BJP is addicted to gigantism.Everything it does is on a gigantic scale,even the frauds.The last general election of 2019 for example ,if Satpal Malik’s account of Pulwama is to be believed.For effect on a stunned oposition and a bemused public it also carries them out with lightning speed. I have a terrible apprehension that this election is going to witness yet another feat of similar dimensions with comparable speed.
Everyone can see the BJP is going hammer and tongs to wreck the Constitution from within.Yet few bother to confront the bitter truth and prepare a general plan for effective resistance.People are expressing shock and displeasure over sabotage and piecemeal destruction of various institutions and hallowed items of the Constitution.Yet there are no frenzied efforts at the ground level to prevent it.The courts have decided to pretend that the ground under their feet is not shaking as BJP goes about its chosen task of dismantling the Constitution.
Completely out of the blue they are foisting on the nation the idea of holding elections for Lok sabha and assemblies together. For this purpose it has promptly constituted a committee headed by the former President,whose sole qualification for this job seems to be unwavering loyalty to the BJP.The only member of the opposition put on the committee has resigned.
Supposing it hurries through consultations and concludes that such simultaneous elections could be held,then the only thing left to do will be taking care of such roadblocks as holding elections in certain states where a government had been formed in elections only two or three years back.And supposing that is precisely what the committee sets out to do,the decision and declaration on such a set of elections in the country might take place in the next session of the Parliament. If that hurdle is passed, and that would be a rush job like many other similar chicanery,then the decisive issues will have to be conjured.
The Ram Temple thrusts itself into our notice as the obvious candidate for such public celebrations.That may be drummed into an historic achievement of epic proportions. Even greater than the rescue of Parliament from colonial bandage through the Central Vista.While that will flatter the neo-Hindu triumphalism prevalent today,the resultant vote-share is unlikely to be of a decisive nature.
Hence there is every possibility of rigging up a fake Communal incident linked to the inauguration of the new Ram temple.And if it is trumpeted to outsize proportions and then catches the public mind through a tamed media,then it could have a table-turning knock-out effect. Undecided voters will be swayed that way,zealots will be fired and opponents will be cowed.Thus hey presto! there will appear a clear win for sides that are keen to have a new constitution.Share of state votes necessary for such consensus will also be within reach. This is a worst-case scenario no doubt,but considering current trends,entirely possible.
Is the opposition ready to tackle such massive con-acts?If it goes to battle armed only with tired old devices of constitutional democracy,then one fears it will be no match for jugglery and frauds of such mammoth proportions. For they are up against a foe that has an inherent contempt for democracy and its sacred conventions.
Hiren Gohain is a political commentator
