. An election result that throws up no outright winners would not be normally described as that. But this was no normal election.
It was an election for the democratic heart and soul of India. And, in this sense, the , which left the BJP with less than a majority, were emphatic. An emphatic rejection of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s creeping authoritarianism, his and Home Minister Amit Shah’s two-man regime, and their divisive politics, anti-federal tendencies, and idea of “development” that lined the pockets of crony capitalists without improving the lives of the common people.
An emphatic vote for political, social, and economic inclusion, for a more consultative government, and for the sanctity of the Constitution and the guarantees and protections written into it for all citizens. One could describe the verdict as Modi’s India-not-shining moment, similar to the shock defeat in 2004 of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. But it would not be out of place to go back even further and draw a parallel to the 1977 election.
The last 10 years often evoked comparisons to the , with the Modi government’s reign of fear, his crackdown on political rivals, dissidents, and the media using Central law enforcement agencies and military grade surveillance, and the centralisation of power. This is why this verdict is as historic as the punishment by voters to Indira Gandhi in 1977 for the Emergency. A large cutout of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is being carried into the part.
