The
last round of Lok Sabha elections will conclude on June 1. Campaign strategies
that have never been seen before have been put to use over the last two months,
or ever since the elections got declared on March 16. All the opposition
parties, including the Congress, were in disarray the moment elections were
announced. And every passing day kept exposing their tactics of spreading
propaganda to harm the Bharatiya Janata Party.
It
is typical to hear criticisms, remarks, accusations and rebuttals during
election rallies. Rahul Gandhi, the prince of the Congress, has always
disparaged Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the most atrocious and demeaning
manner. His use of such language could even be pardoned, given his frustration
at repeated setbacks. But this time around, BJP’s rivals, knowing they would
lose, casted doubts on the nation’s democratic system itself.
Nowadays,
it’s incredibly simple to disseminate false narratives via social media.
Congress leadership was taken aback by their catastrophic loss in the three
states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Also, in February, the
opposition got faltered when the Ram Mandir Pranpratishtha ceremony was
discussed globally. And hence, even before the elections got declared, BJP’s
opponents grew cold feet, fearing their defeat for the third time in a row. As
soon as the opposition realized they would not be able to outbid Modi
government’s pledge of welfare programmes, they started using sly strategies.
The
opposition’s first piece of misinformation was that once in power, the BJP will
change the Constitution. In actuality, no party can alter the fundamental
framework of the constitution, not even if it wins all the 542 Lok Sabha seats.
And Congress leadership is fully aware about it. But still, to deceive people,
they continued to disseminate false narrative that BJP is planning to change
the constitution. And this they did because they have nothing negative to speak
about the Modi government.
Throughout
this election campaign, the Opposition’s blatantly obvious strategy for
undermining the Modi government over ten years became evident. The BJP’s
opponents thought that by supporting the farmer’s agitation in Delhi or
attempting to provoke violence over the Agniveer Yojana, they would be able to
incite the general public against the Modi government. It may be recalled that
three years ago, farmers had staged an agitation in Delhi. At that time,
renowned journalist Rajdeep Sardesai had tweeted that protesting farmers were
killed in police firing. But that is not what had happened. There was a
full-proof strategy to incite the demonstrators by disseminating fake reports
of protestors being killed by police firing. Also, instance of hoisting Khalistan
flag atop the Red Fort took place
with
an intent to create unrest in the country. Luckily, the ‘toolkit’ exercised by
some external forces during the farmer’s movement got exposed.
Just
a few days prior to the election, a petition was filed in the court pleading
that voting should not be carried out through the electronic voting machines.
This petition was aimed at spreading rumours about the Election Commission’s
objectivity through the mainstream and social media. Neither the opponents nor
the thinkers and journalists realized that by doing this, they were casting
doubt on the credibility of a government machinery. There was thorough and
drawn-out discussion about the EVMs in the Supreme Court and later, through its
decision, the court made it clear that EVMs will be used for voting in all
elections.
By
the end of the second round of voting, journalists and other media houses
methodically started promoting a narrative that the I.N.D.I Alliance was
steadily gaining ground and that the BJP was not polling as many votes as
anticipated. Around the same time, there was also a fall in the index owing to
selling in the stock market, which became another premise to spread a rumour
that ‘now, the tables have turned’. The opposition used it as a nation-wide
campaign, thus demonstrating the resilience of their ecosystem.
There
was also a widespread misinformation that Muslims will be forced to leave the
nation once the CAA came into effect. Many mosques around the country issued
fatwas urging people to vote against the Bharatiya Janata Party. Attempts, both
domestically and internationally, were made to guarantee that Muslim
electorates voted against the BJP. By referencing the promises made by the
Congress in its manifesto, Prime Minister Narendra Modi exposed Congress’s
anti-reservation stance to the electorate. Congress claims to survey the wealth
of the citizens of the country which will then be redistributed in a manner
that the minorities too get a share in it. Prime Minister revealed Congress’s
cunning scheme to give reservation of the OBCs to the Muslims. Congress went
into a frenzy the moment the Prime Minister launched such a scathing attack. In
response to the Prime Minister’s aggressive demeanour, the Congress was
compelled to retreat. The Congress also questioned the real-time voter turnout
data and the final figures released by the Election Commission, with the sole
aim to create doubts about constitutional institutions like Election
Commission. Never before has the opposition experienced being out of office for
such a long duration of 10 years. And fearing that they might once again have
to go without power for another five years, the Congress and its allies
resorted to spreading misleading narratives.
Seeing
the patterns in voting and realizing that none of their ‘strategies’ would
succeed, the Congress and its allies attempted to create confusion in the minds
of the electorate. The Congress leadership has taken on the task of
disseminating misleading information about the BJP and the Modi government
because they are finding it difficult to accept defeat for the third time in a
row. Not just about the BJP and the Modi government, but the Congress went to
the extent of even casting doubts on the nation’s governance and the overall
democratic system. And I am confident that no matter how hard the Opposition
tries to influence, the astute Indian voter will not succumb to any of these
attempts.
(Article Pre-Published in Times of India -27 May 2024)
Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson
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