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'He has emerged as a formidable leader who cannot be ignored anymore, who cannot be mocked.'
Finally the verdict is out.
It was contrary to the narrative of the mainstream media and the exit polls, more in alignment with the alternate voices.
Professor Apoorvanand, a strong critic of the politics followed by Narendra D Modi and the BJP, analyses the 2024 Lok Sabha election results.
"The Opposition by coming together showed to the people that there was a grave threat to the country and on the face of this grave threat, party interests don't matter, individual interests don't matter. They showed solidarity, and were generous towards each other," he tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
When we spoke after the exit polls were out, you had said they could not be true as the ground realities were quite different...
Though I was personally not on the ground, I was interacting with those who were constantly on the ground in states like Bihar, UP, Rajasthan, Karnataka, etc.
What I was hearing from different types of people was that the BJP was going to face defeat, that people were upset and angry with the BJP, that they felt the party had cheated them and that they had made up their minds to teach the BJP a lesson.
I also heard from my students who are from Bihar, UP, Rajasthan, etc that people, especially the youth were very upset with the BJP, and that they were working against the BJP.
In fact, they had taken it upon themselves to canvas against the BJP.
A vast youth population were feeling cheated because there were no employment prospects for them.
When I was hearing this from the ground from those who have no bias, the exit polls surprised and shocked me.
But the reality of the ground is reflected in the results.
Other than the issue of unemployment, do you think the language of divisive hate politics used by Narendra Modi worked against the party?
Though we have not studied the reasons and asked the people why they voted against the BJP, what the results tell you is that it (hate politics) might have upset people's sensibilities and sense of decency.
They might have felt slightly horrified that the prime minister was using such language. This is what we call in Hindi, sadak ka bhasha which is totally shone of dignity.
This might have offended people's sensibilities as we expect a certain decorum in people who are holding high positions.
I am not sure about this, but we can surmise this from the results.
Do you think even Hindus who are strong supporters of the BJP might have felt offended by its divisive politics?
Though I am not sure, I think there is a limit to violence against one community.
Yes, Hindus have certain biases against the Muslims but there was never a time in India where violence was the norm of the day.
What we see now is, violence has become the norm of the day.
Hate politics has affected the social fabric so much that Hindus might have sensed the tension.
After all, we have lived side by side in this country for 60 years before this government came to power.
Hindus might have felt, when Muslims had not caused any harm to them, why they were being brutalised.
And social injustice was being celebrated.
Maybe this was working in the minds of the people.
Did the way UP voted surprise you as many people did not expect the so-called bastion of the BJP to vote this way?
There is no surprise in the way UP voted.
In 1992, right after the demolition of the Babri Masjid, the BJP was defeated in UP.
Ram Mandir was never a guarantee to win the election.
Yes, many of us had given up on UP.
But there is nothing special to UP which cannot happen in other states. I always say that all the states are the same, and people of all states are susceptible to the emotions of hate, biases, etc.
It can happen in Tamil Nadu, it can happen in Kerala which are considered to be very progressive states.
The BJP opening its account in Kerala is unthinkable and it happened.
My friend in Ayodhya told me three weeks back that the BJP would be defeated by the people of Ayodhya.
It happened....
Yes, it happened. I am going to call and congratulate him on his prediction.
Why did he say the BJP would be defeated? Because if you look at Ayodhya soon after the Ram Mandir inauguration, you could see the sad plight of the people of Ayodhya.
Did you not use religion to dominate people and then loot their resources?
People of Ayodhya could see that their land was given to Adani.
I will tell you the experience I had the very next morning after the inauguration of the Ram temple.
I got a call from a number in Noida and a female voice told me that she was calling from such and such property dealer, and that there were plots available in Ayodhya!
She asked me, are you interested in those plots?
So, the very next morning, plots of land in Ayodhya were being sold.
These are lands of the people of Ayodhya. They understood this and punished the BJP.
Even before this also, the BJP was defeated in Ayodhya, and that was after the demolition of the Babri Masjid.
So, Ayodhya is the epicentre of this kind of politics. They have given a message to the BJP for the kind of politics they practice.
Even in Benares, look at the margin of victory for Narendra Modi.
He was trailing in the beginning...
And it happened for the first time!
So, you can see people getting back to their senses.
UP has a long history of poor living and how can it evaporate under the majoritarian hate politics of the BJP?
The BJP tried very hard to radicalise the Hindus, and I spoke about this last time too.
This radicalisation will be the destruction of the Hindus.
The BJP was doing this in UP. I think the people of UP got back to their senses.
What is the biggest take away from this election, according to you?
India has a tradition of democracy; people are used to democracy and people always expressed their decisions in the elections.
In India, people change governments when elections come. People are very patient.
The biggest take away is, if you persist with truth and fearlessness -- which I think was what the Congress did, and the Opposition did -- the end result will be yours.
The Opposition by coming together showed to the people that there was a grave threat to the country and on the face of this grave threat, party interests don't matter, individual interests don't matter.
They showed solidarity, and were generous towards each other.
The second message from the results is to those heading the institutions of this country -- the ED, the CBI, the Election Commission, the judiciary -- that they should also have some spine.
And that they have to perform their duty to the Constitution of India as they are bound by the Constitution of India.
And that they are not the servants of any political party and not bound by the ideology of any political party.
The message to these institutions is that they have to perform their duty given to them by the Constitution.
The third take away is, if you look back, what will the last two months show you?
They show that there was a feeling of fearlessness among the people, and they were expressing themselves.
And the atmosphere was that of a battle, the battle for democracy.
When you are in battle, you are fearless, and the fear goes away when you come out of the battle.
So, the message is, to remain in battle 24x7. You cannot lower your guard, you cannot be complacent as you are still not out of danger.
The battle has to go on to get back democracy.
How much of Rahul Gandhi's yatras, him talking about inequality contributed to the election result of the INDIA alliance, and in the revival of the Congress?
I think Rahul Gandhi recovered the original idea of the Congress.
The primary message during the freedom struggle was to get rid of inequality of all kinds.
The idea that Indians were not equal to the British was rejected by the freedom struggle.
But somewhere in between when this idea was forgotten, starting from the liberalisation of the economy or maybe even earlier, the principle of equality was lost.
That was the time the Congress started losing the support of the people. Also when the Congress started compromising on the idea of secularism.
Rahul Gandhi very deftly and gradually brought back those ideas back to the Congress.
There is no doubt that he has revitalised the Congress.
He has managed to bring in many sections of society who could not sit with the Congress and now they feel very comfortable with the Congress.
When many Congressmen were not comfortable with idea of social justice, he took it as a challenge.
This, I would say. is his contribution to the evolution of the Congress party.
We must put on record that Rahul Gandhi was the first leader to visit the family of Mohammed Akhlaq who was lynched in Dadri in 2015.
It was a big gesture because the Congress was described as a pro-Muslim party.
He also visited the violence hit areas of North East Delhi in 2020.
He was courageous enough to have gone to JNU in February 2016 after it was attacked.
Many Congressmen had opposed his visits, but he resisted that and went ahead.
These were symbolic gestures but expressed his commitment to the idea of standing with the minorities and standing with those whose rights had been attacked.
Rahul Gandhi has been making statements through these acts.
Now he has emerged as a formidable leader who cannot be ignored anymore, who cannot be mocked.
How did he change his stature? His party was in power for 10 years and there was discussion that he could take the post of the prime minister in the second term.
He also resisted the demand to be the party president.
Rahul Gandhi attained this stature not while in power. He attained this stature when in Opposition which is remarkable.
That's why it is much more valuable, and we must talk about it.
He is generous and accommodative and persuaded the Congress to strike deals with the SP, RJD, etc.
So, I will say the hero of this battle is Rahul Gandhi. What the Opposition has achieved is also due to Rahul Gandhi's relentless efforts. We should acknowledge it.
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com