The Bihar outcome
The Bihar outcome rested on three factors; perhaps more than that. No polls in the country can be won without taking minorities into confidence. And that does not mean appeasing them. THey need to be provided education, skill development and involvement in other vocations that leads to a sizeable contribution by them towards society. THe three factors that could be zeroed in are first, the turnout, second the ability to stick together (for alliance partners and their ability to speak in one voice) and third not to mention your opponents in your speech repeatedly as that has the tendency for the other side to pick up more seats. In July-Aug period getting to three figure mark (assembly seats) looked probable by September a little difficult by October increasingly impossible and in November this figure was nowhere in sight.
The statements/outbursts by members of upper house/lower house and ministers were too controversial to be deemed fit in public parlance. "Sarkar jantar mantar se nahi chalti hai""Patakein padoshi desh mein phatenge" were enough to spell they themselves doubted their chances at the hustings . Oh ho there is growing intolerance felt by some because ed notice has been received and giving the dadri incident a different colour were enough to offend the voters. There should have been outright condemnation of Dadri incident but that was not the case to be. It took more than one month for outright condemnation as they believed the incident had taken place in a state not ruled by them.
If the ruling party had reined in fringe elements, reined in those speaking out of turn and those giving reckless statements in Dadri and beyond now and then at least a difference could have been made to the tally. THe likes of yogi, sakshi had a free run. The issue of allotment of ex prez house could have been taken up at some other time. Issuing the house to those making reckless outbursts was meant to harm the party which they did not realise as they were of the view that consolidation of votes from other community is happening thick and fast. One assumed that areyesyes would at least ensure consolidation of hindu votes. But that was not the case to be. Minorities for which the grand alliance group has done no wonders was clever enough to not mention them in their speech and this was enough for minorities to affirm faith in them . Brandishing this set of paper and that set of paper saying GA group had advocated taking away reservation from one community to another was enough to spell a loomy picture. The GA Group was clever enough to not rake up this reservation issue of being given to another community and this again lent them their support. And the day the results are to be out, the department men go past our residence at five in the morning and pass filthy abuse. This has become a pattern.
THe GA group has not realised that madrasas mushrooming across the state have on occasions strayed from their path. Primarily it has used minorities as a votebank and this has been seen to be a successful experiment to date. If the party /group wishing to gain power in Bihar kept its leaders away from reckless statements , projected four to five leaders in the hoardings and talked about constituency wise issue, things could have been better. To talk about electricity when that particular constituency has power or to talk about education when the area has achieved a feat in the same showed the top leadership had not taken the local leadership into confidence and had constituency wise speeches been made a definite difference to the tally would have been made.
THe final tally suggested the GA's success in getting the minorities to vote for them, the state residents approval of an arrangement where menfolk go out of the state to work. The Bihar verdict is a lesson for the party not able to gain power and for GA to work with an open mind. AS for the talks the best option would have been to postpone them; stretch it as far as possible. Forces which came from across the border are hard to keep a tab on and one has to be vigilant all the time.
The Bihar outcome rested on three factors; perhaps more than that. No polls in the country can be won without taking minorities into confidence. And that does not mean appeasing them. THey need to be provided education, skill development and involvement in other vocations that leads to a sizeable contribution by them towards society. THe three factors that could be zeroed in are first, the turnout, second the ability to stick together (for alliance partners and their ability to speak in one voice) and third not to mention your opponents in your speech repeatedly as that has the tendency for the other side to pick up more seats. In July-Aug period getting to three figure mark (assembly seats) looked probable by September a little difficult by October increasingly impossible and in November this figure was nowhere in sight.
The statements/outbursts by members of upper house/lower house and ministers were too controversial to be deemed fit in public parlance. "Sarkar jantar mantar se nahi chalti hai""Patakein padoshi desh mein phatenge" were enough to spell they themselves doubted their chances at the hustings . Oh ho there is growing intolerance felt by some because ed notice has been received and giving the dadri incident a different colour were enough to offend the voters. There should have been outright condemnation of Dadri incident but that was not the case to be. It took more than one month for outright condemnation as they believed the incident had taken place in a state not ruled by them.
If the ruling party had reined in fringe elements, reined in those speaking out of turn and those giving reckless statements in Dadri and beyond now and then at least a difference could have been made to the tally. THe likes of yogi, sakshi had a free run. The issue of allotment of ex prez house could have been taken up at some other time. Issuing the house to those making reckless outbursts was meant to harm the party which they did not realise as they were of the view that consolidation of votes from other community is happening thick and fast. One assumed that areyesyes would at least ensure consolidation of hindu votes. But that was not the case to be. Minorities for which the grand alliance group has done no wonders was clever enough to not mention them in their speech and this was enough for minorities to affirm faith in them . Brandishing this set of paper and that set of paper saying GA group had advocated taking away reservation from one community to another was enough to spell a loomy picture. The GA Group was clever enough to not rake up this reservation issue of being given to another community and this again lent them their support. And the day the results are to be out, the department men go past our residence at five in the morning and pass filthy abuse. This has become a pattern.
THe GA group has not realised that madrasas mushrooming across the state have on occasions strayed from their path. Primarily it has used minorities as a votebank and this has been seen to be a successful experiment to date. If the party /group wishing to gain power in Bihar kept its leaders away from reckless statements , projected four to five leaders in the hoardings and talked about constituency wise issue, things could have been better. To talk about electricity when that particular constituency has power or to talk about education when the area has achieved a feat in the same showed the top leadership had not taken the local leadership into confidence and had constituency wise speeches been made a definite difference to the tally would have been made.
THe final tally suggested the GA's success in getting the minorities to vote for them, the state residents approval of an arrangement where menfolk go out of the state to work. The Bihar verdict is a lesson for the party not able to gain power and for GA to work with an open mind. AS for the talks the best option would have been to postpone them; stretch it as far as possible. Forces which came from across the border are hard to keep a tab on and one has to be vigilant all the time.
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