Punditry with flaws
After the September bye-elections, the editorialists quickly claimed Modi had lost his appeal.
But now they have gone back to singing paeans to Modi and his strategist Amit Shah, says DARIUS NAKHOONWALA (Pix: Amit Shah)
You don’t say!
Darius Nakhoonwala
Winning is all, or as the Hindi saying goes, “Jo jeeta woh Sikandar.” Thus it is that until May 16, 2014, when Narendra Modi delivered a simple majority to the BJP, many editorialists regarded him as a bounder. This was despite the fact that he had won in Gujarat three times running. But from May onwards, he became the toast of the town.
Then in September the BJP lost in some municipal and other bye-elections. The editorialists were quick to claim that Modi had lost his appeal. The Opposition crowed and crowed but, as it turns out now, prematurely because the same Modi had delivered two more victories in Maharashtra and Haryana where the Congress stands decimated.
So what are the edit boys saying? The Indian Express says that “the ‘Modi wave’ is now pushing against states’ shores...by taking Haryana and Maharashtra...the Modi-led BJP has signalled a new form of federal politics.” The paper notes with just a note of worry that “the BJP did not project its state leadership, the spotlight remained only on Modi.”
It then comes up with the superb insight. “In other words, after a de-regionalisation of the Centre, the Modi-led BJP could well be attempting a renewed centralisation of state politics.” Like Mogambo, Darius khush hua. But the edit was unable to sustain this thought and the rest of it was just waffle.
The Hindu which used to be so determinedly opposed to Modi, simpered coyly in endlessly repetitive sentences with which I shall not bore you here. It focused entirely on the BJP’s election strategy instead of pondering over the politics of the future, except to add, almost as an afterthought at the very end, that “the real challenge for the party is to remain the pole star in a unipolar polity, to grow without bringing the other parties together. That is extremely difficult, not just at the all-India level, but even in any State in India.”
The Times of India referred to the key ingredient of the Amit Shah strategy, the only paper to do so. “Combining the personal appeal of Modi’s larger-than-life persona with customised constituency-level strategies, this new political alchemy has kept BJP on a roll.” Absolutely. Shah is a details man who does not believe in the Congress-type one-size-fits-all strategy.
As might be expected, the Pioneer was cock-a-hoop that the “the people have emphatically rejected the Congress and placed the Bharatiya Janata Party in the pole position.” But instead of telling its readers about the BJP’s tactics and strategies which it is in a very good position to do as a major supporter of the BJP – its editor is a BJP MP –it grated on about the Congress’s decline. Yawn! Enough salt unto the wounds. Get on with it.
The Hindustan Times took the time and space to write two separate edits on Maharashtra and Haryana. On Maharashtra, it said Modi and Shah “once again turned electioneering into a high-voltage micro-managed combat” and then focused on the immediate what next question of government formation: would the BJP and Shiv Sena get together again? It was the only paper to observe that “a coherent Opposition is unlikely to emerge from this mess.” About Haryana it had nothing new to say.
The Telegraph, which takes its Sabbath seriously, woke up on Monday to write an edit that reminded readers that some BJP leaders at least who might have been worried that the Modi wave was wearing off, was intact. “After the startling losses in the by-elections of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, Haryana’s assembly election results vindicated the upbeat mood of the BJP president, Amit Shah, and that of the prime minister, Narendra Modi.” But went on to say that “the famed ‘Modi magic’ faltered (because) in spite of Mr Modi’s vigorous campaigningand Mr Shah’s micromanagement, the BJP ended up 22 seats short of a majority...(This) suggests that the grounds of the BJP’s belief in Mr Modi’s invincibility still has a few cracks.”
The Tribune editor, whose interest in Haryana is like that of the Hindu’s in Tamil Nadu or the Telegraph’s in Bengal, was also off playing golf on Sunday, it seems. “The party's decision to go it alone has paid off in Haryana but Maharashtra has shown that allies too are required.” Right on, Mac. But should you not have written more about Haryana and not focused almost wholly on Maharastra?
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