The By-poll Results: A Defeat for BJP's Divisive Agenda

The Indian people have given their verdict on the divisive politics of the BJP. Out of 32 assembly seats that went for by-elections, BJP which had held 26 of these seats, has lost 13 and won only 13. In the areas in UP that saw communal riots and high decibel attacks on the Muslims -- love jihad, madrasas being terrorist nurseries and meat export promoting terrorism – the people have rejected the BJP.

The BJP had held all the 11 seats in UP that went to the polls, it had led with huge margins in all these during the Lok Sabha polls. This time around, SP has wrested 8 of these seats with BJP managing to retain only 3. In other states too, BJP has not done well, losing seats that it had won earlier. It has lost 3 seats in Rajasthan out of the 4 going to the polls and also lost 3 of its seating seats in Gujarat. Only exception to this trend was in West Bengal, where Trinamool's corruption as shown by the Sharada scam and its tacit alliance with Jamaat, including transferring of money to Bangladesh Jamaat, helped the BJP.

Image Courtesy: flickr.com

While the Rajasthan and Gujarat shows that the BJP's Lok Sabha sheen is wearing off, the real lesson is that communal violence and polarising the communities does not work. While Modi was going all over the world in designer clothes, talking about his “international” vision and had launched a high voltage media campaign about his 100 days, the reality was a vicious communal campaign on the ground, particularly in western UP.

The star campaigner for the BJP was Adaityanath, a four-time MP and a known hate monger. His speeches on how Hindus should convert 100 Muslim girls against one Hindu girl being converted, was only a small sample of his virulence. This was followed by other heavyweights – Maneka Gandhi, the one-time heroine of the emergency along with Sanjay Gandhi, who is today in the BJP. She claimed that exporting meat was equal to terrorism. The argument is a simple one – primarily the meat business is in the hands of the Muslims. This is an attack on the entire butcher community and its livelihood. Amit Shah in his speeches during the Lok Sabha elections had warned that if BJP won, it would ban the “butcher-khanas through which the Muslims are becoming rich”. There is also Sakhsi Maharaj, the BJP MP from Unnao, one more of the so-called god-men whose primary occupation is preaching hate; he campaigned that madrasas are teaching terrorism.

The BJP big-wigs maintained a studied silence on the utterances of their star campaigners in UP. They believed – as did Amit Shah, the BJP president – that polarising communities would lead to BJP winning. After all, the Hindus are a majority and a communal polarisation on communal lines could only help the BJP. This was Amit Shah's UP blueprint that had brought rich dividend during the Lok Sabha elections. Not only this did not happen this time, BJP has lost seats that it had won in the last elections, and that too by big margins.

The BJP believed that while Modi takes the high ground of governance, the campaign on the ground would be to consolidate the Hindu community under the banner of Hidutva. Spreading of communal poison, giving a communal twist to any incident involving a Hindu or a Muslim, economic attack on the Muslims, attacking secular text books, asking for bans on books which takes critical view of history, all of these have at their end objective a fracturing of communities. A permanent fracture in which communities would look at each other with suspicion and led by those who spread hate.

The people of western UP, where the communal experiment of the BJP was at its highest pitch, have temporarily defeated the BJP's designs. But the vote for SP should not be read by SP as an endorsement of its policies. The absence of governance, its inability to stop the BJP's communal agenda, the continuation of low level violence in these areas are a long term danger to the SP and also to the state.

It is also clear from the results in Rajasthan and Gujarat that BJP's victory in the Lok Sabha elections was more a defeat for the Congress, its policy of aggressive neoliberal reforms and anti-people policies. Modi was seen as somebody who would deliver on governance and stop the crony capitalism that Manmohan Singh had made the hall-mark of the UPA 2 government. Till now, Modi has little to show in terms of governance, only grandiose promise. What is constant is the neoliberal agenda – disinvestment, anti-labour reforms, and attacks on the inclusive India we had built as a part of our anti-colonial movement.

The Modi aura is rapidly disappearing. No other PM has had such a short honeymoon with the electorate. It is his failure to give any new direction, combined with his divisive image and the aggressive communal agenda that has been set by the BJP that has led to this quick alienation from the people. What the people need now is a positive agenda; this is what the left and secular forces have to set for the people; a program that is inclusive and based on peoples rights, not on hatred.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's personal views, and do not necessarily represent the views of Newsclick