Can Gujarat redeem the nation?

  The campaign guns have fallen silent across Gujarat and the voter has made up his mind. Thanks to the paranoia of the Election Commission, the liberal thinkers have one more week to fool themselves about the outcome of this election. The bad news for them is that they are dead wrong. The good news is that no matter how bad their judgement is, their reputations are secure. 

The most impressive man in this election has, of course, been Narendrabhai Modi himself. Not only has he negated candidate level anti-incumbency, he has distanced himself decisively from the murky politics of caste. Gujarat 2002 allowed the people to answer an important question: If a man walks through your drawing room door and slaps you in the face, would you sit down with him and assuage his grievances? Or would you just plant a heavy foot in his backside? The people of Gujarat made a choice. 

But in Election 2007, the stakes are higher. Thus far, vikas (development) has never been a potent tool in the hands of an incumbent government. The BJP chose to talk about their development record at their own peril in 2004 and they got mauled, badly, with the heaviest losses being inflicted by the likes of Lalu Prasad Yadav! Lalu, the rustic genius of Indian politics, showed conclusively that one could, by freezing the progress of his state, freeze time itself and lock in his mandate. In Election 2007, Modi has thrown the gauntlet yet again. What is the model for successful politics in India? Is it the Lalu model? In order to carry the people with you, what do you stop: progress or corruption? 

A big round of applause is also due to the mainstream media. A one sided election does not excite people enough to make them tune in to news channels. They have indeed done a handsome marketing job of convincing the rest of the country that this election is going down to the wire. With unashamed losers like Yogendra Yadav manning the opinion poll front, the media embarked on a conscious strategy to make the Gujarat election story saleable. With some help from Sonia Gandhi's speech writer and of course, Modi himself, they have raked in their TRPs. The media can, much like the liberal thinkers, afford to be wrong. All they have to do is stop talking about their own failures and people will forgive them. Talk about enjoying power without responsibility. Fortunately, there are limits to what the media can invent and smart journalists respect those limits. That explains why no one tried the "reality control tricks" with Bengal 2006. 

The issue is not whether Modi will win, but whether the people of Gujarat can give him a landslide. Can the people of Gujarat make development relevant to politics? Can they redeem us of the sins of 2004? Let me put a few words into Sonia jis mouth, in Modi's style:

Sonia : What do you do to a man who talks of making India into a first world country?

Crowd: (India 2004) Kill him! Kill him!

Sonia: Well that's it. That's what I am doing. I dare Modi to hang me for it.

Crowd: (Gujarat 2007) ????