Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday announced the OROP in an extremely short press conference. It made the points ably, but was shorn of the chest beating antics we almost expect to see from this government.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

If there was any doubt about how the government is going to play this out in the upcoming Bihar elections, Narendra Modi made it clear in a public rally on Sunday. PM Modi said that he has kept the promise given in his 2013 pre-election rally at Rewari, Haryana to war veterans and also took great pains to explain why 15 months were needed for its final announcement. In no uncertain words, he said that even though OROP burdens the exchequer to a great extent, respecting ex-armymen was the priority of the government.

While there are some sticking points, overall, the veterans seem to be satisfied with the OROP and the lingering protest is also likely to fizzle out in a few days. But the impact of this decision may be significant for the ruling BJP at the Centre, particularly as it comes just before the schedule of the all-important Bihar polls is announced.

1. Not merely a 'jumla' sarkar

Over the past 15 months, the opposition has repeatedly needled the government for hoodwinking the public on several issues. Repeatedly, words like Modi being a package master have been mentioned. But after the historic Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh, this is another big achievement for the government, where a pending issue of the past 40 years has been resolved. It will give the government some breathing space to say that the work is in progress on other lofty promises like cleaning the Ganga and bringing back black money from foreign banks.

2. Offsets face-loss for the land ordinance fiasco

The entire land acquisition controversy was like a bad dream for the Modi government. It was not properly managed politically, and from the very beginning, the opposition got a chance to set the agenda. When the government tried to communicate on the issue, it was already too late with the threat perception grown on farmers’ mind. While Jaitley may say that the decision to not repromulgate the land ordinance is not a setback, in reality, it was the government’s way to get out of the logjam.

The land ordinance issue exposed the weakness of the government, especially its numbers in the Upper House. OROP on the other hand, amply shows the strength of the government under one firm leader, by taking a historic decision without budging on some key provisions. For many who voted for the BJP, this is precisely the kind of ‘nationalistic’ decisions they would have hoped for. In that respect, the afterglow of the OROP implementation will somewhat make up for the shoddy implementation of the land ordinance.

3. Exposes Congress’ hypocrisy

The Congress had dragged its feet on the OROP for a very long time, before allocating a token amount in the last budget of UPA2. Like any true opposition, while it is trying to piggyback on the unrest of veterans, it is very hard to see anyone taking the grand old party seriously. If social media reactions are any indicator, Congress has come across as opportunistic and hypocritical in this entire issue, keeping in mind their earlier position.

After hammering the government on Lalitgate and the Vyapam scam, Congress has failed to keep up the momentum on OROP. In Bihar, Congress is a marginal player but it has been allotted only 40 seats by the ‘secular' alliance. BJP hopes to score big in seats where Congress will be its main opponent.

4. Will make Modi’s development pitch in Bihar more believable

PM Modi being an astute politician, knows that in Bihar, the anti-BJP forces occupy a greater chunk of the social base. Thus, if elections are held on the basis of traditional caste lines, BJP is likely to fall way short. Hence, BJP wants to make it an election where development is the key mantra and Modi is relying on the ambitious Rs 1.25 lakh crore package to drive home the message.

So far, Nitish and Lalu were undermining the generous package as another election stunt, and was focusing on the DNA comment, to make 'Bihari asmita' an election plank. But make no mistake, NDA leaders will reach out aggressively to tell people that just like the demands of ex-servicemen have been fulfilled, Bihar, and especially its youth, will also get to finally see light at the end of a long tunnel.

Will it help Modi win the Bihar acid test? That remains to be seen. But all the above factors will undoubtedly generate a feel-good push for the NDA after the washout of the Monsoon Session and the capitulation in the land bill. The government is in firm control and Modi is driving the ship ably- this is the message that the PM would like to project through the OROP announcement to the people of Bihar.