Will Rafale repeat the Bofor’s trend ?

The Bhartiya Janata Party which was full of confidence, overwhelmned with joy and highly filled with a feeling of invincibility about eight months ago, always claiming of staging a come back in almost all the five states viz. Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Mizoram, Telangana and in the general elections of 2019 with even more than the present majority, seems to have lost that confidence to a great extent, particularly after the recent C voter survey predicting the saffron party’s defeat in at least three states on confirmed basis, though the opinion polls have not always proved correct going upside down.

The speed and spirit with which prime minister Narendra Modi’s juggernaut had compelled the major national party Congress, the Samajwadi Party and even the left lose their traditional bastions in majority of the states finally unfurling the saffron flag in 20 states squeezing Congress to only two states of Punjab and Puducherry n later in Karnataka in league with Janata Dal(S), it seems, the earlier spirit and Modi charisma is gradually fading out.

If one minutely analysis the political developments thereafter the ruling party BJP has gradually started losing its grip over the country’s electorates as issues like demonetisation, dubious Rafale Jet fighter deal with French company Dassault, banking frauds, charges of promoting crony capitalism, increasing prices of petro products, agrarian crisis, increasing farmers suicides, unemployment in the country, the non fulfilment of the pre poll promises, women insecurity, attack on media freedom, murder of journalists, killings of innocents in the name of cow vigilantism, no talks of the bullet train, the CBI imbroglio and alleged corruption at various levels n failure of demonetisation in recovering black money are some of the important points that have majorly put the incumbent government and the saffron party on the dock.

There have undoubtedly been lots of pronouncements of several people friendly schemes like electrification, of villages, Jan Dhan accounts, MSP for farmers, national health insurance scheme namely Ayushman Bharat, housing for the poor, Swach Bharat Abhiyan, provision of toilets in lakhs n crores etc by the Modi government but they are still not able to show the results on the ground in practicality as compared to the excessive media hype and the exaggerated media pomp and show.

In addition to all this the state units of the Bhartiya Janata Party are badly infested with intercine squabbles and are division ridden. The entire national party is being run by the duo of PM Narendra Modi and the party Supremo Amit Shah. Towering leaders like L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and several others have been shown the door to pursue things quitely, feebly and calmly.

The Rafale issue had been the biggest tragedy of the ruling party compounded with the alleged misuse of the premier investigating agencies the CBI and Income tax departments to settle scores with the political opponents as charged by Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and the nucleus of the non BJP grand allaince n AP CM Chandra Babu Naidu.

The former BJP leaders n union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, Swaraj India’s activist and supreme court lawyer Prashant Bhushan including Shatrughan Sinha to some extent have been exposing the government of Rafale deal alongwith the Congress party by way of holding press conferences and organising pan India level protest demonstrations.

They have even shown the guts to register the FIR in the Central Bureau of Investgation and filed petition in the Apex Court with serious allegations of undue favour to Anil Ambani’s company and perpetration of alleged corruption in the 59000 crore Rafale deal.

The alleged raids of income tax department on several media organisations for allegedly not towing the ruling party’s line and voicing their points of view against it, has also earned the wrath of the fourth estate accusing the ruling political dispensation of misusing the official machinery to silence the progressive media.

Today, Rafale issue reminds one and all of the Bofors kickback issue that had surfaced during the tenure of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi during the eighties and nineties n resulted in his ouster, creating hell of the uproar in and outside parliament and political instabilty though the latter was acquited of all charges but unfortunately after his sad demise and so much of political defamation globally. Will it happen with the present PM is a big question mark. However, Rafale is proving to be a hot cake for the non BJP opposition parties who are seemingly looking honest this time to form a grand alliance before 2019. Now the moot question is which way will the wind blow in 2019 general elections?