June 4 will go down as the day democracy came back from the dead in India, the day the almighty Bharatiya Janta Party failed to get even a simple majority in what former Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa has called the “hottest and most hateful” Lok Sabha elections, ever.
Most of all, it will be remembered as the day the power of Narendra Modi was broken.
The politician who, over the years had earned epithets such as “He Who Must Not Be Named”, “He For Whom There is No Alternative” and less flatteringly, “Divider-In-Chief”, has been defeated for the first time in his political life. He wasn’t a god and non-biological, after all.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
The world looks sane again.
The day belongs to the Opposition. Of that, there is no doubt. It belongs to Rahul Gandhi who walked across the country despite a damaged knee and created a new kind of samvaad with the people of India. It also belongs to Akhilesh Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav, who, though he did not perform quite as well as he would have liked, possibly broke all campaigning records. It belongs to every karyakarta and leader of every political party who did not capitulate in the face of an ED raid or the threat of arrest. It belongs to Hemant Soren and Kalpana Soren.
Even more, it belongs to the unseen millions who fought the poisonous hate of the RSS and its divisive Hindutva day in and day out.
It belongs to Umar Khalid who has been in jail for the last three years for promoting unity and non-violence, and to his brave partner, Banojyotsna, whose wry sense of humour and raw courage has sustained her. (Release Umar already!)
It belongs to Father Stan Swamy who lived his life for the tribals of India and who was denied even a sipper during his last hellish days in Taloja Jail.
The day belongs to Sudha Bhardwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Rona Wilson, G.N. Saibaba and everyone who was arrested in the farcical Elgar Parishad case.
June 4 belongs, in very large part, to farmers like Sukhdarshan Natt and his wife, Jasbir Kaur, who spent a year camped on the road at Delhi’s Tikri border with lakhs of other farmers protesting against Modi’s three draconian farm laws. When I told them on one of my many sojourns to the Tikri border that I was grieving the death of my mother who had passed away just a few months ago, Jasbir ji told me, “Anytime you miss her too much, come and stay with us. We are your family, too.”
June 4 belongs to the more than seven hundred farmers who died protesting Modi’s dictatorship. It belongs to that old farmer who was mowed down by Ajay Misra Teni’s son in Lakhimpur in that horrific phone video.
June 4 belongs to Pooja, the political science teacher, who quietly continued to teach her students the chapters on democracy and the freedom movement long after the government had ordered them removed from the syllabus.
The day belongs to those aging but ageless men and women who walked the roads, day in and day out, jholaas slung over their shoulders – like Roop Rekha Verma and others – distributing pamphlets on love, peace, harmony and democracy. They could have, in the autumn of their lives, sat comfortably in the confines of their homes and played with their grandchildren but they cared enough about others’ grandkids to go out on the streets and talk about the future of democracy.
Then there is Engineer Rashid and the political prisoners of Jammu and Kashmir.
This day belongs to my friend Novita, the filmmaker from Punjab, who covered the 2020 farmers’ protest, stayed with the farmers, and documented their stories despite the toll it took on her health.
This day belongs to Prabir Purkayastha.
This day belongs to so many people who did what they could to bring India back from the brink. June 4 would not have been possible without them.
The day belongs to Ravish Kumar and his family. It belongs to all those thousands of journalists, YouTubers, bloggers and writers who did not give up and continued to give the news and speak the truth. It belongs to Dhruv Rathee.
Yes, the NDA still has a majority in Parliament but the Opposition won a battle against impossible odds. Never again will Narendra Modi be able to impose his malevolent will on India the way he has these past ten years.
This is the collective win of millions.
June 4 belongs to India.
Rohit Kumar is an educator, author and independent journalist and can be reached at letsempathize@gmail.com.
Read all of The Wire’s reporting and analysis of the 2024 election results here.
