So am I fan of Congress, no of course not. But if I was eligible to vote in India, I would hold my nose and vote for whoever stood the best chance to getting rid of Modi and the BJP even if that meant voting Congress, that’s how perilous I see the situation as being.
For whats its worth, I didn’t vote for BJP in 2014 or 2019. But I would rather chew glass than vote for Congress till the family is in charge.
The reason I didn’t vote for the BJP is because I don’t like the religious overtones in their politics but Congress or other opposition parties are hardly secular or demonstrate liberal democratic values that I hope for. A couple of examples for this would be that in 2011 Congress filed sedition cases against 3500 farmers for protesting against the construction of a nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu. In 2019 the Congress government in Chhattisgarh filed a sedition case against an individual for a face book post criticizing the government for frequent power shedding in the summer. In Bengal TMC arrested a journalist for tweeting a cartoon of the Chief minister. These parties also regularly ask the Muslims to vote on religious lines for them and they pander to Hindus by tweeting pictures of their religious devotion when it suits them.
I don’t have to like the BJP to argue that since 2014 there isn’t any decline in individual freedom or India as a democracy because its simply not true. If that was the case then BJP would not have lost half the elections it has contested since 2014.
Modi is incredibly popular and will single handedly win BJP the elections, he easily adds 10% vote share to BJP’s kitty in the national election. However BJP regularly loses state and local body elections, but don’t those get as much attention as national elections do.
I also don’t have to like Modi to argue that the reason he wins the elections is not because Indians have suddenly become communal since 2014 and vote on religious lines. He is winning largely because his welfare policies have benefitted the poor and his direct benefit scheme delivers those benefit without corruption. This is a massive change in the state’s ability to deliver services to the citizens and have made him very popular. Add to that BJP is a well oiled organization that is able to effectively target and get their voters to polling booths on Election Day - can’t begrudge them for being competent.
While his economic performance isn’t spectacular the economy has been largely stable and growing at a decent pace. People still remember the rampant inflation and a virtually bankrupt banking system under the previous regime.
Despite his popularity Modi isn’t infallible- there are number of areas I personally believe his track record and core voter base can be attacked, but for some reason which is beyond me the opposition don’t seem to do so.
