Video editors: Ashutosh Bhardwaj and Varun Sharma
In the Bollywood movie Baazigar, the lead actor Shah Rukh Khan has a very popular dialogue, “Haar ke jeetney wale ko Baazigar kehte hai” (The one who creates an illusion of his loss but actually turns out to be a winner is a true magician). In the current context of Indian politics, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is no less than a magician.
The questions being raised about the Rafale deal and losses in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, have vanished and PM Modi seems to be making a comeback after the airstrikes.
Just consider the Pulwama attack and imagine there was another party in power. The attack of this magnitude would have been branded the biggest failure of that government. But Modi government’s diplomacy and political manouvers have turned the attack into an elixir for the government.
After Pulwama attack, the Modi government has responded on three fronts.
- Ensuring that Pulwama martyr’s families don’t turn on the government.
- A response to Pulwama incident that creates an ‘illusion’ of war but it isn’t that deadly.
- Engage the Opposition on debates of nationalism so they can’t target the government.
Let’s Revisit the Events of Last Couple of Weeks
A CRPF convoy in Pulwama was attacked in which 40 personnel were martyred. The nation mourned and was enraged at the same time. The government was already on target of a united Opposition and now the terror attacks had only increased their problems. This was the second biggest attack in terms of security personnel casualty. Nine years ago, in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, 76 CRPF personnel were killed in a maoist ambush.
It became obvious that the Opposition would give the “56-inch Prime Minister” a taste of his own medicine.
It was visible publicly. The saffron party had already become nervous because of the entry of Priyanka Gandhi in active politics. But on 17 February, when Priyanka Gandhi was about to address her first political press conference, she called for a two-minute silence as a tribute to martyrs and then cancelled the press conference.
The point is that problems for the BJP were increasing.
PM Modi Waging Political War on Multiple Fronts
PM Modi was facing multiple challenges, especially with respect to Uttar Pradesh. After an evident Congress resurgence in the state, NDA ally partners like Apna Dal and Om Prakash Rajbhar had started flexing muscles and bargain for more seats. On the other hand, be it television news or social media, Priyanka Gandhi was getting all the eyeballs.
Modi’s second problem was the SP-BSP alliance.
When it was a quadrangular contest in 2014, BJP had clinched 71 out of 80 seats. But the alliance between two ‘arch-rivals’ changed the political arithmetic.
All surveys started predicting massive loss for BJP in Uttar Pradesh ranging from 20-25 seats to over 40-50 seats.
To cap it all, the Pulwama terror attack changed the situation from bad to worse for the BJP and PM Modi.
How BJP Changed the Narrative
But after Pulwama attack, nationalism began to take centre stage. All parties were appealed to set aside politicisation of CRPF personnel’s martyrdom and stand together as one. The Opposition went a step ahead and promised to stand by the government.
None of the Opposition leaders made any major comment against the government. In the meantime, the BJP mobilised its cadre. In every lane, village, town, city, rallies were conducted and tricolours were raised as a tribute to martyrs.
Candle vigils were taken out and slogans in tribute to the martyrs were raised. To a certain extent, BJP themselves played the role of Opposition. By the time the Opposition parties could come up with a strategy to attack the BJP, the saffron party had already changed the narrative.
Allegations of corruption in Rafale deal, the NSSO report on job data and the Ram temple issue – all of them have disappeared. In fact, the Supreme Court held a hearing on Ram temple on 26 February but it went largely unreported and even the Opposition failed to raise it. On the other hand, the BJP managed to instil nationalism in the hearts of people and cleverly politicised the airstrikes as well.
(This story was originally published on Quint Hindi and has been translated by Anubhav Mishra)
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