http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/
The BJP’s Pyrrhic victory in Gujarat
It is improbable that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a compulsive reader of William Shakespeare. Certainly, it is unthinkable that last night he took a walk in the Ridge with Congress President Rahul Gandhi where they came across three old witches looking ‘so wither’d and so wild in their attire’, who told the latter,
‘Hail! Hail! Hail! You will be lesser than Modi and yet greater! Not so happy as he, but happier! Not king, but the father of kings!’
Before PM Modi could ask the ‘imperfect speakers’ to explain their prophecy, they vanished in Delhi’s winter smog behind one of the numerous ruins in and around the Ridge with a gory history. PM will now have to wait till the 2019 poll to find out the meaning of the riddle.
Quite obviously, PM couldn’t secure the victory that his trusted party president Amit Shah had promised – 150 seats out of 182 in the Gujarat state election. The BJP juggernaut ground to a halt at 98. The consensus earlier was that anything below 100 would be a moral and political defeat for the BJP. To be sure, the BJP rewrote with alacrity yesterday a new narrative, but the honest truth is that Shah got nowhere near what he promised.
It was not for want of trying. The BJP tried all the tricks in the trade. No prime minister in India ever before wore on his sleeve his ethnic identity and openly spoke about it to plead for votes in his home state. No prime minister ever stoked the fires of slumbering anti-Muslim feelings so daringly. No prime minister put the fear of Pakistan into the Hindu mind to frighten the voters. No prime minister ever flew a seaplane or charioted a road show on voting day to impress awe-struck natives. But PM still couldn’t get for the BJP anywhere near a political knockout he’d aimed at.
The BJP’s Pyrrhic victory in Gujarat
It is improbable that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a compulsive reader of William Shakespeare. Certainly, it is unthinkable that last night he took a walk in the Ridge with Congress President Rahul Gandhi where they came across three old witches looking ‘so wither’d and so wild in their attire’, who told the latter,
‘Hail! Hail! Hail! You will be lesser than Modi and yet greater! Not so happy as he, but happier! Not king, but the father of kings!’
Before PM Modi could ask the ‘imperfect speakers’ to explain their prophecy, they vanished in Delhi’s winter smog behind one of the numerous ruins in and around the Ridge with a gory history. PM will now have to wait till the 2019 poll to find out the meaning of the riddle.
Quite obviously, PM couldn’t secure the victory that his trusted party president Amit Shah had promised – 150 seats out of 182 in the Gujarat state election. The BJP juggernaut ground to a halt at 98. The consensus earlier was that anything below 100 would be a moral and political defeat for the BJP. To be sure, the BJP rewrote with alacrity yesterday a new narrative, but the honest truth is that Shah got nowhere near what he promised.
It was not for want of trying. The BJP tried all the tricks in the trade. No prime minister in India ever before wore on his sleeve his ethnic identity and openly spoke about it to plead for votes in his home state. No prime minister ever stoked the fires of slumbering anti-Muslim feelings so daringly. No prime minister put the fear of Pakistan into the Hindu mind to frighten the voters. No prime minister ever flew a seaplane or charioted a road show on voting day to impress awe-struck natives. But PM still couldn’t get for the BJP anywhere near a political knockout he’d aimed at.