forget Manipur, no really... forget it.

The 2024 general elections were fraught with immense expectations and multiple factors being thrown in for consideration. The rushed consecration of the Ram Mandir, the desperate calls for action against ghuspetiyas were all incredibly telling of the expected electoral outcome. 

The last five years have been marked by events of global and national importance, some of which have changed the course of history in many ways. A comprehensive review of the same is important to understand how these events were dealt with. This in turn is important because it offers an insight into the electoral happenings of 2024. The return of the NDA government was expected, in popular discourse on the internet, to street corner discussions. What was not anticipated however, was the extent of this rejection. The message seems to be clear this time: what was dished out will be handed back to you. The national essence of the country, it seems, has a way of remembering. This has been brought out time and again through various instances throughout the political history of independent India. 

The case of Manipur is essential for an analysis of the political outcomes as we have seen this time. As a state engulfed in violence between two ethnic groups, there was an immense loss of lives and disruption that took place. The state narratives built around the issue are of importance here. While the severity of the problems being sidelined was plainly obvious, what makes matters worse is that the government went a step beyond silence, which was dismissal. To claim that “the timely intervention of the Government of India and efforts made by the Government of Manipur, there has been a marked improvement in the situation of the state” (Modiji, 2023) was a shallow step towards disregard for human lives to establish state narratives which suited specific political interests. 

The Farmers protest of 2020 was also projected as an isolated, violent demonstration, crafted with the sole aim of showcasing opposing political and sectarian interests. For a nation which prides itself on its farmers on paper, the treatment of these very farmers during the protests by the respected Home Ministry was deplorable. A country built on protest and public demonstration, with its foundations in questioning those in power time and time again, seemed to have turned its back on any forms of  dissent. 

The electoral verdicts of Punjab and Manipur however are clearly telling of the peoples’ response to these events. An important tool that the BJP has banked on thus far is that of national amnesia. As long as dissent is silenced and punished, people will forget. It seems however, that this strategy has not served them well this time around. Piling on religious hatred and animosity, has not covered up the deep structural issues that the nation is facing at the moment. At the very literal sites where hatred, unbefitting the Prime Minister of the world’s largest population, was spewed, the BJP was shown the door. It seems in fact, at the very site of completion of the BJP's most ambitious project thus far, they have been unable to dig in. Opposite to expectations, it seems that people do indeed remember.

Popular right wing discourse points to hue and cry over the fact that the voting population has indulged in caste and religion politics. That “real” development was shown the door. Does caste politics only become caste politics when it is the subaltern grounding their identities? Is it religious bias only when the ghuspetiyas, very surprisingly, do not vote for the fascist? 

Papa ne war toh rukwa di.  Will he be able to stop the growing voices of discontent in the nation? Remains to be seen. 

By Pallavi Nair