A vote for good governance

That the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was headed to occupy 7 Race Course Road has seemed fairly certain ever since the election was announced. But neither he nor his party could have anticipated the giddy scale of victory, a massive vote of confidence that has the potential to rewrite the country’s political landscape for a very long time. For the first time in three decades, the Indian electorate has given a simple majority to a political party. But unlike 1984, when the Congress romped home on the back of a sympathy wave following Indira Gandhi’s assassination, this victory was fashioned by a vote of a different kind. There were two main factors that contributed to its making. For one, this was more the victory of a man than a party — a vote for the promise of economic development and good governance. On the flip side, the results reflect a deep revulsion for the Congress, which led a government that was at once deeply ineffectual and corrupt.

While there was a strong showing by some regional parties — particularly the AIADMK, the TMC and the BJD — there was a strong rejection of parties that play the caste card either covertly or overtly such as the BSP, the RLD and the PMK. Similarly, the strategy of appealing to minority communities by playing on their fears and insecurities — as the Samajwadi Party and the RJD did — didn’t find much purchase either. Even though the BJP was not above attempting to exploit religious sentiment in States such as UP, Bihar and Assam, it is simplistic to believe that it won because of a mere consolidation of the Hindu vote. For a large number of people, this vote was the hope for electricity, water, roads, and jobs — and rightly or wrongly, Modi represented the best hope in providing these. It is not surprising perhaps that, according to one post-poll survey, the BJP polled 9 per cent of the Muslim vote, more than double the corresponding figure in 2009.

There is a strong message here — one that the country’s next Prime Minister would do well to heed. It is important that he prevents a sense of Hindu triumphalism from infecting the body politic and resists those who interpret the vote as a mandate to further the Parivar’s core Hindutva agenda. To be fair, Modi himself has seemed very alive to the danger of this – his campaign had focussed almost single-mindedly on development and he was careful in avoiding queering this pitch by being drawn into debates about building a Ram temple or raising the contentious issue of a common civil code. Ironically, he may face bigger challenges from addressing the hardliners from within the Parivar than his political rivals, who have been all but swept away by the wave in his favour.

To his advantage, the comprehensive nature of the mandate will strengthen his hand in resisting the pressures from within. It will also free him from pressures from without — namely the familiar coalition stresses that have been used to justify policy paralysis in the past. There are a plethora of tough decisions that must be taken — ranging from subsidies on fertiliser and LPG, reducing government stakes in public sector undertakings and creating the necessary environment to attract investment and make vast improvements to the country’s creaky infrastructure. The best time to begin addressing these challenges is now, during the honeymoon period. He can also take some comfort in the fact that the next big round of State elections is two years away.

The country will hope that he can bring the focussed target-setting and problem-solving approach that worked so well in Ahmedabad to New Delhi. In order to do this, he must create a climate in which bureaucrats are able to take quick and bold decisions without the fog of fear that these may be questioned at some later time. He must also work towards bringing the States on board as partners in an exercise to usher in reform — something he has promised to do. A big advantage he brings to the table is his experience as Chief Minister, which makes him familiar with the problems faced by the States in dealing with a patronising and often insensitive Centre. The truth is there can be little progress on a clutch of issues — for example, a nationwide goods and service tax, the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor, or interlinking rivers — without effective coordination between the Centre and States.

The burden of expectation may sit heavily on him, but he has a great opportunity to tackle the slowdown, restore the country to better social and economic health, and show that results can be achieved through a mix of determination and decisiveness. In his speech at Vadodara, he has promised that his government will treat no one as a favourite and no one as an alien and reiterated the motto of “development for all”. If India is to win, as he thinks it already has, he must walk this talk.

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