The Modi juggernaut rolled into the North-East with some artful backroom manoeuvring and the heady promise of change, demolishing the left and the Congress
The year 2000 was historic for the Jawaharlal Nehru University. The popular and fiercely articulate Sandeep Mahapatra of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) won the president's post of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union by defeating his rival from Students’ Federation of India (SFI), the students wing of the Communist Party of India-Marxists (CPI-M) by one vote. This was epoch-making for a variety of reasons. In its three decades of existence, barring a few exceptions, this was the first time that the left was trounced; not by Congress's student arm, the National Students Union of India (NSUI), but by the Right-wing ABVP, whose ideology often attracted scorn in the predominantly left bastion for many decades. Sandeep's win was also the culmination of a process which had started around 1990, when in the backdrop of turbulent political developments, triggered by the Mandal plank (Mandal Commission) of the then Prime Minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh, the ABVP had begun to assert itself in the campus. This win was also significant as signalled that the Red-laced campus, which had largely remained immune to developments outside, was finally beginning to reflect the changing national mood. Barely a year ago, Atal Bihari Vajpayee led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had won the general elections, and the ascent of ABVP was in a way a reiteration of the same mood.
History of sorts was repeated on March 3, when in its most humiliating defeats ever, the CPIM was trounced in its turf which it had ruled (many would say ruined) for 25 long years. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) surprised many when it registered win with 35 seats (43 per cent vote share) and its ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) bagged eight seats, reducing the CPI-M to 16 and Congress to zero. For many liberal political analysts, who though acknowledged BJP's rise but suspected such a surge in seats — the results came as a severe blow. And despite many of them saying that this could have a minuscule impact on the national politics or the upcoming general elections next year, the results are highly significant, and for following reasons.
First and foremost, it is a victory for people's trust in the promise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi continues to draw unprecedented admiration and trust of people from across the country. People see him as someone who only cares about development and progress; his words resonate with and inspire the voters. So, when in an Agartala election rally Modi asked people to replace manik (gemstone) with hira (diamond), which stood for Highway, I-Way, Roadway and Airway, it immediately struck a chord. They believed in him and voted for him.
The second reason why this result is important is because that challenged old frameworks and proved that nothing works in silos in Indian democracy. Those who heard Modi’s thanks-giving speech at the BJP headquarters on March 3 must have noted one critical statement that he made — Tripura results demonstrate that through diligent communication you can reach out to people in remotest corners of the country, convince them about your ideologies and policies and translate these into votes. This was true in case of Tripura and shall continue to hold.
But for that, you have to have a nice set of communicators. And that's the third reason why this result is significant. The Congress may take a leaf out of it — mere hollow rhetorics come to a big cropper as far as swaying people's imagination is concerned. You need a fine bunch of committed leaders and if they are endowed with sharp oratorical skills, that makes your task easy. This is incidentally embedded into the DNA of BJP leadership. look at the very dynamic Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, one of the key architects of BJP's historic win, and you begin to admire the enormous power the party holds in such gifted leaders. Sarma campaigned extensively in Tripura and the way he aroused passion around what BJP called Chalo Paltai (let's change) was remarkable. His election rallies were well-attended, extended often till late evenings, and despite delivering his speeches in Hindi to a largely Bengali-speaking population, he drew thunderous applause. And as time proved, all these applauses were filled with conviction, and eventually translated into substantial votes.
Young politicians aspiring to go anywhere close to where Sarma is, should watch his speeches on YouTube and Facebook. His tweets also captured the mood beautifully and transmitted to a wider audience outside Tripura. Good communication is critical to winning elections today.
Fourthly, the Tripura verdict is also important because it yet again buttresses BJP's position as an unrivalled political party when it comes to acumen, the setting of goals, taking the challenges head-on and designing unique strategy each time. It reaffirms BJP president Amit Shah as one of the best ever strategists in the history of Indian politics and a consummate architect gifted with drawing unrivalled designs that only opens its door to victory.
And last but not the least, Tripura verdict yet again proves, the irreversible downward slide of the Congress party and its continued bonhomie with illusion and irrelevance.
(The writer is a strategic communications professional)