Though general elections are just weeks away, BJP and Congress so far are simply attacking each other. Will they pull out a rabbit from their hat and bring a fresh narrative for the electorate which has positivity and message for change?

After the entry of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in active politics, the Grand old party—Congress—looks energized, motivated and has momentum on its side as it goes to face the Lok Sabha elections in 2019. Of course, it has been helped in no small measure by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which looks jaded, carries the disadvantage of anti-incumbency and is seemingly devoid of the energy and enthusiasm which marked the campaign of Narendra Modi throughout 2013 and till the elections of 2014.

Despite being on a roll to an extent, as party supporters would like to believe, after their victory in the assembly elections of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh, this would be the first election in recent years where Congress, which by default is the main challenger, so far is yet to come out with a positive poll narrative or sound implementable promises. All it depends this time round is the so called failure of the Modi regime rather than any positive agenda on the front of job creation, giving a boost to the economy or any dynamic agenda which it might have for foreign policy or vis-à-vis our neighboring countries. As of now Rafale seems to be the single most important agenda for the opposition even as the ruling party is spiritedly defending it and denying any wrong doing.

Attack, attack and attack…seems to be the mantra of Congress as it enters the last phases before the elections are formally announced by the Election Commission of India. All it has done in recent months is to attack the Modi government, left right and centre and has done it consistently without any break.

But can the alleged failure of Modi government be its trump card for 2019? If the Congress think tank believes that it can go into the polls without a positive agenda, without any narrative to offer, it is perhaps going through a delusional phase. There could be a near unanimity amongst the non-BJP parties and also a large section of the academia and economists that demonetization was a blunder or implementation of GST could have been done in a better and perhaps in a phased manner. There is no argument on that. But can this failure of the ruling party become the main weapon of the fight back?

At present, all Congress has to offer is loan waivers to farmers. We saw this in Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Rajasthan where the party won last year, triggering speculation that it would do well in the general elections. But is loan waiver the panacea of all ills plaguing the farming community? No farmer, agriculturist or experts dealing with farm economy and farm crisis thinks so. At best, it is a pill which can only remove the symptom on a short term and can never remove the causes of the disease.

So what has Congress to offer to the farmers of the country? Farm distress is perhaps the single most reason to make the Modi government unpopular amongst the farmers. Low farm prices have ensured that that the return of the farmers from investment in crop, seeds, fertilizers and land is reducing and has come down significantly in recent years. But will the Congress implement the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission which advocates a new mechanism for fixing Minimum Support Price for the Crops? We have not heard much from the party on this except some vague promises. In fact, even in Punjab, where the party has been in power for almost two years now and a state which is facing farm distress and farmers’ suicide for long, we are yet to hear much on the farm front except some cosmetic loan waiver. Farmers continue to be stressed in Punjab even though Congress under Capt Amarinder Singh took over the reins of power almost two years ago.

If you do not have anything concrete on the farm front, that’s fine. You can take a call on that later on. But, what are your plans to create jobs and give an impetus to the economy? No one denies that demonetization followed in quick succession by GST affected job growth, in fact triggered massive job losses but has the Congress come out with a plan to infuse new life to the economy and create jobs once again.  The answer obviously would be no.

In 2014, when Narendra Modi was bidding for power at the Centre, he too attacked the Congress left, right and Centre using every possible imagery to pin down the party and expose its inner contradictions. This was similar to what Congress is doing now. At that time, Modi found traction amongst the voters with the three words—Modi, Modi, Modi…echoing in most of the public meetings in Hindi heartland throughout the campaign period. But at the same time, he had come out with slogans of creating two crore employment every year and 15 lakh in every bank account from the black money which was supposedly parked in foreign accounts and was to come to India. Of course the promise of “Acche Din” was the catalyst which brought hope amongst a large section of the population, cutting across caste and religious lines.

Five years down the line, the promises largely remain a promise and the slogans raised then have been given a decent burial. Even the “Gujarat model of development” which was supposed to be implemented at the national level, too remains forgotten and no one is hearing anything on that “model”.  What Modi and BJP are doing this time round again is what they did in 2014—virulently attack Congress.  Dynasty and alleged acts of omission and commission are on top of the subjects on which the grand old party can be attacked.

So there you are, both the main competitors are calling each other names, want voters to believe that they are corrupt and trying to attract voters’ eyeball by the vocabulary which they are using against each other.

What catapulted BJP under Modi in 2014 was complete disillusionment with ten years of UPA regime, charges of big ticket corruption, perception of a remote controlled Prime Minister and loss of hope amongst the electorate for the future. Contrarily, Modi brought in a wave of fresh air, positive change, political machismo and above all hope in the slogan of “Acche Din”. 

In the absence of a positive narrative amongst both the contenders for power—BJP and Congress, the electioneering so far has reduced to charges and counter charges, attack and defense. Of course, real electioneering is yet to pick up and will pick momentum after the country gets over the Pulwama tragedy, but people are still wondering if elections this time round would be fought on negative agenda or both the parties would roll out a positive poll narrative which has hope and optimism for the people.