Pyrrhic Victory

The results of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections in India have been nothing short of a bombshell for critics and supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alike. No one believed that this strongly right-wing party, led by a man who has been considered highly charismatic by local and international opinion leaders and almost worshipped at home by hard-line Hindus, would lose so many seats, many of which it had won the last two elections. Indeed, he has slowly and consistently projected himself as an avatar, having been sent by the gods as an emissary to lead India and to make it a global power.

It would not be wrong to say that internationally at least, he has achieved the unachievable. Ten years ago, he was refused a US visa due to his role in the Gujarat massacre of Muslims; a few years later, he was welcomed at the White House with open arms. Despite his blatantly expressed hatred of minorities, especially Muslims, and the policies he has been implementing that are discriminatory against non-Hindus, he has been dined and wined by Muslim countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

Indeed, he has been following an almost Israel-like strategy towards Kashmir in his attempts at apartheid and settling non-Kashmiri Hindus, stripping Kashmir of its special status and clamping down on all forms of dissent. He has jailed opposition leaders and journalists who did not tow his line. To the extent that the judiciary, the media as well as the business community all spewed venom against his arch enemy, Pakistan, which he uses as a horse to be beaten around election time. He was declared innocent in the Gujarat killings, and no Muslim who dared to challenge him in courts has had any relief to date. He decried the ideals of Nehru and Gandhi and reduced the famed Indian Constitution to mere paper that would be soon changed once he had his majority in his third term.

For a decade, he ruled as the Hindu Supremo, riding upon the wave of Hindu nationalism, inciting young and old people alike to the greatness of Hindu mythology, even re-writing history and science books. His populism has taken him to such great heights that he has become larger than himself, an idol to be kept alongside Ram, Krishna, and other deities in puja ghars.

Not anymore. He has lost a large number of seats to a coalition of opposition parties led by Rahul Gandhi, particularly in the states where it has enjoyed massive popularity, including Uttar Pradesh. He claimed he would win 400 seats, which would have been more than enough for him to change the Constitution. Instead, he has landed a mere 240 seats. This number would rise to 293 after the seats of his two coalition partners, the two regional secular parties, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and Janata Dal (United), or JDU, forming the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) party, are added. This is still inadequate for him to bulldoze any major policy or to continue to act in the strongly authoritarian manner he has been using throughout. Political analysts claim that we are likely to see a more humbled and compromising Modi in his governance style, as he will have to accommodate the two partners who are seemingly supportive of Muslims.

The fact is that Narendra Modi, despite his intelligence, failed to read the mood of the public. He used the same old tactics: inaugurating a hastily scrambled Ram temple at the site of the Babri Mosque that had been razed by Hindu fanatics in 1992, raising the spectre of Pakistani-sourced terrorism, and claiming his religious connection to Hindu gods. He did not realise that Indians faced high inflation and unemployment throughout his reign. He has alienated the farmer community by curbing extensive and consistent farmer’s protests. As a result, he lost in Ayodhya and Maharashtra — losses that would have been laughed at before the elections.