So what if nobody saw this political storm coming in Bihar, let’s accept that what happened is entirely the people’s mandate. Let’s accept that the people, angry and dismayed by the oppositional politics, were itching to dance on the grave of the parties that dared to challenge Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar.

Let’s accept that Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi Yadav were punished for talking about the miseries of the poor, about jobless youth and the neglect of Bihar. Let’s accept that the CPI-ML was decimated for standing with the toiling masses and wiping their tears, day and night. Let’s accept that the collective Opposition was knocked out because they didn’t adopt the ghuspaithiya narrative floated by the Prime Minister. Let’s accept that jobless Biharis were thrilled that Modi introduced more trains to facilitate their exodus.

Let’s accept this was a triumph of the delivery of governance over the Opposition’s betrayal and disruption.

But questions can’t be strangled to death in this joyous celebration of victory. Questions haven’t breathed their last despite the poisonous atmosphere of suppression and surrender. Has the Model Code of Conduct been butchered and buried? Rs 10,000 each was transferred into the accounts of 75 lakh women on September 26, 25 lakh women on October 3 and 21 lakh women on October 6 – the day the Bihar election was announced. Transfers into the accounts of more women followed on October 17 and later.

The Election Commission didn’t utter a word, let alone stop this fraud on democracy. The lofty principle of a level playing field was thrown out of the window. Bihar is a state where countless poor women might not have touched even a Rs 500 note in their entire lives. Imagine what getting Rs 10,000 in their accounts in one go, with the prospect of Rs 2 lakh more, might do to their political rationale.

Will the Election Commission allow this fraud in other states as well? It shouldn’t. Let this end here. Let us resurrect the Model Code of Conduct and prevent the rulers from bribing voters instead of delivering on promises. Electoral integrity was violated so mercilessly in Bihar that conscious citizens wondered if they were living in a rogue, anarchic nation. The Bharatiya Janata Party was accused of sending trains packed with thousands of voters to Bihar. Yet chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar who had offered a bogus excuse for not releasing video footage of polling – that women in the video will be leered at – did nothing.

Also read: EC's Credibility Under Scrutiny as Survey Shows Plummeting Trust Amid Political Firestorm

The Election Commission has not enforced the legal provisions on violation of the model code by the prime minister and the home minister over the last decade. The less said the better about the glaring discrepancies in the electoral rolls. While the last Bihar election was decided by barely a few thousand votes, around 70 lakh voters were struck off the electoral rolls this time through the Special Intensive Revision. Lakhs of fake or duplicate voters were reported from Haryana by the Congress, which presented the data at a news conference. Instead of investigating, the Election Commission asked why the party had not complained earlier. Videos of BJP leaders who had voted in other states also voting in Bihar are circulating on social media.

If this is how elections are to be conducted, why not shut down the commission and hand over the whole exercise to event management companies? They can dramatically spice up the polling process; after all, what’s preferable – fun or democracy?

Stamp on agenda?

Elections are also an opportunity to seek legitimacy for a political party’s agenda. In his victory speech late Friday evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave primacy to new industries and jobs, forgetting his ghuspaithiya theme song. He didn’t even refer to the problem of infiltrators, all but confirming that the subject was inserted into the electoral discourse as a diversionary ploy. After the result, Modi called on national and global investors to set up new industries in Bihar. Ironically, home minister Amit Shah, who too was fixated on ghuspaithiya, had said industries cannot be set up in Bihar because it doesn’t have land.

What Modi ended up doing after the election is giving his stamp on the Congress-RJD’s core agenda of jobs. He thanked women (mahila) and the youth, whom he described as the BJP’s M-Y formula, for endorsing the politics of development. Does that mean Modi has revised his much-publicised position that the “revdi culture” will ruin India’s economy? Or was the dole of Rs 10,000 each to women just a political antibiotic to ease the pain of the people, grappling with wretched poverty caused by decades of destructive politics?

Modi also referred to alleged unease within the Congress over Rahul’s negative politics, going so far as to predict another split in the party. But what about the unease within the BJP over crony capitalism? One of the issues raised by Rahul Gandhi, which received support from BJP leader and former Union minister R.K. Singh, was the land given to the Adani Group to set up a power plant in Bhagalpur. Singh publicly described the agreement as loot and demanded an investigation. Is this not unease?

Modi also criticised Rahul for attacking institutions. Victories that crush opponents should also lead to introspection. Voters and Modi can do some self-analysis: have democratic institutions been strengthened, or weakened, in his tenure?

Rahul’s Congress

The BJP ecosystem launched a campaign to ridicule and defame Rahul Gandhi as soon as trends confirmed an unbelievable landslide victory for the ruling combine in Bihar. They reeled out the number of defeats the Congress has suffered under his leadership, trying to re-fix the ‘Pappu’ tag that he had shaken off with the historic Bharat Jodo Yatra.

But what the Congress leader should be worried about is not so much the BJP's campaign as internal dissent. Many Congress leaders were running a whisper campaign about how the party had messed up candidate selection. These leaders insisted that even Haryana was lost because of political mismanagement, not vote-chori that Rahul has alleged. While some questioned Rahul’s competence, others blamed his coterie. Internal saboteurs are champions of victim-shaming. They don’t understand it is futile to lament that the windows needed repair when the building itself was razed by bulldozers.

“Results show we were doomed to lose Bihar; it was pre-scripted. The truth is there were more people at my residence to mourn the loss than the victory procession of the winner,” said a Congress leader from Maharashtra. “Why was the mock poll using ballot papers in Markadwadi stopped using brute force? Because the BJP fears the truth will come out,” he added. “If a village wants to know how the people voted, why should the administration stop them? Is such a survey undemocratic?”

But there are others in the Congress who can’t survive without intrigue and conspiracies. Their politics is this: grab a post in the party through networking and sycophancy and preserve it. Can’t win an election? Manage a Rajya Sabha seat. If denied, bear the party a grudge and show it.

Also read: As Invite to Shashi Tharoor Cancelled 'Under Pressure', a Word to the Congress Party

It is largely true that office-bearers and leaders – both young and old – have not been able to rise above personal differences despite the ruinous political assault by the Modi-Shah duopoly. If you talk to a hundred Congress men and women, the target in 80% conversations will be a fellow party leader. This is the grim reality in the high command structure and in states.

Rahul has indisputably earned enormous goodwill among ordinary Congress workers and outside the party fold because of his hard work and fearless confrontation of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and BJP. But he has failed to convince the majority in the party that his human resource management is based on objectivity and merit. The party needs better internal communication and work ethics to mount a united fight. More people in the party are fighting Rahul’s trusted commanders than confronting Modi-Shah. Many of these leaders justify the opportunists who defected to the BJP, arguing that there is a limit to suffering injustice and humiliation. Remember that Shakeel Badayuni gem: “Mera azm itna buland hai ki paraye sholon ka dar nahin/mujhe khauf aatish-e-gul se hai ye kahin chaman ko jalaa na de.” 

(My resolve is so high that I am not afraid of foreign flames/I fear the fire of flowers, lest it might burn the garden.)

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