Volume 19 - Issue 26
December 21, 2002 - January 03, 2003
The patterns and lessons
YOGENDRA YADAV
The BJP has recovered, through the subtly executed politics of hatred, its single strongest support base in the country, a base it has built assiduously. But the facts of the situation have set clear limits to any plans to replicate the model elsewhere. The findings of a post-poll survey by the CSDS
ALL those who take the idea of India and the idea of democracy seriously are asking two related but distinct questions after the Bharatiya Janata Party's landslide victory in the Gujarat elections. The first is a question about the implications of the verdict for the future. Is this the beginning of a new phase in Indian politics? The beginning of a new vijay parva, as the Prime Minister claimed soon after the verdict was known? Or worse, is this the first step towards the realisation of the dream of a Hindu Rashtra, articulated in the latest instance by Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Praveen Togadia?
The second question concerns the implication of this verdict for other parts of the country. Can the Gujarat model be exported to other States? Does the model allow replication, and under what conditions?
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