Dear Indians,
I
wish you all hearty congratulation for phenomenal voting in the 2014 General
Elections. An election conducted in 9 phases and in 29 states and 7 union
territories, with more than 80 crore eligible voters.
I
also wish to congratulate you for voting for BJP in such huge numbers, giving
the party a full majority and free reigns to the next Prime Minister, Shri
Narendra Modi to work freely and be decisive, which is his most lauded quality.
The
2014 elections and the results thereof are significant in various aspects. Firstly,
the number of eligible voters was humongous. Next was the fact that the voter
class comprised mainly of youth. And lastly, the voter turnout at the polling
booths in scorching heat of April and May.
Most
significant and pertinent has been the result of the election. It is always a
combination of reasons for the incline and decline of any political party or its leader and a historical backdrop is pertinent at this stage. BJP remained in
power for 1 term under the leadership of Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee from 1998 to
2004. For the 2004 elections, BJP again nominated Shri Vajpayee as the Prime
Ministerial candidate. However, the party lost to UPA. Sonia Gandhi was all set
to be the next Prime Minister to add a link to the already prolonged chain of
Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. There were protests on her nomination as PM being an Italian
citizen. Sonia succumbed to the pressure escalated by the opposition and
stepped down meticulously to nominate an unknown face, Shri Manmohan Singh as
PM. Shri Singh being a calm, composed and a condensed man, governed the country
smoothly. And the whole term seemed to be smooth as the hot waters running
beneath were still not felt.
The
2009 elections showed a 39 year old Rahul Gandhi, the last Nehru descendant in
Congress as its face, without naming him as the Prime Ministerial candidate
against an 82 year old L K Advani of BJP. There was no anti-incumbency wave
against congress and BJP could not solidly attack the incumbent Government with
major national issues. Also that the projection of L K Advani brought no
enthusiasm in the BJP wing itself. As a result thereof, BJP lost the 2009
elections and brought UPA-II in power. The Congress dedicated all the credit for
victory to the Nehru descendant and it appeared to be the rising of another
Prime Minister from the country’s first family. Somehow, Rahul was still not
elevated for the big job and Manmohan Singh continued as the PM under UPA-II.
I
don’t believe there would be any hyperbole by terming the UPA-II regime as the
most shameless government with unfettered powers and zero accountability. The
high-handed approach of the UPA-II became evident in 2010 itself. The
commonwealth games scam was a shame for the country in the presence of
international guests. The scam was a brazen abuse of the public money. Very
shortly thereafter, the 2G spectrum scam came into public light. The list of
accused was shocking and exposed the UPA. The Supreme Court lashed heavily on
the UPA in the 2G spectrum judgment. However, the scams and scandals continued to erupt and Congress shamelessly embraced the same with ‘open pockets’. The
coal allocation scam, infamously known as the coalgate was another scam with
alleged siphoning off of astronomical amounts. The most shocking in this regard were two statements by Congressmen. First statement was made by the
then Union Minister for Coal, Sriprakash Jaiswal on 17.08.2013 stating that, “It’s true that
some files (pertaining to the allocation of coal mines) from 1993 to 2004 are
missing. We are trying to get the copies of those files ready”. Second
statement was by the PM himself saying that “I am not the custodian of files”
in response to questions by media on the missing files. More than the fact that the
files of an important matter went missing, what was more perturbing, was the
audacity of the Congress members to make such atrocious statements.
Rampant
corruption, perennially increasing inflation, soft on terror, indecisive PM,
incapable Rahul were the major target issues against the UPA-II by the
opposition for the 2014 elections. These issues were all against the Congress
and it knew the road ahead wasn’t easy and smooth. With this backdrop, the BJP further
weakened the knees of the Congress by naming Narendra Modi as its prime
ministerial candidate. BJP knew the pros and cons of naming Modi, but the
decision was a conscious one and it was ready to untie knots with
self-proclaimed seculars like Nitish Kumar. Narendra Modi accepted the
challenge and how. He left no stone unturned to fetch votes for his party.
Travelled all over the country, made speeches, held rallies and the result of
it was a huge ‘Modi wave’. The existence of such a wave was denied by Congress,
AAP and all other parties to demean Modi.
But, on 16th
May, 2014, it was not going to be the say of the political parties. It was the
voter that was to be heard. The voters spoke, cheered and screamed in one
voice, the name of Modi. The voter was heard, loud and clear. BJP getting a
clear majority by itself (282 seats) and NDA (pre-poll alliance) crossing 320
seat mark was phenomenal. Congress sulked in at 44. Modi fetched votes from
everywhere. All parts of the country voted for Modi and his development
politics. He was able to penetrate into the vote banks of other parties
fetching 7 out of 14 seats from Aasam, 73 out of 80 from UP, 17 in Karnataka,
26 of 26 in Gujarat, 25 of 25 in Rajasthan, 7 out of 7 in Delhi, 43 of 48 in
Maharashtra. This shows the reach of the man.
The 2014 results
have brought many positives with it. The election was mainly fought on the
issue of development and not on minority appeasement. Mulayam and Nitish got a
lifetime lesson from Muslim voters, by voters voting wisely for Modi and rejecting the divisive politics. Mayawati, who
considered ‘Dalits’ as her assured vote bank also got a shock by not winning a
single seat in UP. Congress lost on all counts. Muslims voted consciously and
tore apart the Congress’ smooth sailing dream. So was the case with other
minorities, religious or otherwise. The sky-high aspirations of the AAP and its
leader Arvind Kejriwal were also grounded by the voters.
We have given
ourselves a decisive Prime Minister having a tremendous track record of
development in Gujarat for over a decade and we must congratulate ourselves for
the same. Modi has clear majority in the Lok Sabha which shall allow him to
work free from all the coalition pressures. We have reposed our faith in one
man and we sincerely hope he lives up to the expectations of the nation. May
the country blossom in all spheres and fields. May this nation achieve new heights
under the new government.
Jai Hind.
