Technology has filtered into the Indian countryside today. A party striving to bring in welfare should take a leaf out from Modi’s development product in the electoral battle
Many congratulations to Shree Narendra Damodardas Modi for his electoral triumph. Congratulations to the BJP as well for winning majority on its own. Wish the Modi-led NDA Government all the success. This after all, is a proof that how democracy has thrived in a socially diverse India.
Just that the BJP didn’t have any serious history of electoral politics in States of West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, these states escaped the Modi Tsunami. Instead of blaming electronic medium that indeed looked partisan, let us explore some more complex issues that gave the kind of thumping mandate even the BJP strategists didn’t expect.
While others promised goodies and subsidies, Modi kept promising development — Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. The Vikas slogan worked wonders in these elections because of a very distinctive social contest the present day India lives in. Economics and money are a talking point amongst Indians of all shades. Three days back, I was getting a haircut in my locality. Co-workers in the saloon were congratulating a young hairdresser for his latest electronic gadget — a Samsung Galaxy Duos.
Back home, I found out that I too owned the same phone that came for about Rs10,000. I was overhearing the conversation; the proud man explained how he would keep aside his tip money in a plastic pack to buy his dream phone.
While a cell phone is every one’s need, touch-screen cell phones are aspirations of even the underclass youth. Coming to the middle class apartment I live in, I feel so privileged watching India changing every second. It is a virtual phenomenon that flat screen lCD TV sets are replacing box TV sets. Split ACs are replacing the window ACs. Old styled kitchen is being replaced by modular kitchen. Small cars are now taboo too.
I visited my village during last phase of elections; even poor households are aspiring for dish antennas. Mushrooming of beauty clinics even on the roadside bazaars is a reality too.Four weeks back, a relative was engaged with a boy who, like her, works for an American software company in Pune. She visited a beauty clinic for makeup worth Rs10,000.
Today, male lipstick has a growing market too because people are splurging on self-grooming. Even marketplaces, trains or queues at milk-vending shops will show you that hair colouring has become a phenomenon.
The Indian society at this point is busy in self-grooming that requires money. So, anyone talking of money draws instant attention of the society.
look on the other hand, the Congress’ attempt of marketing Food Bill for an electoral win. Famous demographer and economic analyst Ashish Bose had tagged BIMARU status to four Hindi speaking States — Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Jharkhand was carved out of Bihar, and Chhattisgarh from Madhya Pradesh. While Bose gave BIMARU status some 40 years ago, these States, now six in number, are still backward in comparison to the rest of India.
The BIMARU States put together have 199 lok Sabha seats — Jharkhand-14, Bihar-40, Chhattisgarh-11, Madhya Pradesh-29, Rajasthan-25 and Uttar Pradesh-80. If the Food Security Bill, Mid-Day Meal Scheme, and MNAREGA had to have maximum impact on any part of India, it should have been these states. Alas, the Congress Party could win just seven seats from BIMARU States.
The BSP was marketing Dalit Ki Beti Pradhan Mantri as a product but the followers weren’t much enthused. The party base has shrunk outside Uttar Pradesh, though the home State is fine with 19.0 plus percentage of votes. Tired of the overdose of ‘secularism’, voters turned back giving a big shock to the Samajwadi party.
With cell phones turning into a household reality even in the countryside, India is changing every second. Material markers are replacing all markers, including caste. An Identity and welfare based party needs to learn from Modi’s development product in an electoral battle.