The Fate Of India’s Largest Political Party
October 29, 2021
The Fate of India’s largest political party has, since 2014, resonated with a single man’s public persona. With time, the party has spread its wings across the sky by convincing strong personalities to join in on their vision. In today’s time, there are many names that come up in coherence with the party and its achievements throughout the domestic and global spectrum.
The absence of an opposition leader in Lok Sabha is a testament to the public approval of the world’s largest democracy’s ruling party. The party has encountered constructive criticism at various levels of governance with a spike in resistance due to the pandemic. The future of the Bharatiya Janata Party depends primarily on the pre-emptive arrangements made to deal with the foreseen third wave of Covid-19. It is expected because the virus has affected lakhs and lakhs of people in their personal capacities and decisions made on health by the government have not been devoid of politics.
The admiration of BJP is commendable among the masses due to their rigidity in ideology, from executing party manifesto each election to spreading their network at the strength of volunteers alone. But the same rigidity has faced ample assessment by the left and central winged parties and its followers. The party brought to an end the coalition era of India. The rise of solid regional and liberal pacts converted the Union Government of India, for years, into an amalgamation of various interests up until the BJP took over in 2014. With landslide victories in 2014 and 2019, the stability at the centre has been highly embraced. Stability is a criterion less popular in modern democracies due to the constant clashes of ideologies and conduct. Even so, the BJP has managed to maintain their support.
Apart from the unexpected pandemic, BJP has an in-built bias towards the Armed Forces. Not just the BJP, every government has tactically used the charm of the Indian Armed Forces as it evokes a certain kind of infatuation in the general public. Politicians know well how to manipulate this elite force as a weapon in their favor, given that we are all in a rat race of our own. The BJP has used military charisma to temporarily blind the public from revolting issues and pave a path to their victory. But there is no evidence to suggest that any other party with a similar hold over public sentiments would not have done the same. Similarly, there is no evidence to say that another party’s government would have tackled this ‘once in a century’ crisis any better than the current regime did, therefore unarguably, the benefit of the doubt remains.
Politicians and their parties don’t last out of the goodness and innocence in their hearts. Here, I would like to quote Franklin D. Roosevelt, “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” Politics is a game that needs a lot of planning and analysis, what sells is sold. The general public has to always settle for the best from the worst.
For a land that is preached as the cradle of the human race, the balance in democracy is exceptional. There will always remain flaws but the balance is what needs to be emphasised on. The lack of a strong opposition is a tricky situation for a democracy so the citizens even in support of the government have to play their parts by putting forward grievances. In record, the most aggravating issue for our democracy is the lack of an alternative government, therefore, there is an urgent need for a rival mentality. In the absence of such opposition, the people of India have intelligently maintained the democratic values as best possible by giving BJP support at the centre where their calibre is unmatched but eroded their hegemony on the regional platform which is evident by comparing their performance in Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections. It is needless to say, from Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan to overpowered diplomatic ties, the party has achieved several milestones which have paid off in its popularity. The BJP has given a new face to India and the party’s future solely depends, not on the occurrence of complications but on the way they react to such occurrences in the future.
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