Congress hegemony Versus BJP’s
contra-game
Geographically on the margin, North East India has never made it to the mainstream of political discourses- before or after Independence. Except for the Congress, no national political party has had serious look at bridging this chasm. The Indian National Congress and its symbol-the palm- remains deeply entrenched and ingrained in the psyche of the people, both as an organization and a brand. The hand, the symbol of the party, is etched indelibly, but the grand-old political party has been caught in a time-warp. Several decades down the lane, Congress is still garnering votes in the name of past leaders; so much so that one should not be surprised if someone tells that Indira Gandhi, or for that matter, Rajiv Gandhi is still the prime minister of India. Without prejudice, the undisputed fact is that the Congress has the biggest mind-share in the North East, a status that has never been seriously challenged by other biggies, including BJP. As it stands exposed today, the second largest political party is attempting to garner mind-share and vote-share that should be historic under Modi’s leadership.
“Lotus”, as a brand, is yet to bloom to half its potential amongst the 45 million people despite its relatively long history dating back to 1984 when Lijum Ronya was elected a legislator in Arunachal Pradesh. In retrospect, 30 years is long enough a time to learn to walk or, for that matter, crawl properly. In NE region, success of BJP, few and far between, is not a license to be called an inclusive national party, lest there is sizeable representation in the political corridor. However, of late number of rallies/ meetings by the central leaders of the saffron brigade indicates the importance of the NE region in its new found agenda. The BJP—a party that talks of “nation first” and “nationalism” as its core values appear to have realized that claiming to be a nationalist party alone won’t suffice so long as in its political mind-space there exists just two races worth representing—Aryans and Dravidians. And thus, the BJP must work with equal élan across three races—Mongoloids, Aryans and Dravidians—that defines Hindustan.
As an analyst, one see a definite “contra-theory” pattern in the BJP’s calculated move to make a dent into Congress bastion that comprises nearly 8% of land-mass and about 4% of India’s population. BJP has made the right noise by announcing to revoke Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Manipur. In its announcement, there’s a deliberate attempt to bring the region into the centre of national political discourses. Second, there’s a message of uniting ethnic groups. Third, there’s symbolic gesture of heeding to the people’s voice. That’s few of the observations but as they say, there’s a long road ahead.
This is not to say that BJP would make much gain in this election but one is sure that if the saffron can manage to keep-up the tempo, it should benefit a lot in 2019. As it stands today, the saffron brigade would have to pay the price of its failure to strengthen its leadership bench and build cadre capacity over the last decade. Not to discredit the party loyalists, despite BJP’s fledgling party structures, dearth of leaders with authority and appeal, the loyalists have worked hard to keep the party afloat.
In the region, final score board is of very little consequence but, academically, much interests would be on the changing vote-share. Will the BJP manage marginal gain or will the people fail to see the party’s design? Will the saffron halt congress hegemony? - These are few of the questions that shall be answered in few weeks time. Let the best candidates and parties win.
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