So Bihar elections are now done and dusted. Nitish Kumar is set to assume office for possibly the nth time, after being in office for 15 continuous years. And courtesy. Someone called Mr. Narendra Damordas Modi, who happens to be Prime Minister of India. To the utter dismay and disillusionment of the now wobbly ‘liberals’ and the failing/flailing Lutyens’ media, the Exit Poll predictions have turned a dud as a wet Diwali cracker. It was amusing and enjoyable to watch some anchors ‘dancing’ while hosting the Exit poll projections and then bravely eating crow when the results were beamed across the nation.
These pollsters were rudely shaken and shown their place in the US 2016 elections. They were contrite and promised to return with a ‘better model which would stand the test of the hurly burly of heated hustings’ as the big daddy of them all, Nate Silver promised. The only thing they learned during US 2020 POTUS elections was to be cautious, careful, safe by caveating every projection they made. The overwhelming consensus was that Joe Biden and his Democratic party would blow out Donald J Trump and his Republicans.
Alas, while Biden squeaked through (which too peevishly Trump is not willing to concede) the Republicans held more than the projections in the Senate and House of Representatives’ elections. Biden is slated to be buffeted by lack of mobility in the US Congress, not a healthy prospect, however ‘willing and co operative and unifying’ Joe may offer to be, in a polarized/divided US of A.
It is now not a ‘more perfect union’ as the Founders envisaged in 1776/1789 in the Constitutional Congress. But, seemingly slipping back to becoming a Confederation it was, before it was unified as United States of America. As someone beautifully put it, USA now is “United……States of America” and not ‘ United States……of America”. Brilliant.
What of their pollsters? They took a hiding this time too. But they escaped a repeat by the skin of their teeth. Back home, our Exit Poll Pundits were not so lucky. The Bihar junta comprising the ‘silent voters’ as they called them or ‘Nari Shakthi’ as Modi euphemized, made mincemeat of the exit poll predictions. The pundits have not egg on their faces but omelettes and more.
The ‘liberals’ are more disturbed and disappointed than the opposition. They grudgingly admit that Rahul Gandhi and the Congress may have again played spoilsport pulling down the Maha Gat Bandhan (MGB) from trumping the Modi juggernaut. Excuse me, from distant US of A, an insightful visionary called Barack Obama who used to be POTUS during 2008-2016, has the answer that the ‘liberals’ may do well to accept. The answer is wrapped in rather convoluted language for Obama appears to have been sensitive to the Gandhi family and its hordes of minions. “Rahul Gandhi has ‘a nervous, unformed quality about him, as if he were a student who’d done the coursework and was eager to impress the teacher but deep down lacked either the aptitude or the passion to master the subject”, ‘Paraphrasing it- Obama was suggesting that Rahul Gandhi was ‘inept and ineffective’.
Come on, be a sport. Did we need Obama to tell us this. We The People in India always knew it. Ask the victors- NDA or BJP- in 2014 and 2019 general elections and in the many State elections. BJP had safe harbour in the leadership qualities of Rahul Gandhi. Be he the President or Vice President or just a Gandhi scion to whom his lackeys kowtowed, just his appearances to solicit votes and berate Narendra Modi from public platforms, enthused the ‘silent voters’ to respond in the polling booths. BJP’s strength lies in Rahul Gandhi continuing at the helm of Congress.
M/s. Jairam Ramesh and P Chidambaram have added to Tariq Anwar’s comment, “Yes, we admit, Congress pulled down the MGB”, by promising to ‘deliberate in the Congress Working Committee on their repeated failures and the recent one in Bihar and give out a detailed statement’”.
Sorry CWC. One politician pundit, from the inside, who once was the leading light as leader of the free world, has already told us why Rahul Gandhi was yet again unsuccessful. He is ‘inept and ineffective’. He simply lived up to his skillset and reputation. CWC has been spared time and effort in engaging in any empty and/or futile deliberations. Look for better work, if CWC has any, beyond being Yes Men to the Gandhi family. That would suit BJP like no other.
Amit Shah came and conquered. J P Nadda has come and did the same. Tomorrow, it could be Kuppusamy or Ramasamy or any other Tom, Dick or Harry, so long as CWC endorses and pledges the Congress party to the Gandhi family and Rahul Gandhi leads the political charge as their star campaigner.
While Barack Obama had two words to describe Rahul- as paraphrased by me, I admit, from the few sentences in his, to be released memoir, My Promised Land- I have just one word to describe why I feel Narendra Modi keeps being the darling of the voters. SINCERE.
Yes, Modi is a politician. Clever, manipulative, scheming to bring down his opponents. Be it as Chief Minister of Gujarat or as Prime Minister of India, he has been sincere in his efforts. He may not have delivered. He may have promised the moon and not reached even the tree top on occasions. He may have tripped as on DeMon.
Yet, he was trying it with sincerity. He sincerely felt that it may expose the parallel economy and suck up the black currency. He did not realise that We The People were cleverer, ingenious and cunning in our ways.
Bihar election results have shown up the Indian Pollsters for what they are. Speculators and Gamblers. No different from their US cousins. Revealed that Barack Obama’s euphemistic portrayal of Rahul as ‘inept and ineffective’ fitted him to a tee. And my two penny analysis and conclusion- We The People voted Narendra Damordas Modi again and again and again and again because we find him to be SINCERE, more than what we can say about most politicians of our time.
(Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan – Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)