored a big total in its second innings, it doesn’t have to mean that the party has been given a ticket to absolute control over the people. In the fallout of the election, it should be incumbent on the Election Commission to investigate the allegation of the Congress in what it says is a major fraud in the EVM system. In the election itself, the Election Commission took action against a few for breaking the Model Code of Conduct, while it gave a clean chit to Modi. 

Five years of the Modi sarkar has proved that the democratic institutions are under siege, so much so that it was commonly believed that many were just “caged bird”.  As epitome of propriety, the Supreme Court sort of sinned a little by falling into the same trap and then taking a resilient step to outside it. It made its voice heard, no matter some of its actions invited deep scrutiny and sarcasm. In the circumstances, the Supreme Court would be called to task more often than not in the future and its performance will be closely watched. The Supreme Court indeed is the last recourse for the common man. 

In the BJP’s victory, we now see God’s politics in action. India has begun to see a new vision for faith and politics. The Jai Shri Ram campaign is the first thrust of its Hinduvta politics by the BJP that has Bengal raging with anger. West Bengal is now a glaring case of the wrath that may spread to other parts of the country.  A deliberate attempt at polarisation came up during the campaign and it has now turned ruinous. Inter-party war between the BJP and TMC has resulted in deaths of members of both parties, and has created an atmosphere of fear and apprehension across the land. It could be worse than the cyclonic storm that hit certain parts of the country. Beware, the tides of religious hatred can sweep away the nation.

In hindsight, BJP’s victory can be attested to a few key factors. Just as Modi rode on the wave of social media marketing and political rhetoric of beating the drums of New India, whatever it meant. However, in the five years the BJP tried some tricks in putting the New India vision into motion. It met with little success and, pointedly, the flops in financial sector of the economy failed to earn the government the support and appreciation of people. Demonetisation can be readily dismissed as a much-ballyhooed balloon that deflated in quick time. Spike in unemployment rates and rise in farmer suicides are glaring indexes of BJP’s failing economic drive that one hopes could be corrected in the BJP’s resurrected stage. 

It’s no good harping on the might of its military against a weak and decadent enemy such as Pakistan and waging a ruthless war in its domestic grounds such as Kashmir. Both problems have been with India since 1947. Political decisions taken in the past by the Congress government have to be seen and analysed in the context of the then prevailing situations. Let’s wait and see if the BJP secures a big majority in the Rajya Sabha so that they can fulfill its promise to get rid of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution. But what guarantee it will put an end to Kashmir’s problems? Or, will such firm action beget a strong reaction from within Kashmir?

The BJP is out to prove its “muscular Hinduvta”, as it showered itself with praise over the airstrike in Pakistan. The only tactical benefit of such an adventure what that it gained the party thousands of votes. The Hinduvta war on minorities in India itself is a self-defeating exercise by the radical elements. Besides the Muslims, the Christians are also the targets.

Modi has reached out to the minorities as he wants an inclusive India. I, for one, will never fall for this type of gambit. It gives the lie away that the Modi sarkar chose Partap Sarangi, the then Odissa chief of Bajrang Dal, which carried out the dastardly attack on the Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two children in 1999, and also had Pragya Singh Thakur, the Malegaon blast accused, get a seat in the august house of Parliament.

Time to incorporate the social and moral issues into the political debate. No point in blaming Congress, while the BJP has its own hands with blood on it. The Congress misdeeds, such as the anti-Sikh riots in 1984, cannot be absolved and the BJP’s attempt to punish the guilty should not be contaminated by its disgust for the Congress. At the same time, the Modi sarkar should show its uprightness in public values by taking away ministerial portfolio of Sarangi and ensuring that Pragya Thakur faces the full onslaught of the law. The new vision of faith and politics is no good for New India.

(Eugene Correia is a senior journalist who worked for The Hindu)