Maharashtra and Haryana polls: BJP’s saffron arrogance loses colour

If I were Amit Shah, Union Home Minister and BJP president, the most powerful politician ever produced by the Sangh parivar, I would be a tad bit worried about the results of the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly results.

Shah was the BJP’s face of the elections, which were fought on the repeal of Article 370 and the plank of hyper-nationalism. Shah strode the length and breadth of India attacking the Opposition and mocking them as “antinationals”. He promised to throw out the “ghuspetiya” (interlopers) and called human beings “deemak” (termites). A measure of Shah’s status was the anointment or his son Jay Shah as a secretary to the Board of Cricket Control of India (BCCI).

Shah also gave a series of one-to-one interviews to several channels just before the voting. The BJP will form the government in Maharashtra and with outside support in Haryana, politics seems to have normalised.

A quote attributed to Bill Clinton “it’s the economy stupid” seems to summarise the situation. Shah, apparently, bet the house on testosterone charged hyper-nationalism, clearly hoping that the vote would mirror the full majority the BJP got just a few months ago on the Balakot surgical strikes against Pakistan.

The voter disagreed and put the imploding economy, a near historic lack of jobs, agrarian distress, the collapse of a big cooperative bank in Maharashtra and the water crisis (with areas in Maharashtra doing without water for weeks) at centre-stage. She certainly sent a message saying that citizens had sacrificed enough when asked by Narendra Modi as a national project and now wanted governance in turn.

The BJP’s slogan in Haryana was “Ab ki baar 75” (This time 75) -- clearly the 2019 big win hangover persisted in the BJP.

Checks and balances

The Haryana Jats punctured Shah’s balloon. And sitting Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, a Punjabi non-Jat, whose appointment was obligingly hailed as a “master stroke” earlier, will now contend with a Jat deputy, 29-year-old Dushyant Chautala. The BJP’s commitment to women was also callously exposed when they sent a chartered aircraft to ferry Gopal Kanda, a rape and abetment to suicide accused, to seek his support to form the government.

Even the usually tame Indian media protested and the BJP had to back down.

Maharashtra again sent the BJP a message that they did not like hubris and arrogance and the massive overkill of using the central investigative agencies. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) notice to Maharashtra’s tallest leader Sharad Pawar, which he ensured boomeranged on the BJP, gave the impression that the agencies were Shah’s most reliable allies. ED notices were also issued to Pawar’s nephew Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel.

Pawar is 79 and this may be his last election, but the Maharashtra voter decided to give their “saheb” a fond farewell. A picture of Pawar addressing a rally in the pouring rain in Satara went viral and the Marathas responded emotionally to their doughty warrior.

Devendra Fadnavis will now also have a check with newbie Aditya Thackeray as his deputy and the Shiv Sena as a vital check on the BJP, which had dreamt of being the senior partner in the alliance.

So the Indian voter told the BJP two things. One that they like real democracy with an effective Opposition and real checks and balances. And two no arrogance in politics -- the vote is an effective check.

Whether the Opposition can get its act together for Jharkhand and Delhi, which will next go to polls, is debatable, but Indian politics just normalised and that is good for India.