Every year, 12th March always is an emotional day for me. No it's not my birthday but surely a dark day in this citys' history. The 1993 Bombay Bomb Blasts. This year wasn't any different. But in some corners of the country it is a huge celebration time. Especially at the 11, Akbar Road & 7 Race Course Road. And Holi is not the reason of that celebration. The Modi led BJP juggernaut is now unstoppable. And you will agree with my point of view more when you start hearing the oppositions (Chidambaram, Congress & Abdullah, NC) accepting the fact that the Modi wave isn't any illusion or facade but it is real and it's here to stay without any question easily until 2024. Bringing out the best result in their partys' history, the BJP led NDA amassed 325 seats out of the 403 strength Assembly of the Hindi Heartland. Though there was a setback in Punjab, BJP also made huge inroads in Manipur and conquered Uttarakhand. And may be by the time you will be reading this they also would have staked claim for the throne of Goa.
So now the question is what is remaining for Modi to win? As regards the much debated Demonetization, if these results are to be compared including the victories in the 8 Municipal Corporations, the Zilla Parishads and various Panchayat Samitis in Maharashtra, then people surely have welcomed it with open arms. As Nitish Kumar said it was totally wrong to criticize demonetization especially when the people at ground level had accepted it. Now with the current NDAs legislative strength across the country, BJP will be in majority in Rajya Sabha and can also, after taking help of few, be the Commandeering Chief of the Armed Forces when the election takes place in July this year. From bottom to top it is One Party Government now in Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP, Goa, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, J&K, M.P., Rajasthan and many more. People now seem to be tired of the alliance governments where everyone is carrying out work on gun point and threatening each other in the entire tenure. So they have chosen their messiah as Modi to clear the backlog. BJP under Modi is making it's presence felt in all corners of India. They have reached where the entire Jan Sangh, Advani-Vajpayee BJP together with the RSS couldn't. Which brings me to a very important question, what about the regional parties now?
Since Brexit and Trumps triumph in the US, the message was loud and clear. The idea of globalization has been totally rejected by the masses. I still remember mentioning in one my write-up how this will create a bright future for all the regional parties. As the ideology behind Brexit or Trump is exactly the same as to what the Regional Parties have for their respective states. One of the biggest problem with Globalization is, that there isn't any control on things in the open market. This mood of anti globalization isn't happening all of a sudden. It was their earlier too when the markets were opened for trade across the world. The ones who pointed out these problems at local, state or national level were termed as opportunists or parties with a petty ideology which tries to woo voters by creating some fear in the minds. However now the amount of people feeling the burns is increasing rapidly. The realization is dawning upon all that the disadvantages of globalization has surpassed the advantages it originally brought in. After Brexit, the Scots too realized they now need to come out of the shadow of UK. Inspite of all the rigorous anti Trump campaign by the media, celebrities and the whos who of Hollywood, people chose Donald Trump for the White House. France, Germany are scheduled for elections this year and they too have seen the rise of Right Wing and the Nationalist opinion being widely debated within their respective countries. The message was clear that people are now opting to close the doors. We tried the open door formula of doing business. It did flourish and indeed was profitable. But few pockets were becoming heavy while in case of rest, the status quo wasn't changing. For a US company, appointing Indians to do the labour work is far more cheap than getting it done with US residents on account of many benefits. Indians are ready to slog daily, eager to work in peanuts, get motivated by few adjectives in English said by a foreigner etc. This surely is a great deal, but where does this leave the people or the country in the end. We all saw what happened in the end of Vodafone (A British Telecom giant) case against the Government of India. With ample resources at their disposal they could easily evade the taxes thus giving a huge hole in our countrys' treasury.
So now people have decided to go Desi in the West. Post independent India has a history of following their footsteps. If we could amend our toilet commodes to match with theirs, I don't think there is any limit to which we can go to appease the West. Hence in here the idea of Nationalism was too accepted by the people. But here there is The Trick. We accepted the idea but implemented it only in principal and not according to the situations and pattern of Indian Polity. We have given power in single hands to a National Party, I repeat National Party and not to any Regional Party which itself defeats the very idea of Anti Globalization that is happening around the world. Confused?? Allow me to explain.
Let us look into what happened in Brexit. The British decided to vote, to walk out of the European Union in order to create their own identity instead of following rules set by some common parliament for around 28-30 odd countries. Hence by that referendum, the peoples voice was heard and UK has initiated the process of exiting the Union. Now let us compare this with India. Though India is one country, but we are a Europe. Like in Europe there is a country as per their language. Here we have states. Each country has the rule that one should know their countrys' language if you wish to reside, stay, study or work in their land. (See the European football. A player playing in Italy has to speak Italian or Spanish if in Spain or German in Germany etc) Here we do not have it as a law, but in the Southern parts it is observed strictly. So when we say UK is opting out of the Union. Back in India it should have been the rejection of National Parties running the States and allowing the Regional Parties to take care of the states with the Union or the country being managed by the National Parties.
This was the exact idea which is happening around the world. We implemented in principal but messed up geographically. We are a Union of States, just like the European Union is a collection of countries. When the name was being decided for the new country after British rule, among others, United States of India was also in the list. But since our implementation of the idea has been faulty, let us now look at the repercussions of this mess up. We will be doing exactly the opposite of what actually we intended to do. The power is now being concentrated in one hand. And that hand shall become so mighty so powerful that it will be difficult to curtail by any means or mode in the future. Don't be surprised if we see a situation of Emergency of 1975 back again.
This brings me to the situation of Regional Parties. It is commonly seen that the National Parties aren't concerned about the Regional pride or asmita as referred here in Marathi. The culture, the history, the roots are the identity of the people who are staying there for decades. This identity cannot be preserved when the ones in the power are only concerned about winning and increasing their numbers everywhere by whichever means possible. To name a few regional power houses; Orissa is still under Biju Janata Dal rule, West Bengal under the Trinamool Congress, Tamil Nadu under AIADMK wherein even the Opposition is also another strong regional party DMK, Telangna under the Telangana Rahtriya Samiti, Andhra under Telegu Desam Party (BJP is Junior Partner) etc. But will they be able to guard their forts against the TsuNaMo which is currently sweeping India. The Shiv Sena in Maharashtra was washed away in the wave. Though they might have the numbers to stand tall, but the pride in which they should be celebrating is not visible. As BJP has gained all the moral victory even after leaving the huge chunk of pie (BMC Mayor Polls). MNS too lost its existence in case of numbers. Recently the Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party lost their forts in UP. The Shiromani Akali Dal lost their forte, Punjab. Omar Abdullah was knocked out from Kashmir and now the BJP has made huge progress in North-East too. With a National Party at helm in almost every possible seat of power, the future of Regional Parties seems to be in dark. The victory margins are so huge that there isn't any room for a constructive opposition.
I have always believed that Regional Parties are far more aware of the ground situations than the National Parties of any given particular State. People feel the connect with them, the same which is not visible with any National Party due to the multiple levels of hierarchy. Like Congress had High Command, BJP has its core committees who shall be taking day to day decisions in the running of the governments. The ones who will be calling shots will be in Delhi. Not to forget, we have Nagpur which is above all. But thats what the present situation is now, and it shall be here for quite some time. Hence looking at the present scenario, there seems to be only one viable option to survive in this wave. It is time for the Regional Parties to join hands to reach towards the common goal. If Nitish Kumars JD (U), which in the last decade had created history after knocking Laloo Prasad Yadav of his perch to end the 15 years Jungle Raaj, can join hands with the Rashtriya Janata Dal which created a formidable alliance in Bihar to take on the Modi Juggernaut and also maintained their forts. Why shouldn't other follow the same suit. It is time to keep the petty differences aside and chart out a common minimum programme to ensure the end result is achieved which shall be the same for their respective states. Like Sun Tzu mentioned in The Art of War, "Attack the enemy where they are unprepared, appear from where you are not expected."
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