Has Narendra Modi Defeated Rahul Gandhi In Haryana?

The ECI has been speaking in a BJP’s language during its current leadership. This behaviour of the ECI only confirms the belief that Prime Minister Modi did not accept the Supreme Court’s verdict on the process of appointment of Election Commissioners

Indian media is again in its original color. The Congress’ failure in Haryana to win a majority in just concluded State assembly elections gave it the much-awaited chance of ridiculing Rahul and dismissing the Indian National Congress as a viable alternative to Prime Minister Modi and the BJP. The most astonishing of all is the conduct of YouTubers who have, of late, occupied a big space owing to their seemingly anti-establishment posture. Their joining the chorus that Rahul is worthless and the Congress is not capable of making a comeback have exposed its vulnerability before the authoritarian onslaught.

The Haryana episode has only exposed YouTubers’ lack of ability to analyze the complex social and political situation in India. It has also exposed their lack of commitment to democracy and secularism. Has not the time come to relook at the emerging alternative space on the web? It's not sharing the vested interests of mainstream media does not absolve the alternative media from the responsibility of upholding the principles of democracy. Does it not expose the failure of the alternative media in developing an alternative tool to counter the authoritarian stranglehold on democracy?

Was it really difficult to analyze Haryana election results? The Haryana elections were not different from any elections held in post-2014 India. The ruling BJP had its entire support system at work. It includes the State and central governments’ machinery, the Election Commission, and the RSS. If anything was missing, it was the support of the people. It forced Prime Minister Modi to skip vigorous campaigning. Election results have indeed proved the BJP's capacity to tweak the democratic process. How can one explain that a single letter prompts the Election Commission of India to change the election schedule and the Prime Minister releases the Kisan Samman Nidhi installments without attracting action under MCC rules? What else would one require to prove collaboration between the Election Commission and the ruling party? What is wrong with it for the Congress to doubt the authenticity of the counting process? They have rightly questioned why some EVM batteries were charged up to 99 percent. This is unusual. However, the reply of the Election Commission remained on the existing lines of denying any responsibility and ridiculing the opposition. The ECI’s response to the statement of the Congress that the “results are unacceptable” only shows its outlook towards the opposition. Statutory institutions have never been seen reacting in this manner. The ECI is not supposed to react to a press statement. Its language hardly suits its stature and destroys its neutrality.

“Such an unprecedented statement as above in a generic sense, unheard in the rich democratic heritage of the country, is far from legitimate free speech and expression and moves towards an undemocratic rejection of the will of the people expressed in accordance with the Statutory and Regulatory electoral framework, uniformly applied across all elections in the country J&K and Haryana,” the ECI writes.

It is unprecedented that a statutory institution uses this kind of language against the main opposition party and accuses the party of destroying the rich heritage. The most devastating of all is it’s terming the statement of being a far from legitimate part of free speech and expression. How can an institution that is being questioned for its failure to assure a political party of fairness repudiate its accusation in this manner? After all, the institution has to serve the stakeholders, not otherwise. Political parties along with voters are the only stakeholders in a parliamentary democracy. The ECI has been speaking in a BJP’s language during its current leadership. This behaviour of the ECI only confirms the belief that Prime Minister Modi did not accept the Supreme Court’s verdict on the process of appointment of Election Commissioners. The government cannot justify the appointment of two of the three election commissioners just two days before the Model Code of Conduct came into effect.

Has the Congress lost its rights as a political party to demand accountability from the Election Commission? As long as an institution is directly elected by the people of India, they cannot act as people’s representatives. The ECI must satisfy the real stakeholders. The media is just ignoring this fact, and instead of raising basic questions concerning democracy and the Constitution, discussing the things that can only accelerate the process of decline of democracy.

The bare statistics of results also do not show any rejection of the Congress and Rahul Gandhi by the voters. The Congress has been able to secure just half percent fewer votes than the BJP. How badly the BJP has performed could be seen in the defeat of 8 of 10 ministers of Saini’s cabinet. The Speaker of the outgoing assembly has also lost. Does it not indicate intense anger against the incumbent?

While discussing poll results, there has been a tendency to rationalise the results. People are searching for justifications. It is being made available in the form of a narrative of a social contradiction between Jats and non-Jats. Was this factor not known to pollsters who conducted exit polls?

This only shows an overwhelming decline in our academic environment. A recent report of Scholars at Risk, a US-based international network, classified India in its annual ‘Free to Think 2024’ report as “completely restricted." The reasons it has identified are “threats to freedom, including political interference, restrictions on student expression, and attacks on academics." Is our election analysis also infested with this malady? We remember how a year ago, Professor Sabyasanchi Das had to quit the faculty at Ashoka University for his research paper, ‘Backsliding of Democracy in the World’s Largest Democracy’. He dared to point out that in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won a disproportionate share of seats in closely contested constituencies. Analysts need to find out how the BJP has won Haryana despite a strong anti-incumbency. They should abandon rationalising election results.

(The author is a senior journalist. He has experience of working with leading newspapers and electronic media including Deccan Herald, Sunday Guardian, Navbharat Times and Dainik Bhaskar. He writes on politics, society, environment and economy)