Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
Democracies are strange animals. Take the US of A, the oldest. The Presidential candidate ( POTUS) wins the popular vote across 50 States by three million votes. Yet Hilary Rodham Clinton loses in 2016. Not the first one. Out of the past 6 elections, every Republican President made it to the White House despite losing the popular stakes in the hustings. Strange. Yes.
The U.S. Constitution has devised a peculiar creature called the ‘Electoral College’ comprising identified electors from the 50 States. The winning candidate has to get 272 electors to become POTUS. And the electors come in different shapes and sizes from the fifty different States and popular votes get thrown into the dustbin. That is US democracy for you!
Much like that, we today have this peculiar phenomenon in the Indian General Elections. The India Alliance has sought the resignation of the Prime Minister who led the National Democratic Alloance to an ‘unprecedented third time running’ win, as the ruling dispensation, on the ground that he had suffered a ‘moral’ loss.
It is true that the NDA rhetoric was ‘ Chaar so paar’ – past 400. That was political rhetoric. It was akin to India Alliance suggesting that they were getting 295 plus and ‘defeating NDA lock, stock and barrel’. And they are also reported to be getting into the act of poaching the 3 Ns- Nitish ( Kumar), Naidu ( Chandrababu) and Naveen ( Patmaik). And that is as moral as it comes, in Indian politics!
NDA was a pre poll alliance. They have handsomely crossed the 272 mark. Go back to pre 2014 era after 1984 Rajiv Gandhi win. 290 seats plus would have been treated as hugely satisfying and extremely difficult to accomplish. The leading national parties would have taken it any day and not asked the leader who led them, to ‘resign’.
It is only because Modi led two NDA terms with BJP crossing 272 seats, the perception has gained ground that BJP has lost. Have they? Yes, by the lofty standards or utopian at one level they set for themselves. Otherwise, they are literally two and half times that of INC seats. For the sin of not making the high water mark, after two terms- Narendra Modi has to resign? Ridiculous demand by any yardstick.
We have the Victor perceived by the prejudiced, as Vanquished. And the Vanquished is claiming to be Victorious. One is sure that BJP would take it, in any and every state election or national election, to fall short of a majority themselves but forming the government as THE major coalition partner. No shame in it.
Politics is all about power grab. Might is right. Morality takes a back seat, all the time. INC is a past master at that. All other parties are their juniors, well trained by their ways. It is only that ‘others’ have bettered INC ways and now teaching them back. No party has the moral high ground to assume or occupy in the power game. First Past the Post wins. And by a Simple Majority.
Yes, perception matters in politics. But it cannot become the reality. It is numbers that matter. Failure of NDA to go beyond four hundred taints their win. No doubt. But, they have still Won as the pre poll alliance. That alone is fair game. That alone matters.
Modi’s tweet that it was an ‘unprecedented’ third term win is real. After two terms to triumph to get over anti-incumbency, is no joke. This is a near impossible task. That he set out on the 400 plus path itself sounds mind boggling. One seriously and sincerely felt NDA was setting too high a bar. So it has proved to be. But, still they cleared the primary target of 272 bar. The other side did not. Could not.
While NDA and BJP and Modi & Co may have a lot to introspect, their win is a WIN by any standard and an ‘unprecedented one’. Ultimately, crushing the false propaganda that Indian Democracy was in Danger, Democracy has actually Triumphed, with a strong opposition, say the voters in We the People!
(Writer is a practicing advocate in the Madras High Court)