#dnaEdit: Euphoria evaporates

A year is really an eternity in politics. The ecstatic high that Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had experienced in May 2014 was justified and deserving.  It was an impressive election victory. For the first time in 30 years a single party had secured a simple majority in the Lok Sabha. The BJP had 283 seats, crossing the halfway point comfortably. The main opposition party, the Congress, was reduced to a pathetic 44 seats. The AIADMK, which had 38 seats, is not opposed to the government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was looking to dominate the government and Parliament as he did the election campaign. He was eager to take the bull of governance by the horns as it were and remake it in the Gujarat model. He was confident that economy could be turned around and the opposition marginalised further. 

It is not surprising that the positive vibes did not last for too long.  Curiously, Mr Modi complained that he did not enjoy the customary “honeymoon” period when he wrote about his first month in office. It the grace period when the media is not critical of the government. The fact is the media was willing to see nothing wrong in the new government. It had, however, become difficult for the media to ignore the foibles of Modi’s ministerial and party colleagues. It started with Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti’s hate speech in December and a provocative statement by Sakshi Maharaj in April. Modi had to intervene in the two Houses and ask that the Sadhvi’s remarks be overlooked since she had expressed regret. And at a meeting of the BJP MPs, he had to warn them not to speak out of turn. 

Despite Modi’s barnstorming the state assembly elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi, it was only in Haryana that the BJP scored a decisive victory. In Maharashtra it fell short of simple majority, in Jammu and Kashmir its success was confined to Jammu and it had to taste an ignominious defeat in Delhi where its numbers fell from 32 to 3.  The Lok Sabha victory was indeed receding into a misty past. The message was clear that getting a simple majority in the Lok Sabha does not guarantee victories in all state elections. The magic was waning, and sheen wearing off. 

A major unforced error of the government was the promulgation of an ordinance at the end of 2014 amending the land acquisition bill. They did two things wrong in this. First, it was done through an ordinance, something that the BJP had always criticised the Congress of. Second, the amendments were weighted against the farmers. The Congress and other opposition parties took the opportunity to nail the government and the government is struggling to wriggle out of the tight spot. The BJP is desperately trying to argue that the amendments are not anti-farmer, but the man/woman on the street is not convinced. The government is losing the image battle. 

What is important and interesting is the fact that the common person who was happy to see the back of the decade-long Congress-led UPA government last May is irritated with the BJP-led NDA government this May. S/he is unhappy that things have not improved ever since Modi took over despite the high expectations. These are just mutterings of irritation. They have not yet reached the level of anger. It would be an error if Modi & Co remain complacent and ignore the glimmer of discontent on the ground. Modi’s remark in Shanghai on May 16, 2015 about the trepidation, expectation and ecstasy that even non-resident Indians (NRIs) must have felt on May 16, 2014 is an indulgence in pure nostalgia. Prime Minister Modi cannot afford to do that any more.  He cannot live off the big achievement of last summer.