India in game-change general elections

Larweh Therson-Cofie Opinion May - 30 - 2014 , 15:33

The 2014 general elections in India have ended up as a dramatic and historic game-changer. The Indian Congress Party that ruled the world’s largest democracy since 1947, with 18 years in opposition, received only 44 of the 543 parliamentary seats.

A nationalist party, known as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), scooped 282 seats that are sufficient for it to form a government of its own.

Such had never happened in India since 1984 in a subcontinent of more than 800 million voters where government could not be formed without political alliances.

In all, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the BJP, had 336 out of 543 seats in the Indian House of Representatives known as the Lok Sabha.

United Progressive Alliance (UPA), led by the Indian Congress Party (ICP), won just 58 seats.

The grandfather of all political parties in India founded by Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru suffered the worst defeat by a ruling political party since independence in 1947.

Rahul Gandhi, son of the assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was not able to pull the Gandhi magic wand to secure victory.

An array of full-blood relations with Sonia Gandhi (the mother) as president of the Congress Party and Rahul Gandhi (her son) as vice-president and 2014 presidential candidate, was rebuffed by an electorate that had made up its mind for a political landscape change.

And the beneficiary of the dynasty posture in post-modern India has been Narendra Modi, an Indian politician of a humble upbringing, a celibate or bachelor and an ascetic.

The general elections that ran in nine phases began on April 7, 2014 and ended on May 12.

More than 814 million Indians were registered to vote. And that is the largest voter register in Indian political history and in the world.

Some 23.1 million of the registered voters, or 2.7 per cent, were between the age group of 18 and 19 years.

Average voter turnout was 66.38 per cent which is the largest ever recorded.

In the last general elections in 2009, the BJP-led alliance secured 159 seats with 116 of those seats going to the BJP.

The UPA, led by the Congress Party, had 262 of the 543, with Congress Party securing 206.

Why did the great-grand son of Mahatma Gandhi suffer such a humiliating defeat in Indian politics?

Observers and analysts have blamed Rahul Gandhi’s defeat on rising food prices, slow economic growth, unemployment, inequality and mounting corruption scandals.

The shift in political allegiance has also been attributed to urbanisation, rising literacy and attitudinal change.

Voters found the victor, 63-year old Narendra Modi, modest, humble, tactical, astute and appealing to young voters.

Rahul Gandhi, 43, was young and inexperienced and unappealing to, especially the poor and those voting for the first time.

Modi is seen as a game-changer and a new political leader who is expected to protect the poor and vulnerable groups within India’s class-conscious society.

Analysts have described the BJP victory as “revolutionary” and “a democratic asteroid”.

Prof. Ashutosh Varshney of Brown University wrote in an article in the Indian Express, a newspaper: “It is a game-changer – a radical shift in social bases of power that is not transitory but long term. A new era is upon us.”

“Politics of accomplishment has replaced politics of inheritance”, a BJP leader, Ravi Sankar Prasad, has said.

“The Dynasty per se is finished. It will be a long slow death but it is incredibly difficult to see them recover from here,” an Indian political historian and commentator, Ramachandra Guha, has said.

Some observers and commentators presented different opinions.

For example, Mani Shankar Aiyar of NDTV, an Indian television channel, has said: “Most political parties do not think the removal of the leader is the solution to the problem.”

After their defeat, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the Italian-born widow of assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and her son, Rahul Gandhi, offered to resign as president and vice-president, respectively, of the Congress Party.

However, the Congress Party did not accept their resignation. Probably, the party hoped to stage a comeback.

The Congress Party was defeated by the BJP before but it came back and ruled for several years.

After governing India for 30 years, Congress Party lost to the BJP in 1977. Morarji Desai (81) of the BJP took over from Mrs Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister.

Coming back may not be easy this time for the Congress Party because the political, economic, social and cultural conditions are different.

Widespread corruption is said to be one of the causes of the defeat of the Congress Party in the 2014 elections.

It is surprising, however, that 186 MPs in the 2014 Indian Parliament have criminal records pending in courts against them. One-third of MPs in the 2014 Parliament have criminal charges.

Out of the 186 MPs, 112 have serious criminal charges. The incoming BJP has 98 of its MPs with criminal charges.

In contrast, Narendra Modi, the new Prime Minister, is said to be honest and is regarded as a leader with clean records.

He became leader of the BJP in 2013. Born in Gujarat, near New Delhi, the national capital, Modi became Chief Minister of Gujarat state in 2001.

Modi is seen as the brain behind outstanding economic successes of that state.