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While retaining power via a post-poll tie-up, BJP will have to recognise the mandate’s nature By winning the support of the JJP to form a government in Haryana, the BJP has surmounted its failure in the recent Assembly election to win a clear majority from the people directly for a second term. All non-BJP parties in the State, and most independents, campaigned on an anti-BJP plank and it would be reasonable to assume that the BJP that won 40 of the 90 seats in the State did not get a clear mandate. As the single largest party, its claim to form a government was legitimate, and also reinforced by the support of the JJP that has 10 MLAs. All seven independents and Haryana Lokhit Party’s Gopal Kanda have also offered support to the government, which could be a stable one. The BJP’s numerical advantage allows it to forgo the support of Mr. Kanda, a controversial politician accused of abetting the suicide of a woman. The JJP and the BJP stridently campaigned against each other, but with their alliance, the BJP got a foothold among the Jat community that overwhelmingly voted against the party. As for the JJP, it could now claim a share of power for the community which is its core base. The results and the nature of the coalition mark an interruption in the BJP’s winning streak since the 2014 Parliament election, save its defeats in a few States to the Congress in 2017-18. The BJP’s Hindutva plank combined with the rhetoric of development has paid it dividends, emboldening it to sidestep or even trample over regional allies. By falling back on a largely caste-based regional outfit for retaining power in a heartland State, Hindutva has exposed its limits, at least in the electoral field. The combination of religious sentiments and anti-Pakistan diatribe may still mobilise its core constituency, but that alone cannot guarantee victory all the time. It would be premature to conclude that people voted entirely on material issues or development, but those factors that the BJP desperately tried to shut out of the public discourse did matter. Particular identities of regional pride and caste dynamics that the Prime Minister’s politics had largely rendered ineffective also appear to have made a comeback. The BJP’s new alliance also blunts the party’s claims about being the champion of probity. It may have rescued itself from the ignominy of taking Mr. Kanda’s support, but the JJP’s legacy is far from being unblemished. Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala’s father and grandfather are serving sentences as convicts in a case of appointing teachers in exchange for bribes. That his father got a furlough from jail soon after the BJP-JJP agreement is too much of a coincidence. The opportunism of the JJP and the BJP, however, does not wipe out the issues that have come to the fore in the Assembly election. And therein lies a glimmer of hope for the country’s democracy, as a demonstration of the limits of hype.
Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/limits-of-hype/article29817934.ece
