The Indian Political spectrum, 2023
It's strange that I am beginning this article by stating that this is not an AI generated one and that sets the tone on how fast the world is changing and so is the political spectrum of India. The year 2023 was mixed bag for any political observer and commentator, people on either side of ideologies had their fair amounts of joy and sorrow, the number game became bigger and the mandates in each election became clearer and better. Having seen, written and read political scenarios of early 2000’s it is imperative to note that gone are the days of coalition, people today tend to gave an absolute mandate to one political party and expect bare minimum governance with transparency.
The country is becoming more self sufficient and so are the citizens, today very less people expect anything big from the government, they just hope that stability prevails in the corridors of assembly and parliament. The year 2023 was a year of elections, the semifinal year before the finals; from Tripura, Nagaland to Karnataka to the big 5 state elections in the year end, Indian Political Spectrum is fast changing, people need accountability and moreover they need someone who can instill a sense of confidence in them. It is fairly easy to state that the BJP dominated the 2023 state elections except Karnataka and Telangana but it is important to analyse why BJP dominated, there may be numerous factors but I feel, the sudden influx of nationality and accountability plays a very important role, where there is no accountability people vote against the incumbent party, Karnataka’s BJP rule lacked accountability; the north and south divide is just a ‘created hype’. In many ways Karnataka’s election result was a research material to the political spectrum, the word ‘Guarantee’ suddenly today plays such an important role, those who can offer one will get the seat, sooner the election commission acts on Guarantee schemes, better the system will be else days are not far to experience a Venezuela.
To me the strange aspect is the conviction with which these schemes are being implemented, this was a first in a country where promises are for air theory was debunked at a certain level, the repercussions don’t matter but implementation brings them trust thus setting a dangerous precedence. Tomorrow anyone with some strategy and caste calculations can come in with a guarantee that can woo people like a whisker. As I wrote through the year in bits about every election that happened, many questioned me if caste a dominant factor in Indian elections?
I think, No More. Nicely dressed TV journalists can project caste in many impressive graphs and numbers but the ground reality is there is consolidation of votes either in favour of BJP or congress and for time BJP is doing great, this success of BJP can be attributed to the Prime Minister Modi who has the knack of connecting to the masses, this happens once in 20 years in the political spectrum. Some of the biggest world leaders failed to read the pulse but the prime minister till date has never missed a target. I think he can read the pulse because he feels he is accountable and answerable to people.
Year 2023 belonged to BJP and there is no doubt about it, though karnataka was a prized possession to congress, the win in rest of India especially the north where majority of Lok Sabha seats come is Game, Set and Done for the third term of PM Modi. There is a wave for right wing across the world, from Italy to Netherlands to UK, countries are rejecting communism, the pseudo concept which is very aristocratic in nature talking about farmers with a capitalistic whiskey imported from the hills of scots has lost its charm. There is a classic saying that age group from 18 to 28 always align to left and from 28 to 33 align to centre and 33 to rest of the life, they swear by right, I feel this is fast changing, young adults are now more oriented to stability and not ideology.
All is well if it ends well, BJP is pinning dreams of a third term, the massive alliance of INDI bloc is expecting a miracle and amidst all this is a common man sitting in hope.
2024, should be interesting one…..
-Abhishek Iyengar