The results of the elections in five Indian states should worry Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After what had seemed to be an unstoppable series of BJP electoral triumphs since May 2014, conditions have now come to a pass where the BJP looks vulnerable.
The vulnerability has to do with a number of factors, primarily with the government's inability to have its message resonate with large sections of the population any more. There is little question that at the social level, the Modi government has initiated measures which are truly appreciable.
On the larger canvas of national politics, however, the BJP has clearly pursued an agenda which has militated against the traditional course of Indian politics. In effect, the BJP's attempt to rewrite the rules of the game, indeed to recast history to its own specifications has not been conducive to the progress of democracy in India.
The elections have been a victory of sorts for the opposition Congress in a very long time. Till yesterday Rahul Gandhi was being taken lightly or was being dismissed as a man who was no match for Modi. But that appears to have changed and the tone employed by Gandhi at his press conference on Tuesday was reflective of a politician quite prepared to handle his country's future.
The Congress has taken Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh; it is, as this editorial is being written, in a see-saw battle with the BJP in Madhya Pradesh; it has lost to the Mizo National Front in Mizoram; and Telangana has had no room for it.
The positive picture emerging from these electoral realities is that the BJP has slipped badly. Obviously, it is now an opportunity for the Congress and other secular forces in India to come together despite the many and varied differences which keep them apart. In the years since 2014, the Hindutva agenda the BJP and its allies have pursued with such vigour has sadly pushed India in the wrong direction.
Again, the party's attempts to force a change in the traditional character of such academic institutions as Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) have revealed an intolerant streak on the part of the government. The prime minister has acknowledged his party's defeat at the elections, but that does little to absolve him of his manifest attempts to undermine the legacy of such makers of Indian history as Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
Just how wrong the government has been in some major areas has now been reflected in the departure of Urjit Patel, the chief of the Reserve Bank of India, amid a growing struggle between the government and the RBI. Earlier, it was Raghunath Rajan's turn to quit.
The election results have sent out a meaningful message to the ruling BJP. It can either shape up through adopting a more tolerant tranche of policies or it can continue to follow the old course that has now led it to this pass. The consequences will be there at the general elections to be held in a few months' time.
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