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Video Editor: Mohd Ibrahim
While the people of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan have shown they want the Congress to form government, the party has made significant gains in Madhya Pradesh. Let us remember that these three states have been BJP strongholds.
What has gone wrong for the saffron party?
1. Widespread Agrarian Crisis
2. Dilution of the SC/ST Act
3. Demonetisation
Now, we shall look at each of them one by one.
i) The spiral of violence in Madhya Pradesh's Mandsaur in June 2017, where six farmers were killed in police firing, made headlines and fueled resentment. The BJP paid the price of treating it as one-off. Madhya Pradesh has been grappling with over-production, but farmers are not getting the price, and access to market is still a huge problem.
ii) In November, farmers descended on the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi demanding favourable terms of trade. The protests called by All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, an umbrella group of at least 130 farmer organisations spread across the length and breadth of India, signaled the mounting distress across the country. The president of All India Kisan Sabha clearly said, "Despite PM Modi's recent statements that he had taken initiatives to solve farmers' distress, the issues remain. For this betrayal, farmers will give Modi government and the BJP a befitting reply in 2019 election."
The BJP also seems to have paid the price for dithering on the perceived dilution of the SC/ST act. The perception gained ground that the BJP is not keen to protect the rights of SCs and STs. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s handling of the issue angered many. As many as five of the nine deaths during the Dalit protest took place in Madhya Pradesh. The Gwalior region, incidentally, was the epicentre of the protest.
Let us also remember that Chhattisgarh has a very large tribal population. Looking at the result one, gets the impression that there is resounding ‘no’ from tribal population for the BJP.
In Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the BJP faced the ire of privileged castes too. There were movements by the privileged castes against the provisions of the SC/ST act.
While the BJP has been in denial, economic slowdown following the draconian demonetisation has reflected badly on the saffron party. While claims of fighting black money were pushed by the Narendra Modi-led BJP government on the evening of 8 November 2016, it is a documented fact that 99.3 percent of demonetised notes found their way back into banks.
However, this crusade against the rich eventually culminated in nothing. No legitimate benefit trickled down to the poor, while reportedly 100 people, poor people spread across India, lost their lives. Soon they began to step away from the tall claims made by the government and give another party a shot.
The verdict from Hindi heartland is clear: They want Congress Yukt Bharat and have cut the BJP down to size.
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Published: 11 Dec 2018,05:04 PM IST