Sitaram Yechury
The BJP’s brinkmanship in the recently concluded assem¬bly elections in Goa came to a nought. With bombastic claims and high sounding rhetoric, the BJP was visualis¬ing an increased support amongst the people of Goa resulting in its becoming the ruling party. The BJP was obviously pinning its faith on the so-called wave of sympathy for Mr. Vajpayee after the defeat of his gover¬nment’s confidence vote due to AIADMK’s withdrawal of support. The Goa elections have shows that such a wave of sympathy simply does not exist and the people have judged the BJP for its performance in the thirteen months as the ruling party.
Similarly, the BJP’s attempt to politicise the Kargil issue and seek support by whipping up jingoism and pseudo-nationalism not only did not materialise but has actually boomeranged.
During the 1998 general elections, the BJP and its allies had a lead in 30 of the 40 assembly segments in Goa. This has now come down to 14 (10 BJP, 4 Maharash¬tra Gomantak Party). The BJP’s share of voting strength, without its allies, has come down from 32 per cent to 23 per cent in these elections. The BJP during the 1998 general elections rode piggy back on its re¬gional ally, the Maharashtra Gomantak Party (MGP). During these elections, it projected itself independent¬ly virtually disrupting the MGP. That the BJP is a past master at disrupting the parties it allies with is well known. They have always sought to gain at the ex¬pense of their allies and this is, once again, happened in Goa. The present allies of the BJP in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) appear bent on learning this the hard way!
The people of Goa, like the people of India, have eval¬uated the disastrous performance of the BJP and its total ineptness and anarchy of governance. The writing on the wall is clear for the BJP. The people of India do not accept its policies or its style of running the government.
Unable to stomach this stark reality, the BJP leaders have come out with a diabolic reasoning for their elec¬toral debacle. According to them, the BJP lost because the majority of Goa’s electorate is non-Hindu. Not very surreptitiously, they are suggesting the religious affiliation as the basis for political preference. This is nothing but a blatant effort to use religious senti¬ments for political gains. This is against the law of the land as ruled by the Supreme Court. The Election Commission should take cognisance of such efforts of the BJP. Having failed to garner people’s support on the basis of their policies or performance, the RSS-led BJP is falling back on its poisonous communal campaign of spreading hatred against minorities as the only basis for its political survival.