Governance versus bigotry

The anger and angst over the Citizenship Amendment Act will become the leitmotif of the campaign for the Delhi Assembly elections which are due in early February Delhis significance in Indias electoral politics is minimal mdash it is a quasistate that sends only seven members to the Lok Sabha Yet the fury over the CAA will have the nations attention riveted to the Delhi polls If the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP wins it will claim the victory to be a popular endorsement for the CAABut its defeat will imperil Prime Minister Narendra Modis plan for preparing a National Register of Citizens which is when undocumented Indians could become statelessDelhis vote for or against the BJP cannot be construed as north Indias verdict on the CAA But Delhi will certainly provide a clue as to whether Hindutva can still throw voters into a frenzy that can make them forget the benefits derived from the Aam Aadmi Partys AAP model of governance which is arguably the most efficient in north India Its low utility rates saw around 14 lakh households receive zero water bills and 31 lakh families get zero power bills in the last billing cycle The public education and healthcare systems have undergone a dramatic revamp A lavish expenditure on social welfare still had Delhi report a fiscal surplus of Rs 113 crore in 201718 although it had inherited a deficit of R3942 crore in 201314 according to a Comptroller and Auditor General reportBereft of a Delhibased leader who can match Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in charisma and a bit unsure whether Modi can plug this gap in a state election the BJP has chosen to engage in barely concealed religious bigotry mdash of which the CAA is a manifestation to reduce the electoral gains of governance accruing to AAP The maturity of Delhiites is on test mdash will they allow the politics of identity to swamp the politics of interests Other states too will undergo this test in the next four yearsThe BJP has sought to exploit the fury over the CAA in Delhi mdash which is best symbolised by more than a fortnightlong 24x7 sitin at Shaheen Bagh mdash as an outcome of a false narrative deliberately constructed to deny citizenship to nonMuslims who fled to India to escape religious persecution in Bangladesh Pakistan and Afghanistan The BJP conveniently glosses over the link between the CAA and the NRC in the hope of stoking the outrage of Hindus and turning the elections into a HinduMuslim contestKejriwal has been critical of the CAA in a few media interviews his party voted against it in Parliament Yet in sharp contrast to its pugnacious style of politics AAP has been mostly missing from the protests against the CAA AAP does not wish to be tarred as antiHindu by the BJP Kejriwal has instead pointed out that the CAA adversely affects Hindus who need jobs rather than a debate on citizenship He wants to ensure that the Assembly elections remain as they ought to a referendum on his governance rather than become one on the CAAElection data shows why Kejriwals strategy is another way of countering the pull of the politics of religion on voters When AAP won 67 out of Delhis 70 seats by getting 543 per cent votes the BJP still managed to secure 323 per cent of votes down from the 4640 per cent it had won in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections But the 4640 percent expanded to a whopping 5658 percent in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls These figures suggest that many Delhiites align with the BJP at the national level but can and do switch their allegiance to AAP in the state elections It is their anxiety that the BJP wishes to fuel through the CAA to dissuade them from voting on the issue of governance which would be advantageous for AAPThe scenario however gets complicated because AAP also secured the largest chunk of the Leftliberal and Muslim votes in 2015 Yet it runs the risk of losing a percentage of these votes to the Congress which has been relatively more visible and voluble than AAP in opposing the CAA Congress leaders know they cannot win Delhi but its leaders have told the media albeit anonymously that AAPs defeat suits them fine It could lead to AAPs meltdown and return Delhi to the era in which its politics swung between the BJP and the Congress The grand old party will seek to script AAPs defeat by say fielding heavyweights in the electionsThe Congress cannot be expected to suspend its revival to keep the BJP out of power Nor can it be the case that those protesting the CAA should throw away their placards and turn silent The maturity of Delhiites regardless of their ideological orientation lies in them realising that only by denying power to the BJP they can pressure the party against deploying bigotry in elections to arouse the atavistic instincts of people to sidetrack them from voting on governance which is Kejriwals strongest suit and the Modi governments weakest in the context of slowing economyThe writer is a senior journalistSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column 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