Lok Sabha verdict: Many victories – and the work ahead
The election outcome has given a new lease of life for India’s fragile democracy to recover ground that could have been lost for the foreseeable future.
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A great and famous victory was won on June 4, 2024. Not by this alliance or that over the other but by the people of India against fear, cynicism and apathy. After months, even years, of being led to believe that the anti-democratic forces of majoritarianism, autocracy and divisiveness were invincible, the election outcomes announced that day kindled new hope that change is indeed possible even in the face of the most daunting odds.
Many who had been paralysed by despair are now euphoric, with pundits of all persuasions proclaiming victory for their particular pet theory. It is a vote against hatred and its purveyors, some say. Against hubris, for the Constitution, for pluralism, or a strong Opposition, others claim. It is caste arithmetic, vote consolidation or economic distress, some assert.
Numerous wedge issues peeled off layers of support, or galvanised reaction – from the grotesque mismanagement of the Covd-19 pandemic, lynchings with impunity, farmers’ protests, the treatment of women wrestlers, favours to convicted rapists, the conflict in Manipur, the incarceration of activists, and the targeting of political opponents, to name a few.
Beyond all these, it is clear that treating citizens with contempt, belittling their capacity to comprehend issues, ignoring their concerns, assuming that they...
