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Jun 14, 2021Liked by Amrit

Mr.Hallan,I beg to differ from you on this issue almost completely.

In politics there are matters which are openly expressed and there are many more matters which are never openly talked about.But those issues which are not talked about should not be considered as non-existent or less important.The BJP's equation with the voting masses is one such issue.In 2004 elections, the ruling NDA alliance was unseated surprisingly despite it's impressive performance and almost zero scams.Inflation was kept minimal and the BJP trumpeted it's performance with the catch phrase-India Shining.And yet the BJP had been defeated even though not massively.Why?It was because the common man had nothing to cheer about.Whatever the common man had enjoyed during the previous Narasimha Rao government, had been eroded during the NDA rule.The Opposition and the hostile media had hailed the BJP defeat as the triumph of secularism and the voter's disenchantment with the BJP's communal politics, but they certainly knew the real reason behind the fall of the NDA government, and that is clearly evident from the slew of populistic measures brought in by the Manmohan Singh government, some of those were even atrocious.But the BJP is yet to learn it's lessons.The Modi government is even worse than the previous Vajpayee government on this score.But of course we cannot overlook Modi's success in achieving the second term in office through his sheer charisma and leadership.But that is no guarantee for his third term in office.That's the reason why the Opposition believes in just focusing on BJP's ouster rather than talking of genuine issues which are the forte of the BJP.They hope that 2004 would repeat itself at least belatedly.

We have got to admit that there is a chasm between performance of a government and the people being satisfied with the government.If the BJP supporters have decided not to vote for the BJP then surely that implies that the voters feel that that the BJP has failed to fulfil their expectations.So isn't that to be construed as a failure on the part of BJP even though it may have proved far superior than the Opposition on other fronts?I feel that this is the Achilles heel of the BJP which needs to be addressed.So Mr.Hallan, your advice to the BJP to concentrate on keeping the Opposition out would not work if the voter is in a sullen mood to walk into the polling booth.Issues such as advancement of cleanliness and hygiene, curbing of terrorism, national security and even clean government is liable to be overlooked by the voter if he feels that his personal issues and interests are being met with a cavalier attitude.That is why I am certain that the Opposition especially the Congress can still topple this government despite it's dismal past record and inept leadership.

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