Dear Modi fans do you have any other viable option?

It has been more than a week gone by after the results of the five assembly elections are declared, especially in West Bengal. Despite winning 74 seats more than the last time in the West Bengal assembly the Modi fans or Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fans are not happy but instead they are angry, extremely angry. Understandably when the top leadership of the BJP was claiming 200+ seats during the campaign trail, the final result of 77 seats looks so small and one has to agree with the anger and frustration of the supporters.

It is not that BJP has lost the first assembly elections in many decades and thus its fans or supporters are angry, as a matter of fact, BJP could only secure Assam and Puduchchery out of five assemblies that went for the polls last month. So, a strike rate of winning the entire assembly is less than 50 for the BJP this time around. But West Bengal election was special and it became extra special after BJP did extremely well in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections.

There is no doubt about the strength and the hard work put by both the state and the central leadership of BJP during these elections. During the last few years being an emerging opposition in the state the West Bengal BJP has lost many of its karyakartas by the virtue of getting murdered. Although it looked impossible for many that BJP will even get a simple majority, forget 200+, despite all those tall claims and hard work put on by the party.

It is completely logical if one concludes that for an emerging opposition in any state first it needs to establish itself as a strong opposition and if we apply the same logic then winning 77 seats in West Bengal from the previous count of 3 should be more than satisfactory for the top brass of the BJP. But it is not as simple as it looks on the ground especially after what happened once results were out.

Once most of the election results were declared and it became clear that the ruling Trinamool Congress is going to retain the power with a 2/3 majority the supporters of the ruling party went on a rampage and political violence spread like wildfire in the entire state of West Bengal. Many BJP supporters lost their shops, homes, loved ones, and even their own lives. There was news about women who supported BJP were getting insulted, molested, and raped.

This is where the BJP fans became angry. They wanted immediate action to be taken by the center where their hero Narendra Modi is at the helm. They wanted to put the state of West Bengal under the president’s rule without losing a second. Some of them even demanded an eye for an eye kind of a reaction from the state BJP leaders and cadre.

When someone is so angry, such a knee-jerk reaction is expected. But a certain set of Modi fans or BJP fans crossed the limit when they observed that the Modi government is in no mood (why? we will check that later on) to sack the ‘stopgap’ government of Mamata Banerjee. They started insulting their own hero Narendra Modi and the party which they (once) loved to the core.

Some of the BJP social media supporters decided not to vote for BJP or will press NOTA whenever they will go to vote next, whether it will be local bodies’ elections, state assembly elections, or Lok Sabha elections. Fine, this is the best way and democratic way to show your dissent or your anger against an elected government. Even I have voted against the great Atal Behari Vajpayee when he stood from Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat in the mid-1990s. Reason? He allowed Shanker Singh Vaghela back to the BJP fold even after he toppled Keshubhai Patel government in Gujarat. So I gave my vote to a Congress candidate as there was no option of NOTA then.

But the situation then and now are totally different. The BJP was just an opposition at the national level and there wasn’t a remote chance for it to come to power then. Right now BJP is very much in power at the center and that too for the second term and that became a possibility after hard work not only by the party and its karyakartas but also because of the silent or vocal supporters of BJP and fans of Narendra Modi.

We all know that soon after the Modi government took power in 2014 the left-liberal and Congress ecosystem came into action and started to spoil the image of Modi and his government. They thought that by doing this they can change a few minds and in 2019 they will be back to what they feel is their birthright.

But to their utmost shock in 2019 Narendra Modi got an even better mandate than in 2014. Now the entire left-liberal – Congress ecosystem got frustrated and their venom became even more poisonous. We will not go into further details but breaking India was their top agenda and Shaheen Baugh and the ongoing Kisan Andolan are the best examples of what this ecosystem is up to.

Coming back to West Bengal and the demand of Modi fans to sack the stopgap government thereafter the poll violence does not justify the spirit of the constitution of India and also not the thinking of Modi (I won’t add BJP here knowingly.) Just check the recent Indian political history, how many state governments the Modi government have sacked and put a state under the President’s rule?

The First and foremost example that comes to mind is Jammu and Kashmir. It was a well-calculated risk by the Modi-Shah duo to first get into the system of the J&K government by giving support to the PDP and then taking it back after a few years so that later Article 370 and 35A can be removed and the center can rule the disturbed state to make things better.

The second instance is of Maharashtra 2019 where after the hung assembly results (only because the Shivsena played the dirty game) no party was ready to form the government on time and thus the President’s rule was imposed. Then suddenly Ajit Pawar the nephew of Sharad Pawar, one fine morning decided to join hands with the BJP the President’s rule was taken back and Devendra Fadnavis government took charge but for 48 hours only as suddenly (again) one fine afternoon Ajit Pawar decided against his own decision and resigned from the post of the Deputy Chief Minister of the state and President’s rule was re-imposed.

So, the point here is that to date, the Modi government at the center has imposed President’s rule only when it is extremely necessary and there is no other way insight. The situation in West Bengal after the polls certainly deserved the President’s rule but one has to look at the political situation as well. TMC not only won the elections by 2/3 majority but it also won 2 seats more than the last time. So any political analyst (should have a true neutral head on his or her shoulders) would suggest that the TMC has reclaimed the mandate from the people of Bengal just as the BJP did in 2019 with more seats than the last time.

When a party has got a resounding mandate in its favor sacking it with immediate effect would be a suicidal step both politically and also constitutionally for BJP. Remember courts have become very strict on such decisions and there were 100% chances that the central government would have eaten a humble pie had it sacked the newly elected government in West Bengal and had the matter gone to the Supreme Court, there can be no second thought to this argument.

Plus, in the recent past, while arguing with Congress in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on democratic practice, BJP and its leaders have often argued about how many times Congress has sacked state governments in the past and how many times their party has practiced the same. Had god forbid, the TMC government was sacked before or after the oath-taking ceremony, BJP would have been at the same level with Congress and it had lost an important edge it has till now over the Congress.

So, the question remains is that should BJP, Modi, Shah, and the top leadership remain silent and watch the bloodbath forced upon their cadre in the state of West Bengal? No. Remember one thing. BJP is a proven stronger party now in West Bengal than it was prior to these elections. It is the only party in the opposition which has the strength of 77 MLAs. There is not a single MLA elected from the Congress or the Left which were rulers in the state for years in the past.

That only means that the state BJP is now on more firm ground and it can decide tactics to humble the state government both inside and outside the state assembly. The dharna against the violence may look weak defense to many Modi and BJP fans but it was the first step towards the tactics to put the Mamata Banerjee government in a spot.

Remember one thing; while in opposition the BJP will never go against the spirit of the constitution and democracy, this is what Narendra Modi is all about.  There was another development a few days back and that is the central government has provided Y security to all the BJP MLAs in West Bengal. If one knows Indian politics well, this is a slap on the TMC government as it proves (in BJP’s books and people’s minds) that the state government is incompetent in providing security to the democratically elected representatives within the state.

This is only the first dose Modi type of mindset has given to the West Bengal government and one needs to just wait and watch for more in the days to come. While doing this the BJP will also make all the efforts to make its position stronger on the grounds in West Bengal. It will certainly help those families of its karyakartas who have lost everything including their lives during the post-poll violence. While doing that BJP will and it should, also try to make sure to its voters that they will also be protected so that next time they don’t fear to vote for them.

About those fans that after one defeat and killings of BJP karyakartas in West Bengal are abusing and making fun of Narendra Modi, they should ask themselves a question, if they are really BJP fans and supporters. What is their option? They said they will not vote for Modi and BJP next time or press NOTA. It’s their choice, but then will they vote Congress, Left, or AAP whom they hate to the core till now? Will they accept that they have helped Congress and AAP defeating the BJP by pressing NOTA? Are they ready to see the backs of Modi and Shah and cunning smiling faces of Rahul, Kejriwal ruling them for the next five years?

As mentioned above, the ecosystem is working overtime to malign the image of Modi, Shah, BJP, and India and by making fun and abusing Modi and now you are helping that ecosystem only because then their workload will be less and thus they will be happy to serve you as their guests. Ask those people who have seen the Congress rules for years in the country and also in the state and then decide which option is good to avoid Modi or to stand strong with him?

That doesn’t mean you don’t oppose things you don’t like about your favorite leader or party. Fans have the right to put their opposition forward.  But then don’t start to act like opposition supporters. If supporters of a particular party and its opposition party behave the same way then there is no need to remain partisan. BJP fans are always different than other parties’ fans as they can be vocal against their own leadership but then it should be that only nothing more.

When your party or your favorite leaders is not doing what they should then being their fans rap on the knuckles should be enough. Reprimand them, ask questions, ask uncomfortable questions but don’t abuse and don’t make filthy fun of them otherwise what is the difference between their mentality and yours?

Lastly, if you have put faith in Narendra Modi much before 2014 or just before 2014 then make that faith stronger. He needs his supporter’s strong faith behind him more today than it was ever before. Leave aside the ecosystem which is behind his blood since 2002, but there is a pandemic situation in the country and there is plenty of misinformation spread against him on handling this situation and his fans need to kill that misinformation. West Bengal can be won next time only if Modi fans help him to remain strong finding the way out of this horrible situation created by the Chinese virus.

12^th May 2021, Wednesday

Ahmedabad

SiddTalks