The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation election was a microcosm of Indian electoral politics. One can draw several important lessons from it. It showed that divisive politics works but also has its limitations. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s election rhetoric harped repeatedly on presumed past Hindu grievances rather than on local issues in an attempt to polarise the city’s population which is one-third Muslim. Changing Hyderabad’s name to Bhagyanagar and transforming Nizami culture, both suggestions emphasised by some of the BJP’s tallest leaders demonstrating their antipathy towards the prominence of Indo-Muslim culture in the city’s past, were more significant themes in the BJP’s campaign than developmental issues.
Divisive themes
The popularity of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) in the Old City provided fodder for communal polarisation. However, there is a difference between the BJP and the AIMIM. In the final analysis, AIMIM leader Asaddudin Owaisi is a politician whose primary aim is to undercut the “secular” parties thus benefiting the BJP. He is an insignificant player in national politics attempting to exploit Muslims’ sense of grievance to boost his image as their sole spokesman and not to capture national power, which is far beyond his grasp. On the other hand, the BJP is a national party in power at the Centre and in several States, and the primary political formation in the country. It ill behoves a party that has national stature to adopt polarising tactics instead of building bridges between communities on the basis of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas” to win a municipal election. A national ruling party should emphasise good governance and communal harmony and not utilise divisive themes for electoral gain.
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The Hyderabad election also demonstrated the limits of divisive politics. The BJP’s creditable performance was due in substantial part to the inadequacies of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government and the hubris of the family-dominated party. The flood-hit areas in Hyderabad voted massively against the TRS expressing their disappointment with the relief measures undertaken by the government. However, despite its shortcomings and the polarising rhetoric of the BJP, TRS emerged as the single largest party. The BJP was unable to capture power despite the evident anti-incumbency trend.
Beyond resuscitation
The election also demonstrated the total irrelevance of the Congress in Indian politics. It confirmed the lesson from Bihar where the Congress by its miserable showing prevented the Mahagathbandhan from gaining a majority. It is time we rid ourselves of the fiction that the Congress is a national party or even a living political organism. Dominated by a dynasty surrounded by sycophants without any commitment to ideology or principle and bereft of committed cadres, it is beyond resuscitation.
The so-called national leadership has become a millstone around the necks of those State Congress parties that still retain a degree of dynamism. The ‘high command’ of the Congress is a deadweight dragging down the better functioning State parties like those in Kerala and Punjab. It was the Kerala Congress that came to then Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s rescue in 2019 by offering him the Wayanad seat when it became apparent that he was in danger of losing Amethi. The State party in Kerala performed well despite, and not because of, the ‘high command’.
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The State parties will be far more successful if they cut their ties with the national leadership and transform themselves into regional formations rooted, like the Trinamool Congress, in their local environments and committed to pluralism. Only such parties can challenge and preempt the BJP’s dominance in their States. As long as the moribund Congress ‘high command’ exists, it will continue to drive into oblivion even those State parties that have signs of life left in them. It is time it was given a decent burial.
Mohammed Ayoob is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of International Relations, Michigan State University
