A joy trickled down the hearts of crores of Indians as they witnessed the opposition getting strong in the parliament -- something their hearts desperately longed for. The opposition parties that united and formed the “I.N.D.I.A” bloc owes a thousand applause from us because they did something that looked impossible even on the night before the 18th general election results. Nobody was expecting a setback for BJP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s slogan --“Aabki baar 400 paar” (“This time more than 400 seats”) -- reverberating in the narrowest alleys and remotest corners of the country, was explicitly propagated by the mainstream media and in the opinions of the pollster. But the mainstream media, that first inherently, then overtly worked as a propaganda machinery for BJP, fell short in front of the mandate of Indian voters. The BJP chariot got stuck in 240, losing its stronghold in Uttar Pradesh, west Bengal and in several other states.
On the other hand, the I.N.D.I.A bloc made a big leap and managed to get 240 seats. Seldom do people have a defeat worthy of celebration and this defeat is one of them. It laid the foundation stone of a democratic revolution to get rid of the corporate ridden, hate politics of BJP, which was hastily taking the shape of a fascist. Implementing the One Nation, One Election and UAPA now seems a distant dream for BJP as there’ll also be a strong presence of opposition inside the parliament to question them on their every move.
BJP-RSS counter-narratives were also formed to mock the alternative media that doesn’t align with their party line
Decoding the ground realities will be interesting to trace the phenomena that took place recently in the Indian polity but the key factors that determine a candidate’s triumph over another in a particular constituency will take some time to come forth. Along with this, we are curious to know how the Indian National Congress resurrected itself and made an astonishing leap from 52 seats to 99 seats, how the Samajwadi party and INC alliance worked better than the SP-BSP alliance in UP, how the DMK-INC alliance made BJP a trivial entity in Tamil Nadu, why West Bengal chose TMC not the Left-Congress alliance -- contesting under the tag of I.N.D.I.A in West Bengal -- irrespective of multiple scams, corruption and events like Sandeshkhali that maligned the image of TMC prior to the general election and what made Left send a total of 8 MPs from Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Bihar -- leaving an imprint of class-politics in the Hindi heartland -- infamous for getting lured by the Hindutva and caste politics of BJP.
Anyway, let us wait for the key factors to come forth and throw a glance over the events that took place in the social media as the social media has become an integral part of our lives, ranging from the upper class to the lower-middle class people of India.
Today almost all the parties have their IT cells on social media to propagate, campaign and use it as a means of reaching out to the people. Arguably it was BJP first, who had an organized IT cell of their own. The BJP IT cell has been working since they came to power in 2014 and in a few years it manipulated their cadre. The BJP cadre started calling Rahul Gandhi “Pappu”, mocked Congress for their nepotism -- overlooking the nepotism continually taking place inside the BJP. They started believing that the Left parties in India, especially the CPI(M), are Chinese agents and the IT cell of BJP coined a term for them -- “Chinese Party of India”. As a consequence, a chunk of vote shifted from the Left to BJP in states like West Bengal and Tripura (although it is a simplification) -- former bastions of Left. The worst thing done by the IT cell was to project Hindutva as a solution to all the livelihood issues of the countrymen, taking their votes for granted.
Youtubers, cartoonists, mainstream cinema and most importantly a plethora of alternative media started getting organized slowly and countered the fascistic-Hindutva narratives of BJP
Now after this election, it will be a good argument to put forth and analyze the fact that the very strategy taken by BJP back in 2014 eventually backfired on them in 2024. Youtubers, cartoonists, mainstream cinema and most importantly a plethora of alternative media started getting organized slowly and countered the fascistic-Hindutva narratives of BJP. Although none of these media felt an urge to link themselves with any of the opposition parties, instead they emerged as the voice of the people of India, simply to unveil the truths tactically wrapped with the saffron cloak. Youtubers like Dhuv Rathee and Akash Banerjee exposed the electoral bonds scam. Medias like Scroll, The Wire and others persistently wrote on the scams, anti-incumbency and the Hindutva attacks on the culture and religion of the minorities, Dalits and Adivasis. I remember a series Scroll was publishing, when the consecration of the Ram Mandir was taking place – on the miserable condition of the people in Ayodhya. They shed light on the facts that otherwise were eluded by the mainstream media and made us aware of the massive displacement faced by the people of Ayodhya. Interestingly the Farizabad Lok Sabha, under which Ayodhya falls, rejected BJP this time.
However, these genuine efforts of the media would have fallen short if the Congress and other stakeholders of the I.N.D.I.A bloc had failed to carry forward the issues to the people because one must keep in mind that access to the smartphone and internet, even a basic education of English language (since the alternate media mostly publish in English) is still a privilege for the working class in India.
Cinema needs an acknowledgment too, as it has played a significant role in the last five years. From T.J. Gnanavel’s 2021 film Jai Bhim to the Shah Rukh Khan starred, Atlee directed 2023 blockbuster Jawan -- all these films have contributed largely in re-building the consciousness of young Indian voters. A scene from ‘Jawan’, where Shah Rukh Khan, appealed to the audience -- as if breaking the fourth wall -- to use their voting powers and vote against hatred and corruption was shared largely across the nation. Apart from cinema, reels made on farmers protest, parliament march of SFI led students in order to scrap the NEP-2020 were seen and shared by millions of netizens on facebook, instagram and youtube. The circulation of all this stuff on the internet made everyone brood over their livelihood issues that were cleverly replaced by the ruling party’s hate-politics.
BJP-RSS counter-narratives were also formed to mock the alternative media that doesn’t align with their party line. Some mass-organizations were fueled to protest on the occasion of various film releases. Some netizens attacked youtubers like Dhruv Rathee, that even culminated to death threats. People like Prabir Purkayastha (editor of NewsClick) were falsely accused of receiving funds from other countries and jailed. But this time, they failed to manipulate the voters because by the outset of the 2024 general election, the Indian voters were conscious enough to counter their “What was your Rahul Gandhi doing in Italy” by asking them, “What was your alliance partner Prajwal Revanna doing in Germany”?
While watching the election results, a cartoon posted by Satish Acharya on 21 May passed my mind. The day after Royal Challengers Bangalore qualified for the IPL 2024 playoffs, Satish Acharya made a cartoon where Virat Kohli was seen advising Rahul Gandhi, Kejriwal, Stalin and other leaders of “I.N.D.I.A” bloc that “There is still hope! There is one percent chance. Make that one into ten and ten into thirty.” Perhaps the stakeholders of “I.N.D.I.A” bloc had thought in the exact way Virat Kohli advised them in Acharya’s imagination. Otherwise how could they have climbed the mountain -- that apparently seemed insurmountable -- with Congress’s frozen bank account, CPI’s penalty of 11 crores, AAP & JMM having their leaders imprisoned?
The staunch effort made by the opposition has set a benchmark that will be praised by the world, if not today, then tomorrow. Rahul Gandhi’s efforts to kindle the spirit of Congress that lies in the hearts of all Indians is likely to yield positive results soon.
Soumalya Chatterjee is an alumnus of the Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University.
