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The recent election results reflect more than politics. Indian voters have larger issues and economy at the core of their concern. Tamilnadu, Kerala and Bengal have separately endorsed a new economic course for the nation. Bengal definitely re\u0002mains at the centre. A hawai chappal and white sari don\u0002ning Mamata Banerjee has virtually challenged the daz\u0002zling development model that has put India’s public sector on sale and entered into a visual extravaganza of over Rs 30,000 crore (actu\u0002ally may be over Rs 50,000 crore) to change the Delhi’s central vista. Nobody ex\u0002plains why that should be a priority instead of creating a strong health sector, and hospitals capable of pro\u0002ducing their own oxygen. Nobody has tried to change that since the massive failure at the Gorakhpur hospi\u0002tal, where oxygen failure claimed 1317 lives in 2017 or the beginning of SAARS infections since 2002. Populism of Mamata’s largesse for women, youth and Duare sarkar (gover\u0002ment at doorstep), welfare policies of DMK in Tamil\u0002nadu or Left alliance in Ker\u0002ala studied closely virtually refutes the “aggressive priva\u0002tized development” model of the Centre. All these states have voted against farm bills, that seek to cre\u0002ate large house monopolies, junk scrapping policy of poor man’s vehicles, high fuel prices, fares, tolls, taxes and so called user charges. The vote endorses that the country has more pov\u0002erty to address than create cosmetic central vista that serves none but a few large corporate houses. They have together re\u0002jected the Manmohanomics – that is causing political disaster for its proponent the Congress and their follow\u0002ers the BJP. The people are pitted against the disinvest\u0002ment of prime banks, LIC, other financial institutions, defence establishments and others with a target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore in 2021-22. This is lower than Rs 2.1 lakh crore it hoped to garner from divestment in 2020-21 – an admission of failure of government bid. This failed economic concept is rejected now by the voters. While in Tamil Nadu the change was inevitable, Kerala not very surprisingly voted for the Left govern\u0002ment that in their perception has been delivering. The voters per\u0002ceived that Congress-led UDF was incapable of op\u0002posing the BJP’s onslaught for privatization, now a national concern. So the LDF has returned with a bigger mandate. In2016, it had 91 out of 140 seats and this time its tally has gone up to 99. Vote percentage increased from 43.3 percent in 2016 to 45.3 percent in 2021 The massive vote surge in Bengal for Trinamool Congress was not possible had not the people per\u0002ceived a grave threat to the economic policies being pursued by the Centre. The Left-Congress-TMC and even a section of the BJP voted for the economic pol\u0002icy changes that ironically Mamata Banerjee symbol\u0002izes. The 47.93 percent votes for TMC up from 43.3 per\u0002cent in 2019 and reduced numbers of votes for BJP to 38.13 percent from 40.2 percent in 2019 reveals a lot. The loss of all other parties was gain for TMC. It has also busted the myth that Bengal votes in communal terms. The wash out of the Left and Congress for its alli\u0002ance with highly communal\u0002ized ISF is the testimony. T h i s also proves that Bengal votes for social and eco\u0002nomic issues and rejects any polarization, except in parts, either for Furfura or Ram. Another noticeable aspect is the Bengal’s vote for Ne\u0002taji Subhash Chandra Bose, whose anniversary BJP pre\u0002sented as Prakaram (Divas) and Mamata as Deshnayak – a person who conceptual\u0002ized the Indian planning system, now rejected by the BJP. The venue chosen, Vic\u0002toria Memorial, a colonial structure that still echoes the British colonial exploitation was also not suited for the occasion to celebrate anni\u0002versary of a national leader, who had raised a worldwide opposition to the exploit\u0002ative British system during the World War II. Bengal in particular and nation as a whole wondered at the central government symbol\u0002ism. This was no tribute to a leader who virtually led to the end of the colonial rule and its practices. Surprisingly nobody pointed out this incongru\u0002ity, which Mamata aptly encashed with heightened nationalistic presentation – a message went strong that the centre is not only not re\u0002spectful to Netaji but is also blatantly promoting some private houses. No wonder some days later the Rafael bribery became an issue by the French government ex\u0002posure. It raised once again the high cost of Rs 36,000 crore for a deal that is again supposed to benefit some private parties. India is not against private companies. Many have contributed signifi\u0002cantly; many enjoy trust and set standards. The nation, however, is against overt domineering by any group. The present elections have bared that. The country wants private neither at the cost of the public sector nor wants to get it enslaved to any private player. It wants private to serve the social cause without hurting a system the country built dur\u0002ing the last 70 years. That is where the BJP’s desperate bid to capture Bengal did not succeed. The loss of the cen\u0002trist party, which gained significantly for a supposed nationalist approach during 2019 Lok Sabha election, should now reorient Indian economy, if the party led by Atal Behari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani wants to survive. Else it may be the beginning of a regression endorsed also by its severe losses in the UP’s Hindu rural heartland panchayats. The BJP gets only 580 against SP’s 782, BSP’s 361, Congress’ 61 and 1266 others. So will this election lead to an overt cry for eco\u0002nomic changes? The rightist centrist party too inclined to the corporate may not do it. But the opposition though too has its corporate con\u0002nections may try to forge an alliance to clinch a political change. Its leadership is not yet obvious. Mamata may emerge as one but her all\u0002India acceptability may not be easy. Some like SP’s Akh\u0002ilesh Yadav has spoken for her. But change of guard may be inevitable. The com\u0002bine would have to come out with a new economic policy – against privatiza\u0002tion and for strengthening the people’s economy, one may call it socialist or by any other name. It has to be contrary to a centrist aggres\u0002sive privatization that the present rulers are trying to dispense with. India is at the threshold of an economic and political change. It may gel before the UP elections next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recent poll outcomes propel Mamata to lead oppn!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}