India turns right in Modi wave

India took a decisive right turn after ten years of centre-left rule when the 2014 general election results were declared on May 16 with the Bharatiya Janta Party winning more than 272 out of 543 Lok Sabha seats on its own under the leadership of its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. It was indeed a BJP tsunami or a super wave which swept off the ruling United Progressive Alliance led by Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, her son and party vice-president Rahul Gandhi and the outgoing prime minister Manmohan Singh. It was also an advertisement and publicity tsunami costing hundreds of thousands of crores of (unaccounted) rupees, although the officially declared contribution by the country’s industry groups was less than one thousand crore each to the BJP and the Congress. The Congress was massively out-funded by the BJP , rued Jairam Ramesh, a minister in the outgoing government. The BJP also outsmarted Congress on smart phones, internet, Face Book, You Tube, Twitter and the lot over the years attacking its rival with a barrage of corruption charges while the Congress failed to defend itself even though the allegations remained unproven in courts. The sustained ferocity of mere accusations faithfully splashed across newspapers and television screens swelled the public perception into the tsunami which reduced the UPA election tally to a mere 62 seats with Congress itself slumping to around 47, its lowest since independence in 1947. Equally stunning was the fact that the Congress could not manage to reach the two-digit mark in any of the 29 states, according to latest, though not final, results. It lost all seven seats in the Union Territory of Delhi, the bell weather capital state of the country. Both Sonia Gandhi and son Rahul accepted the defeat and the people’s verdict on behalf of their party and congratulated the BJP for its victory in the true democratic tradition while the Prime Minister-designate Modi thanked the people, his party and alliance partners, and promised to work for all communities and parts of the country. Amen for the hopeful promise and democracy. ................................................................................................................................................................