From being in a ‘hurry’ to double farmer income to missing Sonia Gandhi’s NAC: Bizarre excuses Communists give to put farm laws on hold

 

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

“Put the farm laws on hold, uphold farmers’s rights” screamed the Op-Ed headline in The Hindu today. In her defense, the author gives multiple convincing examples on why Prime Minister Narendra Modi must “put the farm laws on hold”. 

Foremost amongst them is that “Having set a target of doubling of farmers’ income by 2022, the Modi government seems to be in a hurry.” Oh boy, what a crime it is to be in a hurry! Since they have anyway suffered for 70 years, what exactly is the hurry of Prime Minister Modi now to make their lives better? This crass urgency to make the lives of the farmers of our country has to be immediately curbed. This is definitely not what is expected from the Modi government. He must take it slow, read intellectual stuff published in esteemed publications such as The Hindu and let the farmers’ struggle as they have for 70 years! 

Two full paragraphs are dedicated to the section pompously titled – “It’s about corporatisation”. The essence of the two paragraphs is that “without adequately skilling, training and empowering the small and marginal farmers to become competitive…. the government bought in the laws in the ordinance route”.  

What does “without adequate skilling, training and empowering” mean? The author doesn’t explain. It is left to our imagination. For example, Soil Health cards are provided to crores of farmers across the country to know what crop is best for their soil. Would that count as skilling them to be competitive? The author doesn’t bother to get into these mundane specifics because she must focus on words such as “empowerment”!  You may also get a doubt as why the author is arguing about “ordinance route” in a section titled “It’s about corporatisation”, but the fault lies with you to expect a coherent argument from the communists! 

We are also told that “the farmers are now faced with new amendments to Electricity Act which propose to fully privatise distribution of power, a crucial input in farm irrigation”. You would read this and definitely think that this is indeed a bad move being contemplated. Except that the new amendments don’t stipulate anything of this kind. You may please read the proposed amendments here and come to your own conclusion too. The communists are adept at this kind of fearmongering without having to actually fear about being called out for their lies.  

The author asks us “Should there be efforts to lower input costs for farmers?” You would think – great question! Only to come to know that Prime Minister Modi already talked about lowering input costs way back in the year 2016! Soil Health cards, Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Neem-coated Urea etc have all led to a reduction of input costs and an increase in the output. But since communists are typically not familiar with happenings on the ground, we can’t really blame them for asking questions for which answers already exists. 

The author tells us that the government has “fixed an ambitious target of 10,000 Farmer-Producer organisations by 2023-24…. but only 881 FPOs have registered so far”. Yes, this is very convincing to “put the farm laws on hold” because the target set for the year 2023 may not be met! And just in case you are not convinced, we are now told Swadeshi Jagran Manch, an affiliate of BJP, also wants changes to MSP laws so therefore we must “put the farm laws on hold”! 

On MSP, the author tells us that even today “the payment of MSP is not mandatory inside the mandis”. Basically, the farmer today has the choice to either sell at MSP to the government or sell it in the mandi. The farmer will continue to have this choice but will also have more options to whom to sell the produce to. The farmer is no more bound to the politically controlled mandis in many states. The Prime Minister has guaranteed that MSP will stay. But the communists continue to spread lies about how MSP is being taken away and the farmer will stand to lose! 

However, it is the conclusion of the article that takes the cake. The entire communist ecosystem is missing the glory days of the National Advisory Council that was headed by Sonia Gandhi. “Whatever be the criticism, the NAC during the previous UPA regime played a significant role…”. It doesn’t matter to the author that Sonia Gandhi’s party has been in favour of these amendments during those glory days of the NAC. While we understand their angst of missing out the various benefits of the NAC regime, the communists must realise that the people have rejected that regime not once, but twice! 

The Prime Minister has clearly stated that these laws have not been enacted overnight but are a culmination of nearly 20 years of arguments and debates! The communists new found argument about “consensus” is amusing because we are a country of 130 crore people – a consensus is impossible! The political nature of these protests is evident from the fact that only farmers from Punjab are heading the protests. Nowhere else in the country do we have these protests. Perhaps time for the communists to reflect why this is the case! 

Analysis of DDC election results by most of the English media in India will put common sense to shame

 

The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference:

Shekhar Gupta’s The Print told us yesterday that “Gupkar Alliance and Congress wins big in J&K DDC polls”. If you go to the link now, the word “Congress” is gone from the headline, but you can take a look at the full link name in the browser and you will see what I am talking about! Congress won a massive 26 seats out of the 280 seats that went to polls. Mysteriously, Shekhar Gupta thought this amounts to winning big!

NDTV did a show on “Analysing the Gupkar Alliance win”. News18 tells us that “Gupkar Alliance Sweeps Maiden DDC Elections With 110 Seats.  The Gupkar alliance won 110 seats out of the 280 seats that went to polls. Logic dictates that this is not even a win, leaving alone a “sweep” or “winning big” but our English media always finds ways to attribute non-existent things to elevate the Congress ecosystem.

“Poor strike rate of BJP” read the analysis in Hindustan Times. Obviously, the parties in alliance will contest lesser number of seats than parties that are not in alliance! But our English media wants to look for ways to delegitimize the electoral performance of BJP simply because they hate it.

The numbers are there for everyone to see. Contrary to popular imagination, the Congress is not a part of Gupkar Alliance. It comprises of 5 parties that won a total of ~3.9 lakh votes against the 4.9 lakh votes that the BJP won. After putting up a brave face about how the Congress is an independent organization and is not part of the Gupkar alliance, it has now announced support to the Gupkar alliance!

The BJP won 75 seats in the DDC elections. If you had read only the English media all along, you would think that the BJP will perhaps not even win a single seat. The numbers won by each party can only lead to one conclusion of these results – this is as fragmented a verdict as one can ever get. The verdict is reflective of the ground reality in J&K regarding the various issues that are impacting the people.

The BJP is elated because it was written off in the media, yet the ground reality is that there is considerable support for the party in J&K. The Gupkar alliance seemed to have worked more in the favour of the National Conference than the PDP. What else explains the fact that PDP won 27 seats despite getting only a partly 55,000 votes (some of which are votes from other parties of the alliance). The Congress is definitely not a “big winner” here (I can’t believe this actually has to be said!). This severe loss of face for both the PDP and the Congress is perhaps more reflective of the regressive politics of these two parties. But then it is also too much to expect the current Congress party to learn anything from electoral verdicts.

The oft repeated phrase of “In the end, democracy won” is very apt to these elections. A free and fair election was seen as a distant dream for the people of J&K. Democracy can only win once multiple elections like these are conducted peacefully and the people get the governance they voted for. Not through the barrel of the gun or through the speeches of azadi. Article 370 restricted the access to many schemes that the people of India enjoyed. With everything now opening up, it is up to the people to lap them up and vote according to how they are indeed getting benefitted.

The alleged analysis and interpretations of election results by most of the English media in India will put common sense to shame. From the advent of the phrase “moral victory” to even calling the victorious as the losers, these alleged analysts have decided to give up on all sense of objectivity while writing about the results.

From KCR 1.0 to KCR 2.0: 7 reasons why Telangana is getting disillusioned with TRS and why BJP is making in-roads

 

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

On December 7, 2018, KCR won a landslide in the Telangana Assembly elections that he preponed. The TRS won a massive 88 out of the total 119 seats in the Assembly. Ever since KCR has faced more setbacks than victories. This paradox didn’t happen because of any one event but is a culmination of many missteps. 

The immediate poaching of MLAs from the Congress

Despite winning a landslide, the TRS displayed an unusual urgency in poaching MLAs from the Congress party. The Congress won 19 seats in the 2018 elections, thereby being eligible for the Leader of the Opposition post. One by one, a total of 12 Congress MLAs was poached by the TRS within just a couple of months of winning this landslide. With 2/3rd of the CLP joining the TRS, there was no need to disqualify the legislators! 

KCR did NOT need these 12 MLAs for any support in the Assembly. This move, primarily orchestrated to show the supremacy of KTR, the newly anointed working President of the party, also ensured that there will officially be no leader of opposition in the Telangana Assembly. The torchbearers of democracy weren’t bothered by this blatant suppression of the people’s mandate though.

The delayed cabinet expansion and the exclusion of Harish Rao

On the day of swearing-in, only KCR and Mahmood Ali were sworn in. Despite mounting criticism of a “one-man show”, KCR took nearly 8 weeks to expand the cabinet and that’s when KCR administered the second shock to his cadre. 

By his side ever since he established the party in 2001, was his nephew T Harish Rao. Even KCR’s children entered the fray between the years of 2005 and 2007. After winning the 2014 elections, KCR gave the all-important Irrigation portfolio to Harish Rao. KCR’s pet projects revolved around water – and the promise of a Bangaru Telangana was only possible through minor and major irrigation projects that will solve the water problem of Telangana. One of the key reasons for the landslide in 2018 was the success of many of these irrigation projects. 

Now, it is this Harish Rao that KCR decided to keep out of his expanded cabinet, in February 2019. This simply sent shock waves amongst the cadre. Even non-partisan folks also were dismayed at this blatant sidelining of Harish Rao. 

In the run-up to the 2019 LS elections, Harish Rao’s name was not even included in the star campaigners list. This infuriated the cadre so much that changes were made to the list merely hours after it was released. Harish Rao was finally made the Finance minister after the bad performance of the TRS in the 2019 LS elections. But the damage was already done – this sidelining of one of the real stars of the TRS party by KCR in favour of his immediate family hasn’t been forgotten till date by the people. 

The electoral setbacks and victories ever since

The first electoral setback came in the MLC elections held in March 2019. 3 candidates backed by the TRS (Teachers and Graduate constituencies) lost in these elections. This was the first hint by the people that they aren’t liking this arrogant and poaching behaviour of the TRS leadership.

The bigger setback was in the 2019 LS elections where the TRS won 9 out of the 17 LS seats. More than the numbers, what shocked KCR was the personal loss inflicted by the people. His daughter lost her Nizamabad seat to BJP. KCR’s son was in charge of the Karimnagar seat – that seat was won by the BJP too! KTR even (jokingly) challenged his cousin Harish Rao (in charge of Medak) that Karimnagar will give a larger majority to TRS than Medak will. TRS won Medak by more than 2 lakh vote margin! This was the second hint by the people that they aren’t liking the family enterprise that the TRS has increasingly starting to become. 

The first victory for TRS came from an unusual place. State Congress president Uttam Kumar Reddy, who was already an MLA, contested and won the MP elections. As is the practice in the Congress party, his wife was given the ticket for the MLA by-poll from Huzurnagar. TRS put up a strong fight in the Congress party bastion and won the election with a very handsome majority. This further bolstered the party into thinking that the people are with the TRS and the MLC and LS elections are just an aberration. 

The second victory and this was a big one, came during the Municipal corporation elections in Jan 2020. The TRS swept these elections. In addition to the strong cadre across the state, the TRS was still seen as the party for governance when it came to local issues. TRS won 9 out of the 10 corporations and a whopping 110/120 municipalities in these elections. These results came as a breath of fresh air to the beleaguered TRS and once again established the fact the road to unseat the TRS is an arduous one. 

The Dubbaka by-poll turned the tables yet again on the TRS. BJP’s stunning victory in the backyard of the KCR family bastions delivered a shock to KCR. In a tough election, the BJP won the seat by a thin majority of about 1200 votes, but more importantly delivered a strong punch to the TRS that the opposition in Telangana is not dead. 

The GHMC results are too recent to delve into details again, but the defeat of the TRS in this all-important election has changed the political discourse in the state for good! BJP’s rise as the principal opposition party in the state is now complete. 

The confusing response to the COVID crisis

On March 7, 2020, KCR spoke in the Assembly on COVID. “Why do we need a mask? A scientist told me Corona won’t survive in temperatures greater than 22C”

The same KCR on March 14, 2020 tells us that: “We should not remain mute spectators to Corona. It is a crime if we remain mute. Masks will be needed. 

It took him just 7 days to go from “Why do we need a mask” to “It is a crime not to wear a mask”. KCR announced full support to the Janata curfew and then announced a 10-day lockdown immediately the Janata curfew (even before PM Modi announced a nationwide lockdown). 

KCR’s subsequent five press conferences on were all broadly hailed by the people of the state for being informative, suggestive of what needs to be done, and some dose of humour. The period from April 6th to the next two press conferences on April 19th and May 18th is when it started going downhill for KCR. His jibes at many reporters for asking “silly questions” slowly started to get boring. He somehow thought offence is the best defence, so much so that he wished that reporters writing negative news should be infected with Corona! In one of the press conferences, KCR asked the DGP to arrest all those making jokes in the social media on the Prime Minister of India. You would, of course, not see the alleged liberals take up this crass statement by an elected CM. 

What changed the story for Telangana was the continuous low testing despite an overall increase of the same across the entire country. For many weeks, the government just wouldn’t even release the testing data. The overall positive numbers would also stay around a certain ballpark for a few days before moving to a new ballpark. 

Anyone questioning the frequent change in strategy was admonished by everyone starting from the CM himself. The continuous ignoring of many valid questions regarding the crisis did not go well with the people, yet again evident from the recently concluded GHMC elections. 

The special Assembly sessions for the new Municipal and Revenue acts

KCR has so far called for two special sessions of the state Assembly (each time for two days) to pass two significant legislations. The new Municipal act passed in 2019 establishes new municipal corporations and municipalities in the state. Provisions were made for reducing permissions needed by the citizens for constructions on smaller plots; duties of the councillors, commissioners etc were written in greater detail. But more importantly, it also gave unbridled powers to the state government to in fact cancel resolutions passed by any of these civic bodies; gave the (unelected) collector more power than the (elected) councillors and was therefore seen as an attempt to consolidate the power of the state government rather than empower the local bodies. 

The second major act that KCR bought in was the new Revenue Act. This has been in the making since the year 2017. Significant changes were made to the process of registering lands in the state. The powers of the sub-registrar were reduced and those of the Tahsildar was increased. While the intent and the motive seem very good, this move also had a typical KCR touch. Until the act is notified, he has suspended all registration activity in the state since September of this year! 

In yet another ridiculous ask, he asked all property owners to upload the details of the property onto a website but also asked the caste details of the said owner! A High Court case is still pending on the same. The end result is that despite the act being notified in late October, no registrations of non-agricultural lands are still happening in the state! Imagine not being able to register your property for a whopping three months and imagine the noise the English media would have made if a BJP government stopped registrations for a day, leave alone months! 

Many new acts have been passed seamlessly without such big hindrances. No one understands these impulsive tendencies of KCR that inflict untold hardship onto people. 

The frequent references to a “larger national role”

He first made a reference to a larger national role in the runup to the 2019 LS elections. He advocated a non-Congress, non-BJP Federal Front that will give more powers to the state and curb the powers of the centre. This idea obviously didn’t click for the 2019 elections. But he kept referring to this idea, saying that when he first formulated the idea of separate Telangana in 2001, the reaction was similar. He again made this reference in the runup to the GHMC elections. Every time these references have come up, rumours have also come up that this is KCR’s plan to anoint his son as the CM and move on to play a larger national role. And every time these rumours came up, the TRS has faced some electoral setback or the other! 

The aloofness and frequent trips to his farmhouse

One of the long-standing criticisms of KCR was that it is very difficult for even the MLAs and MPs to meet him. His frequent visits to the farmhouse were the butt of many jokes since 2015. However, with the resounding 2018 verdict, it looked like the people didn’t care for this criticism. But this aloofness and the visits increased ever since that victory. KCR hasn’t gone to the secretariat in many years citing Vaastu problems.

He ran the administration from his home and made even more frequent trips to his farmhouse. At the peak of the COVID crisis, he was literally incommunicado for 9 full days. This criticism has now garnered more ground than the pre-2018 days. The aloofness is seen as arrogance by many and the many electoral setbacks haven’t helped either! 

In conclusion

What people saw in KCR 1.0 is very different from what they are seeing in KCR 2.0. The increased focus on establishing family rule; the aloofness; the arrogance in responding to even genuine queries; the lack of any new significant schemes in the past 2 years; and the confused messaging have begun to show impact. What course correction is needed is obvious. Whether he will do it is not obvious! 

Not just a municipal election: Telangana’s political landscape is changing

 

The following article was written for Commune Mag. Pasting it here for reference:

With the dust settling in for the GHMC elections and polling numbers coming in, the true scale of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) victory is further baffling many analysts. The GHMC limits are split into 6 zones – and the BJP is the only party to have won at least 1 seat in each of the 6 zones. The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) did not win a single seat in the Charminar zone. The TRS won 33 out of the 55 seats from just two zones – Kukatpally and Serlingampally; and remaining 22 are spread over the other 3 zones.

However, there is one more statistic that is very devastating for the TRS party. The GHMC area covers 24 MLA constituencies. The TRS did not win a single ward in a whopping 13 of these constituencies. In contrast, the BJP won at least 1 ward in 18 of these constituencies. This is a huge leap from its disastrous performance in both the 2009 and 2016 GHMC elections.

Source: Ee Nadu

Though the above graphic is in Telugu (sourced from Ee Nadu), it is easy to get an overview based on the colours and symbols of the party. The numbers represent the wards won by that party in each assembly constituency. There is yet another interesting statistic that needs to be observed.

Except for the Jubilee Hills constituency, the TRS did not win a single ward seat in any of the 10 constituencies that the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won wards in! Though the TRS and MIM have been telling that they are not in alliance, these numbers tell a very different story!

This loss for the TRS is largely due to the bungling of many local issues. Fresh in the memory of people is the tardy response of the state government to the unprecedented Hyderabad floods that struck the city recently. The Chief Minister did not even bother to visit the affected areas. A cash incentive of ₹10,000 was announced but the distribution was so tardy and riddled with so much controversy that nothing useful came out of the whole exercise. The general inaccessibility of many corporators (43 of sitting corporators lost in this elections), their continuing influence over land grabbing and corruption (even the Mayor was entangled in serious allegations of land grabbing) contributed a lot to this defeat.

In addition to these local factors, there was also widespread discussion on certain state level factors – such as the tightening grip of the family rule in Telangana; the shoddy response to the COVID testing right from the beginning of the crisis, and the general arrogance of the TRS leadership in dealing with questions and criticism.

The BJP was smart enough to deftly handle both the local and state level issues in this campaign. Even though they had only 10 days to decide on the candidates and strategies – the BJP’s aggressive campaign hit the right chords at many places. Whilst highlighting the local issues and potential solutions to them, the BJP also played well at highlighting the arrogance of the TRS leadership (primarily the family of K. Chandrasekhara Rao!). The entire state leadership was focused only on this election – and this is the first time they had multiple star campaigners because of which the party was able to cover larger area with greater impact.

The party of course benefitted from the experience of its national leadership too. With Shri Bhupender Yadav overseeing the election, it was apparent how serious the central leadership was taking this election. Campaigns by Amit Shah, J.P.Nadda, Yogi Adityanath, Smriti Irani, Tejasvi Surya, etc bolstered the cadre like never before.

The TRS didn’t back down a bit on this front – the entire state cabinet was involved in the campaigning. Nearly all the 100 MLAs of the TRS were also involved in the campaigning. KCR’s son KT Rama Rao was in charge of the whole exercise – and therefore this loss stings more than ever. Slowly and surely, the BJP has occupied the principal opposition space in Telangana now. It remains to be seen how the party will take this position forward.

By the way, there has been one more casualty because of this election. The state Congress President, Uttam Kumar Reddy, has finally resigned after the disastrous performance of the party. Within hours of him resigning, multiple groups within the party have begun lobbying for the post based on caste compositions. Until the Congress party comes out of this ridiculous groupism and age-old strategies, there is no hope left of revival of that party!

This is also the first time that the TRS has lost a position of power after the formation of the Telangana state in 2014. With TRS losing the public mandate in GHMC, the focus has now shifted towards electing the Mayor. The TRS needed 67 seats to win the Mayor seat on its own. They now have no option but to ally with the MIM to retain the Mayor seat in GHMC.

TRS Scrambles for Mayor Post following BJP's Massive Gains in GHMC Polls

 

The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference:

Barely few hours before the counting for GHMC elections was about to begin, at around 11pm on December 3rd, the State Election Commission issued a ridiculously strange notification. These elections were held on ballot paper. The SEC now said that it doesn’t matter if the mark on the paper is Swastik or not – the vote will be counted as long as there isn’t any other kind of mark anywhere in the space allotted for a candidate!

You may ask – why does this matter so much? Because in the final result tally – there is just a 0.25% vote difference between the BJP and the TRS! There are at least 2 constituencies where the difference between the winner and runner-up is just 30 votes. In this kind of an election, every vote will therefore begin to matter. And what better way to secure such votes other than resorting to such outrageous notifications?

The Telangana High Court obviously struck down this notification, but because of this chaos, counting actually began at least 3-4 hours late. Results took a while to trickle in, given the paper ballot situation. While initial trends pointed towards a TRS victory yet again, BJP’s fightback proved very costly to the TRS as the day progressed. At one-point news channels were flashing 61 to TRS and 20 to BJP – and all TRS panelists on the telugu channels were ecstatic on how even Amit Shah couldn’t save the BJP! As the day progressed- TRS finally won 56 seats and the BJP won 48 seats! The MIM, as expected won 44 seats.

Though 75 is the halfway mark, the TRS needed only 67 seats to win the Mayor on its own. GHMC council that elects the Mayor consists of 150 elected corporators and 45 ex-officio members – that’s why TRS needed only 67 seats to win the Mayor seat. With this stinging defeat, the TRS will very obviously align with the MIM to share the post of Mayor. Typically, in these situations, the TRS simply attempts to merge other parties into its fold. But this time the Congress won 2 wards only. So even TRS gets both of them, they still can’t do anything on their own.

We had analyzed here earlier too, that the TRS also saw this defeat coming. The insipid speech of KCR, the aggressive flaring comments by KTR and of course, the communal politics of MIM were all indicators that the BJP was bound to rise in the GHMC this time. It all boiled down to whether TRS will win the magic figure of 67 – and the clearly the voter has now spoken. KCR’s son, KTR, was on the forefront of not just this election. As Municipal Administration minister, he was the only face of the party and government to the people of GHMC for all these years. The Mayor and others were simply relegated to the background. Owing to his suave language, he was seen as the darling of the corporate crowd. He banked a lot on his oratory to carry him through, but clearly if people don’t see results on the ground, no oratory can substitute it.

The BJP cashed in well on this fundamental drawback of the TRS. The inaccessibility of the corporators, the absence of solutions to some fundamental problems were well highlighted by the party. In addition to this, the party also had strong aggressive voices to counter the orator of KTR and KCR. With the cadre enthused after the Dubbaka victory, they doubled their efforts to take the voice of the party to the booth level. Leaders such as Kishan Reddy, Bandi Sanjay and D. Aravind worked very well in cohesion for the messaging part – they each played to their own strengths, which benefitted the party a lot.

All through the election, we had spoken about the TRS, the BJP and the MIM. No one really cared about the Congress party! Many leaders of the party joined the BJP and their local level connect did help the BJP too. After the devastating defeat yesterday (INC won 2 seats only), the state President Uttam Kumar Reddy resigned. Actually, there was clamour for his resignation when the Congress party lost the Huzurnagar MLA bypoll – that seat was held by Uttam Kumar Reddy before he became the MP and the TRS beat his wife in that election! With the revival of Congress, a distinct possibility now, it is not surprising that he has now resigned from the post!

When TRS lost the Dubbaka bypoll, news analysts pointed out how that is also a defeat of KCR’s nephew, Harish Rao, because he was in charge of that election. They wondered if Harish Rao will now be sidelined. With the GHMC loss, no analyst will ask the same question of KTR! There were even impending rumours of KCR handing over the baton to KTR and playing a “larger role at national stage” after the GHMC elections. All alleged plans will now have to wait, because KCR first has to douse the fire in his home.

TRS goes from 99 to 56 seats, BJP goes from 4 to 49: Here is why, and it is not what English media thinks

 

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

Elections to the GHMC were actually due in February of 2021. The TRS decided to pre-pone the elections by three months to gain an upper hand. Other parties barely had 10 days to prepare for the elections. TRS had 99 sitting corporators (out of 150). With the current composition of the GHMC council (150 elected corporators + 45 ex-officio members), the TRS only needed 67 seats to have their Mayor again. Every single exit poll released yesterday predicted that TRS will win the Mayor seat (most predicted a landslide too!). Some newspapers wrote celebratory headlines based on these exit polls. 

But the voter had other things on his/her mind. They gave the TRS just 56 seats in this election (as opposed to 99 in 2016) and gave the BJP 49 seats (as opposed to just 4 in 2016)! The next logical step that will obviously happen is that the TRS and MIM (which won 43 seats, as expected) enter into a post-poll arrangement and share the post of the Mayor. 

So, while the power stays with TRS, they have very clearly lost the electoral battle in Hyderabad. And they didn’t lose this battle because of the reasons the English media is attributing to. Quite expectedly, the English media sought to make the BJP’s campaign as being based on communalism. Quite conveniently, they did not tell you that in an election that has AIMIM as a key player, how can communalism not be on the table?

Even the regional media was taken aback by the efforts that BJP had put in for the GHMC elections and toed the same path. The film and TV fraternity were also shocked by the efforts of the BJP and started to openly support KTR, the working President of TRS and son of KCR.

But no ruling party loses elections on this scale just because the opposing party resorts to “communalism”. A party loses election so badly because they failed to deliver what was promised to the citizens. Issues such as traffic, roads, water, housing, floods etc played a very important role in the campaign strategy of the BJP and TRS. Issues such as availability and accessibility of the corporators played a very important role in this election.

Issues such as corruption and goondaism, right from the Mayor to the corporator, have played a very important role in this election. AIMIM of course doesn’t have to bother about mundane issues such as these.

There are no two ways to read this verdict – it is a slap on the arrogant face of TRS and its leadership. 

BJP’s campaign strategy in the GHMC elections, that revolved around asking people for one chance to serve Hyderabad, seems to have worked well. On one side, they had aggressive speeches by leaders such as Bandi Sanjay and D. Aravind and on the other, they had governance/development focused speeches by leaders such as Kishan Reddy. The aggressive oratory style of KCR and KTR finally found its right match in the equally aggressive styles of Bandi Sanjay and D. Aravind! And not to forget the karyakartas on the ground – one should have been on the ground to have seen the enthusiasm and the hard work the karyakartas and volunteers had put in, to teach the TRS a lesson. The support from the central leadership of the party was another huge factor that enthused the cadre. 

The BJP’s astounding victory in the Dubbaka MLA by-poll was seen as a one-off victory by many. The GHMC election result has now decisively altered the political discourse of the state. This is the first time since TRS won the 2014 Assembly election that it has been unseated from a position of power by the people. It is now clear that the BJP is the first decisive opposition that the TRS has ever encountered after the formation of the Telangana state. It is up to the BJP how they will build upon these continuous victories. What was touted as “just a municipal election” by the ‘liberals’, has now changed the political discourse of the entire state! 

Flustered by BJP’s Campaign Course, KCR Delivers an Insipid Speech

 

The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference:

Elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) are to be held on December 1st. This time, these elections have garnered interest even at the national level. From all ground reports, it is quite clear that the BJP is making TRS sweat it out in this election. This was also evident from the manner in which CM KCR spoke at a public meeting in Hyderabad yesterday evening.

What we saw was the return of the quintessential KCR who used to campaign on fearmongering. During the course of this campaign, he made weird claims that the central government was planning to sell the LIC! He repeated this absurd claim in the public meeting yesterday. In addition, he added that the Modi government is planning to sell off the BHEL and…behold… the Railways too! He went on to exhibit some bravado in claiming that “KCR is being told not to ask these questions but KCR is not afraid of anyone”! If the insipid reaction of the crowd is anything to go by, KCR should have realised that these arguments aren’t cutting any ice.

Towards the end of the speech, KCR also made an appeal (from 43:00 onwards) in both Hindi and English. He appealed to the “intellectuals” to “Save Hyderabad”! He created fear that if TRS doesn’t win the GHMC elections, then there will be unrest here; and therefore, real estate prices will come down; investments will not come; unemployment will increase etc. It was really amusing how he made a pointed reference to real estate prices, because in the runup to the formation of Telangana, this was exactly the argument peddled by those opposed to the formation of the state!

But why is he warning of unrest? TRS’s plank in this GHMC election has been that if BJP wins, then there will be widespread communal unrest in Hyderabad. Even during the recently held Dubbaka by-poll, KCR’s son and minister, KTR held a press conference to accuse the BJP of trying to create bloodshed in Hyderabad. People are still wondering what the link between the Dubbaka by-poll and Hyderabad is!

Last week, KCR suddenly held a review with the top brass of the police on law and order situation of the state. We then had to hear about how he warned about “divisive forces” trying to create havoc in the state and asked the police to take strict action against these forces. The DGP held a press conference in which he told that they had specific inputs about how such havoc was going to be created. Everyone had only one question ever since that review meeting – how many people were arrested based on these “specific inputs”? Chief campaigner KTR was also asked this question many times – we are yet to get a number!

When BJP chief, Bandi Sanjay said that Rohignyas will be thrown out once BJP is voted, many asked what was the BJP doing all these years for the same? And how does being in power in GHMC give them any leeway in doing the same? KTR went to town challenging the BJP to do so. But within days, tables turned with KCR’s review and statements based only on rhetoric.

The first half of KCR’s speech at the public meeting yesterday focused entirely on his government’s achievements – part related to Hyderabad and part related to the entire state. The dialogue delivery that KCR is typically associated was sorely missing in yesterday’s speech. Except for an occasional one liner here and there, the insipid speech does leave one wondering – what happened to KCR?

Today is the last day of campaigning for the election. Amit Shah is slated to come, and conduct road shows today. We are yet to hear the final word on the campaigning!

Not ‘just a municipal election’, a defeat of TRS in the Hyderabad Municipal Elections will alter the political discourse of the state

 

The following article was written for OpIndia. Pasting it here for reference:

“Just a municipal election” is the new mantra that is being chanted by the members of the WhatsApp group of English journalists. The reference is to tomorrow’s election to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Council (GHMC) and how BJP’s top central leadership participated in the campaigning for “just for a municipal election”.

What these people very conveniently don’t tell you is that the ruling TRS is also taking the “just a municipal election” very seriously. Almost all ministers of the cabinet have been given specific responsibilities in this campaign. More than 50 MLAs of the party are assisting these ministers in campaign strategy and implementation. The CM himself released the manifesto and spoke for more than an hour there. He spoke for nearly an hour in a public meeting organized on Saturday. Pretty much the entire might of the TRS party is focused on trying to win “just a municipal election”. This begs the basic question – If the incumbent is so serious about it, why shouldn’t the opposition be equally or more serious about it?

This GHMC election is not “just a municipal election”. This election has the potential to alter the political discourse of the Telangana state. The ruling TRS won a very predictable landslide in 2016. It won 99 out of the 150 divisions. Their friend, the MIM won 44 seats. Given the landslide, TRS could have its own mayor without the support of friendly MIM too. That election established the supremacy of TRS in the electoral politics of the new state and set the course for the 2018 election victory of the TRS. BJP won a partly 4 divisions. They were contesting the elections in alliance with TDP, which won only 1 division.

Ever since the crushing defeat in the 2018 Assembly elections, the BJP has been able to challenge the supremacy of TRS slowly but steadily. The first blow to TRS came in the Lok Sabha elections, when TRS  won 9 out of the 17 seats (KCR’s daughter was defeated by BJP; the constituency for which KCR’s son was incharge was won by the BJP). BJP’s victory in 4 LS seats boosted the morale of the cadre. The second blow to TRS came in the recently concluded Dubbaka by-poll where the BJP registered a stunning victory, and more importantly found the right voice to challenge TRS’s monopoly in the Assembly.

It is in this background that the GHMC election is being held. A victory to the BJP does not necessarily mean that they should win the Mayor seat. Given the composition of the GHMC Council that elects the Mayor, the BJP actually has to win a whopping 95 seats out of the 150 to be able to have its own Mayor. On the other hand, the TRS has to win 67 seats to be able to get a Mayor of its own. However, even if the TRS-MIM combine win 67 seats, they will easily come to an agreement to share power and have their Mayors rule the roost.

It is also a victory for the BJP if the TRS fails to win 75/150 seats. Whatever number game will result thereafter, this basically means that TRS did lose the popular mandate of the people. It will rejuvenate the cadre in ways that hasn’t happened in a very very long time. It will give out a message that the mighty TRS can be electorally defeated again and again, if the right guidance and leadership is provided to the party. That today, such a scenario is seen as a strong possibility (TRS not winning 75) is also a testament to the effort the party has put into the fight.

Though the TRS was made to sweat it out, if it does win more than 75 seats, it would reestablish the supremacy of KCR’s son, KTR in the party. It would also mean that the path to even establish a decent opposition to the TRS party has become even more stronger. Undoubtedly, the BJP has replaced Congress as the main opposition, but a victory for TRS would certainly mean that they have a lot of catching up to do.

As is the case with all campaigns, the speeches from both sides had their ups and downs. This is the first time since 2014 that there is a possibility of unseating TRS from a strong position of power. And if that happens, “just a municipal election” would have altered the political discourse of the state. If key leaders of political parties listened to this bunch of condescending English journalists, then they would be confined to the drawing rooms of their party offices. If you don’t believe me, ask the cadre of the Congress party!