Conspiracy to create distrust about the democratic system

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 Online – 16 September 2024)

Keshav Upadhye, Chief Spokesperson