The best way to know the self is feeling oneself at the moments of reckoning. The feeling of being alone, just with your senses, may lead you to think more consciously. More and more of such moments may sensitize ‘you towards you’, towards others. We become regular with introspection and retrospection. We get ‘the’ gradual connect to the higher self we may name Spirituality or God or just a Humane Conscious. We tend to get a rhythm again in life. We need to learn the art of being lonely in crowd while being part of the crowd. A multitude of loneliness in mosaic of relations! One needs to feel it severally, with conscience, before making it a way of life. One needs to live several such lonely moments. One needs to live severallyalone.

Monday, 20 May 2019

IF EXIT POLLS ARE CORRECT


The country goes back to presidential style of contest, a trend synonymous with Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Not seen post 1980.

The politics and the political rivals made 2014 parliamentary election a presidential style contest again, with Narendra Modi being the central point of the election. It only added to the phenomenon called Modi Wave with BJP sweeping the polls with full majority, a first in India post 1984 parliamentary election.

And in 2019, Narendra Modi has excelled, if exit poll outcomes are true, winning again with better numbers, and if we go by some exit poll outcomes, with absolute majority. The presidential style contest of India’s parliamentary elections is back, Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi way.

The Narendra Modi wave, it seems, is bigger this time, in the Narendra Modi Vs Rahul Gandhi and others fight.  

Narendra Modi is the second non-Congress prime-minister to come back in power after Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but the first to come back in power with full majority. The governments run by Atal Bihari Vajpayee needed support from other parties to get past the full majority mark of 272 seats in the Lok Sabha.

It will be the biggest political swing post 1980. Narendra Modi has repeated the Congress feat of forming government in two subsequent polls, in 1980 and 1984, with full majority.  

Narendra Modi gave hope to people in 2014 and aspirations in 2019, and voters, it seems, have believed him again.    

Modi’s look east policy worked. BJP makes strong inroads in West Bengal and Odisha, replacing Left Front and Congress as parallel political forces, while retaining its strongholds in north and west India.   

But the party has not gained much in south India with Karnataka being the only bright spot. No gains in Kerala despite BJP using Sabarimala controversy as election issue. Kerala saw massive protests against the Supreme Court order and its implementation by the state government allowing entry of women of all ages in the Sabarimala Temple. BJP opposed the entry of women of all ages in the Sabarimala Temple and used it as an electoral issue.

No Narendra Modi wave in Punjab and south India. 2014 repeats itself in 2019.

Balakot air strike and Pakistan mattered. Nationalism trumped other electoral issues.   

That India’s foreign policy and a decisive stand towards Pakistan mattered to voters.

The exit poll outcomes are divided on Uttar Pradesh. According to some, BJP is way ahead but some give edge to the SP-BSP-RLD alliance as well.

If BJP wins with good numbers in Uttar Pradesh, it will be a clear indication that the caste politics was trumped by Modi Wave.  

Alternatively, we can say SP and BSP failed to make their alliance working on the ground and the votes were not transferred effectively, helping thus BJP in the final outcome.  

That voters don’t want a hung parliament anymore, be is assembly elections like in Uttar Pradesh or the Lok Sabha elections in 2014 and now in 2019.   

That the political Opposition remains weak, a bad sign for democracy.

With weakening of politically strong regional satraps, like Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik, Centre will be powerful against state government in the federal structure of India.  

That people believed in BJP’s manifestation of continuity and not in congress manifestation of hope (NYAY).

The NDA government focused on last mile delivery and gas connections, toilets, MUDRA loans and money to farmers reached to intended beneficiaries, something that matters in elections.

That Narendra Modi remains a non-corrupt political figure with no takers for the Rafale controversy.

Congress and its allies are expected to gain in south India.

Rahul Gandhi’s Amethi prospects to Wayanad gain? 

Left Front pole almost non-existent in India’s political scene.  

No disruptive change, good for markets and foreign investors.

©SantoshChaubey