Amid Nationwide Protests against CAA, 'Modi Magic' Turns to Ash

Guwahati, December 24, 2019:

Amid the continuing protests against the contentious amendment of the Citizenship Act, the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government was dealt yet another body blow when it lost a key battle state in the Hindi heartland state of Jharkhand.

The BJP's loss (the saffron party could win only 25 seats) proved to be the Congress' gain, as the Congress-led coalition (also consisting of the JMM and RJD) winning an absolute majority in the 81-seat Assembly.

With this defeat, the saffron unit that held sway in the Hindi Heartland, has now lost 50% of its territory to the Congress and its allies. the loss in Jharkhand leaves the BJP and its allies with just half of the region's territories -- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana.

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A map comparing the BJP's foothold in the region in 2017 to 2019 shows how far the mighty have fallen.

A latest map shows that the saffron on the Indian map, that covered the region in its entirety 5 years ago, has now dried up, and could perhaps be seen as a symbolic shift in the nation's perception of the 'Modi magic' that had propelled the party to historic heights post-2014.

In 2017, the Hindutva fervour had well and truly gripped the nation with many filmstars, cricketers, and celebrities from various other fields vouching for Modi's version of a 'New India'.

That vision of 'New India', to be supposedly guided by 'Modi Magic', however, has receded to the backdrop of the chaos that the nation now finds itself gripped with.

After the tumult over the NRC in Assam, that saw many of the indigenous sons of the soil facing deportation due to a supposedly errant system, Union Minister Amit Shah immediately blew the of a nationwide exercise.

Shah's declaration was immediately followed by a hastily re-drafted version of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill -- a legislation seeking to grant citizenship to non-Muslims from neighboring Muslim majority countries.

The rest, as they say, is history. The passage of the Bill in the Rajya Sabha by a BJP-majority was immediately met with stiff resistance by the people.

The situation in Assam, which shares porous borders with Bangladesh, turned so violent that heavy military deployments were forced to roam the streets. In the bloody scuffle that followed, as many as 5 protesters were killed.

Although the seismic shock of the BJP party's loss might have come as a surprise to many, many could see cracks forming in the BJP, even as Jharkhand was preparing to head to the polls.

At the Inside Northeast Youth Conclave held on November 31st, the senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had warned that the BJP is set for a big surprise in Jharkhand. Ramesh's forecast came true, and even Raghuram Das, the Chief Minister, lost from the Jamshedpur east constituency to independent candidate, Saryu Roy.

With the economy tottering, and the GDP expected to decline further amid rising rates of inflation and youth unemployment, the saffron party's base seems to be searching for alternative solutions to their concerns. Concerns that no amount of 'Modi magic' seems to be solving, at the moment.

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