Swati Parashar on the Election Verdict

Elections 2009: The Myth of ‘Secular’ Verdict

The single most important outcome of this election verdict has been the defeat of the Leftist brigade along with other staunch and ‘committed’ champions of ‘fanatic secularism’, such as Lalu Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan. In UP too, ‘secular’ Mayawati and Mulayam Singh Yadav have incurred losses, owing to the gains made by the Congress Party. The importance of this verdict cannot be overlooked. Lalu Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan have never hesitated to claim their alpsankhyak (minority) Muslim vote banks in their capacity as upholders of real secular values. The same vote bank could not come to their rescue as Bihar gave a decisive mandate to Nitish Kumar for the development work he has been doing as also for the personal image Nitish enjoys among the electorate. It was interesting to note that not one media report was keen to portray Nitish Kumar’s victory as the victory of the ‘communal’ forces considering he is officially still with NDA. Those who have memories of Lalu’s Bihar and his rise to ‘absolute power which corrupted him absolutely’ will heave a sigh of relief. Similarly, Mulayam’s Muslim vote bank could not do much for him and in fact sufficiently lowered his bargaining power because of the gains made by the Congress. Mayawati, who was being projected in the Indian and Western media as the possible first Dalit Prime Minister of India, is now blaming the Muslims for her defeat. She also has a few political lessons to learn. People vote for progress and that identity politics (of either caste or religion) does not always yield the best results in a democracy.