When Rahul Gandhi exploded his ‘H bomb’ last week, I happened to be aimlessly switching channels in search of news from Bihar. And, when he popped up on my TV screen striding up and down, one hand in pocket and the other clutching a microphone, on a stage whose backdrop was a screen with many voter ID cards, all with the same photo of a beautiful woman, I stopped switching channels. I listened carefully as he demanded to know from his audience of journalists if they knew who this woman was. With the panache of a skilled quizmaster, he demanded to know if anyone knew where she was from, how old she was and if she looked like a Haryanvi woman. When nobody spoke, he revealed dramatically that she was a Brazilian model who appeared to have voted in Haryana many times during last year’s election.
This was certainly intriguing, so I continued to watch. The Leader of the Opposition expounded on his theory that the Haryana election would have been won by the Congress Party if the BJP had not cheated with help from the Election Commission. Rahul Gandhi’s ‘H bomb’ was potent enough for TV reporters to scurry off the next day to the villages where the Brazilian model had voted repeatedly. Sometimes as Sweety, sometimes as Pinky and sometimes as Saraswati. They found that in most cases it was a real Haryanvi woman who had voted with a real voter’s ID card, but with the wrong photograph pasted on it. Nobody knew how the Brazilian model’s picture appeared on their cards. She herself released a video saying she had never been to India. The Election Commission needs to explain.
It was when Rahul Gandhi said that the elections in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and in other states had all been stolen, his ‘H bomb’ lost its potency. And, when Priyanka Gandhi repeated her brother’s charges about ‘vote chori’ at a rally in Bihar the next day, it began to sound as if the Congress Party was admitting that their coalition could lose. It is sad that our oldest political party, that was once so powerful that it ruled almost every state in India, should pin all their hopes in Bihar on this one issue of voter fraud.
There are other issues. The BJP’s mightiest leaders have made some of the ugliest, dangerously rabid speeches during the Bihar campaign. In constituencies where Muslim voters dominate, they have spoken of how they plan to weed out illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and throw them out of India. Remember that the Home Minister once called them termites. If the Congress Party had been true to its secular values, its senior leaders would have called the BJP out and shamed it for once more trying to incite Hindus against Muslims. And for once more trying to remind Muslims that as long as the BJP remains in power in Delhi, they need to get used to being second class citizens. The Prime Minister led the charge against the ‘ghuspatiyas (infiltrators)’ and in doing so lowered the stature of his office. Why does the Congress Party say nothing?
There is much that the Election Commission needs to say as well. If the decision to extend the exercise it calls SIR (Special Intensive Revision) to other states is being viewed with suspicion, it is because there are valid questions that the Chief Election Commissioner must answer. In my ever-humble opinion, the most important of these questions is why is SIR being perceived as an exercise to exclude Muslims in general? Could it be because it is exactly that?
In response to Rahul Gandhi’s ‘H bomb’, the Election Commission has pointed out that the reason why the electoral rolls need intensive revision is precisely because of the charges he has made. Does not ring true somehow. If the Chief Election Commissioner behaved less arrogantly, he might be trusted more. He heads an organisation that needs to be seen as capable of conducting free and fair elections. If senior Opposition leaders ask questions about the way the electoral rolls are being revised, they have a right to real answers. Not dismissed with curt rebuttals.
The election campaign in Bihar has been disappointing, dismal and disturbing. We have seen a parade of our most important political leaders raise issues that will in no way benefit the people of our poorest state. The BJP bared its Hindutva fangs and accused the Congress Party of disrespecting the Sanatan Dharma on the grounds that its leaders have not gone to Ayodhya to pray in the new temple to Ram. Why should that charge resonate with voters in Bihar?
The Congress Party campaign has concentrated on the charge that the BJP has been colluding with the Election Commission to ‘steal’ elections and that there are plans afoot to steal the election in Bihar. Surely, in their hearts, the heirs to the Dynasty must know that they have lost election after election because the issues they have raised are not issues that capture the imagination of voters. There is much that all our political leaders could learn from the campaign that Zohran Mamdani ran in New York. He started off as the man least likely to defeat a man who comes from a storied political dynasty and won spectacularly. As of last week, he is set to become the next Mayor of New York city.