Delhi poll lesson

For BJP and the people

Exit polls notwithstanding, it’s still too early to call the Dehli vote – especially if you are in Narendra Modi’s shoes. If the signs are right, the party’s dream run has already hit a brick wall. New Dehli is always significant, but the Indian prime minister had taken unusual interest; moving pieces across the board till the very end, and making four personal appearances. There could be a number of reasons for such public reaction, again, provided the trend proves true. People in the Third World are known to have high expectations. After years of mismanagement and corruption, they expect any change to deliver quickly, and are just as quickly disenfranchised, which begins to show in various polls.

But the BJP has been impressive enough to offset immediate disappointment. Modi’s plans of repeating Gujrat’s economic success on the larger canvass are seemingly already afoot. He’s also been a smashing hit internationally; Obama’s one of his best friends, and the Chinese are not upset over the Asian Pivot, etc. And surely Delhi is not that simple an affair.

It could also be that Modi’s particularly narrow Hindutva outlook is not impressing too many people as it unfolds. BJP was never expected to be placed anywhere but the farther regions of the right in the political spectrum, but clearly the party has gone further – in terms of spreading its hardline ideology – under Modi than his predecessors. And the reaction, both at home and abroad, seems to have come sooner than the prime minister expected. He’s not yet consolidated as he hoped to following the Lok Sabha sweep. And his strongman image, too, is still a work in progress – at least so long as tangible results begin emerging. Latest news reports suggest the leadership is already in a huddle; to plan future action no doubt, even as it makes claims of proving exit polls wrong. It should be more accepting, and respectful, of contrary positions and ideologies from here, or risk losing further support in a diverse polity.