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While penning an obituary for Arvind N Das, one of the best-known modern-day intellectuals from Bihar, his mentor Dileep Padgaonkar wrote in 2000: “In his eyes, Bihar was a metaphor for India itself. At a pinch, he would have deemed it to be the very centre of the universe. While he loathed its venal, caste-ridden, ineffective governance, the violent nature of its society, its decrepit intellectual and cultural life and the slothful ways of its elite, he never missed an opportunity to recall its rich cultural and spiritual legacy, the noble character of its long-suffering people and the revolutionary potential of its youth.”
A social scientist, Das’ assortment of seminal essays had been printed as e book titled Republic of Bihar.
Addressing occasion staff at a operate to have fun BJP-led National Democratic Alliance’s victory in Bihar election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too stated, “Bihar loktantra ki janmabhoomi hai (Bihar is the cradle of democracy).”
Modi and Das come from diametrically reverse ideologies, however nonetheless there is one thing in the nation’s politically most advanced state that it invitations such admiration.
Those analysing ballot outcomes ought to take a cue from Das’ dictum of Bihar being a metaphor for India. This election has given all people their due. While it has given extra seats to stability, it has additionally given a massive pat to novelty. While it has given thumbs as much as espousers of Marxian theorems, it’s the proper of the centre which has emerged the last winner. In quick, voters have risen and vote banks have shrunk.
The NDA has gained, and one issue which has contributed most is the political momentum which Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered to the occasion. To use a metaphor from cricket, BJP strategists realise that Bihar occurred as a result of Narendra Modi batted for them in the loss of life overs. While this can be a trigger for nice confidence but it surely’s much like the state of affairs the place Sunil Gavaskar would flip up for Bombay to make sure victory in Ranji Trophy. So, the first takeaway from the end result is that Modi’s push noticed NDA cross the Rubicon in the politically delicate state.
Now, the second — return of the Left. As predicted, the CPI (Maoist-Leninist) Liberation emerged as the X-factor in the polls. Contesting for the first time as half of an alliance, consequent to their chief Deepankar Bhattacharya’s resolution to finish radical isolation and comply with pragmatic politics, CPI(ML) has given a sign about its presence throughout the state, particularly in the rural areas. The seats gained by them present a clear development of bipolar contest with massive vote shares.
They was gained in lots of constituencies trouncing their closest rival by enormous margins and snatching some shut contests. Winning 12 out of the 19 seats they contested, the strike fee of CPI(ML) in these polls is 63 p.c, that is subsequent solely to the BJP.
Given their efficiency, there can’t be any doubt about CPI(ML) cadre contributing to the spectacular margin which the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Mahagathbandhan managed to notch – 110 in opposition to 125 scored by NDA.
This brings us to a different attention-grabbing truth, which has largely been neglected – failure of the Rashtriya Janata Dal to evolve into a non-caste entity regardless of finest efforts by its management. Taking into consideration the quantity of seats contested and gained, the RJD, regardless of rising as the largest occasion in the state, managed a median strike fee of 52 p.c. Not to overlook that it was the dominant associate of the Mahagathbandhan alliance and never equal associate with Congress or the Left, as in the case of BJP-JD(U) in the rival NDA.
In the case of the NDA, it was BJP’s excessive strike fee of 67 p.c which compensated for the JD(U)’s low strike fee of 35 p.c. This raises the risk of larger success had the RJD ceded some extra seats from its quota to the Left somewhat than the Congress being blamed for not doing it. The social composition of the CPI(ML) voters overlaps with RJD and never the Congress.
The aforementioned information additionally point out the limitations of the regional events, that are largely deficit of ideology and principally depending on caste composition, in countering pan-India agenda of the BJP. RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav understood this shortfall and tried finest to maintain the ballot narrative native, refusing to interact on points which might have led to polarization on the communal points. But his ‘novelty’ didn’t possess a lot efficiency to demolish the stability which the NDA has been offering to the state.
Coming again to Arvind N Das’ concept of Bihar being a metaphor for India, what is the message for regional events throughout the spectrum? The before everything, BJP-led alliance is now managing to win regardless of its failure to polarize voters on communal strains. This provides power to their arsenal. Second, the days of post-Mandal caste politics are nearly over. This bears significance for regional events in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh as effectively. To counter a Modi-led BJP, they must devise a technique which might compensate for the rising irrelevance of caste and community-based vote financial institution politics.
The author is a senior journalist and political analyst. Views expressed are private
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