Two elderly gentlemen were taking their early morning stroll at our nearby park. Their topic of conversation, unsurprisingly, was the final results of our General Elections. For want of a better option let us call them Scratch and Sniff.
‘I say Sniff, I am trying to get my head around the election results. What exactly happened? Which side won, by which I also mean which side lost?’
‘Good question, Scratch. From what I have been able to gather from the forest of numbers being thrown at us by the Election Commission, the ruling party, NDA, has earned the right to form the government. Just about.’
‘Just about? But the INDI Alliance claims they are the moral victors, whatever that means, and that the PM should put in his papers. Is it not a straightforward question of who won the maximum number of seats? I am perplexed in the extreme, Sniff.’
‘Like Othello.’
‘Who?’
‘Never mind, Scratch. Forget about Othello. The point I was making was that both sides are claiming victory which, to my knowledge, is a first of its kind in our political history.’
‘Look Sniff, I did not find the time to read the papers this morning and I do not watch television. Am I to understand that there was a tie and that both the sides bagged exactly the same number of seats? Amazing.’
‘You have such a sweet, simple mind, Scratch. No, no. No tie involved. Let me try and lay it out for you in terms even a 10-year-old will follow. The NDA won but the BJP did not. Clear so far?’
‘Then how come Mr. Modi talks about taking the oath of office for a record third term, if the BJP did not win.’
‘Dear oh dear, this is going to take all day. Look Scratch, pin your ears back and listen carefully. The BJP needed 272 seats for a simple majority to form the government on their own. They only got 240 seats. So, they had to depend on the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and the Janata Dal United (JDU), with whom they had formed a pre-poll alliance, to bail them out and get them over the line. That is the long and short of it.’
‘Wow Sniff, you seem to know so much. In other words, it was only a Pyrrhic victory for the BJP. Cold comfort.’
‘There you go again, why don’t you speak in plain English?’
‘Sorry Sniff. One last question. How come the INDI Alliance are shouting from the rooftops that they will form the government if they don’t have the numbers?’
‘Ah, now we enter the dark world of skullduggery. A bit of body snatching, some behind-the-scenes chicanery, plenty of blandishments on offer – anything can happen. Both sides are at it.’
‘I cannot figure out anything you are saying, Sniff. Are you telling me that neither side won the elections? I can feel a headache coming on. For the last time, tell me who won the 2024 General Elections?’
‘Democracy.’
Notes:
- Illustration courtesy Suvarna Sanyal.
- A version of this article has already appeared recently in The Deccan Herald.
- Permission to blog this piece here is gratefully acknowledged.
Related Posts:
ashokbhatia 