Cracks in the edifice: Results give a small but important reprieve from BJP’s arrogance | The Indian Express

Cracks in the edifice: Results give a small but important reprieve from BJP’s arrogance | The Indian Express

Written by Pratap Bhanu Mehta |Updated: October 25, 2019 7:27:12 am

Pratap Bhanu Mehta is Contributing Editor at the Indian Express. He has been vice-chancellor of Ashoka University and president, Centre Policy Research, New Delhi, one of India's top think tanks. Before he started engaging with contemporary affairs, he taught political theory at Harvard, and briefly at JNU.  He has written extensively on intellectual history, political theory, law,  India's social transformation and world affairs. He is the recipient of the Infosys Prize, the Adisheshiah Prize and the Amartya Sen Prize.

Results give a small but important reprieve from BJP’s arrogance

The opposition can take some heart from the fact there is political space for them to exploit. But this political space can have a multiplier if there is more smart and credible coordination amongst all opposition groups that converts a protest vote into an alternative narrative.

The support for nationalism and abrogation of 370 is very high. But voters can also see the sense in which this achievement can be used as a shield to mask other important issues.

In hindsight, all election results seem over determined, paradoxically even more so when they go against projected trends. The close result in Haryana, and the BJP’s inability to put in a command performance in Maharashtra has, to borrow Leonard Cohen’s phrase, “opened up a crack” through which some light can come in.