M.J. Akbar lays his hands on the personal jottings of the prime minister for the benefit of Khaleej Times:
“What I can’t understand is why the geeks of Bangalore never voted for the Congress after all I did for them. I don’t get it. The Indo-US deal is for their India! I’ve sacrificed my future for their future! And yet they’ve shifted to the awful BJP, which didn’t have the decency to support a deal that they would have happily done themselves. I only sold the right to test — which fool wants another bomb, in any case; the BJP would have sold the whole store! Politics is so unfair….
“Young Prithviraj Chauhan was wrong when he said we lost Karnataka because Deve Gowda split the secular vote. Judging by the speed with which Gowda’s secular vote rushed towards the BJP rather than towards us, we are lucky Gowda held on to 16 per cent. If he had sunk further, the margin between the BJP and us would have been greater.
“I can’t understand why chaps keep talking of inflation as the reason for the Congress slump. My economic policies are beyond reproof. What have prices got to do with defeat? Millions of honest Kannadigas voted for Congress. Don’t you think their wives go to the market? If prices did not affect them, why should they affect anyone else? I can’t stop the price of oil from rising, can I — and when I offer peaceful nuclear energy in 2020 no one wants it! I could have been a Gulliver during these four years but little men from Lilliput have tied me up, made me immobile.”
Read the full diary: The secret diaries of Manmohan, Advani
M.J. Akbar has got his facts in a twist.
JDS’s vote share in the recent Karnataka assembly elections did not plummet to 16% – they more or less held on to their previous elections vote share, with just a mere 1% dip. They got around 19% vote share compared to 20% last time.
Congress too has more or less held on to its previous elections’ vote share of 34%.
What M.J. Akbar and scores of other pseudo political pundits have missed out is the fact that BJP HAS NOT GAINED AT THE EXPENSE OF CONGRESS OR JDS.
BJP has grabbed the vote share of independents, smaller parties, and JDU, (with whom they had an alliance last time, but not this time). As a result they were able to raise their vote share by over 5% compared to last time.
A loyal JDS voter in 2004 has continued to be a loyal JDS voter in 2008.
A loyal Congress voter in 2004 has continued to be a loyal Congress voter in 2008.
A loyal BJP voter in 2004 has continued to be a loyal BJP voter in 2008. BJP’s vote share increased because of stray independents and smaller parties.
Although in terms of seats, it appears as if it was a comfortable victory for BJP, it was actually a close contest between Cong and BJP. Cong actually getting 3 lac more votes than BJP in entire Karnataka, and Cong losing by less than 2000 votes in 21 seats, is proof of this.
Price rise wasn’t an issue because Cong got 3 lac more votes than BJP.
The BJP HAS NOT BEEN ABLE TO CONVINCE THE CONGRESS AND THE JDS VOTER TO SWITCH SIDES AND VOTE FOR BJP.
M. J. Akbar says in his article:
“Young Prithviraj Chauhan was wrong when he said we lost Karnataka because Deve Gowda split the secular vote. Judging by the speed with which Gowda’s secular vote rushed towards the BJP rather than towards us, we are lucky Gowda held on to 16 per cent. If he had sunk further, the margin between the BJP and us would have been greater.
M.J. Akbar needs to do his homework first before putting words in the mouth of Manmohan Singh. Gowda’s secular vote has not rushed towards BJP. Neither has Congress’s secular vote rushed towards BJP.
Here is glaring statistical proof:
JDS got 20% vote in 2004, and they got 19% vote in 2008.
Cong got 34% vote in 2004, and more or less the same in 2008.
While the combined secular vote in 2004 was 54%, the combined secular vote in 2008 is around 53%.
So you see, Mr. Akbar, the secular vote was more or less intact. BJP gained from independents and marginal parties, and there was no rush of votes from JDS and Cong towards BJP at all.
Spot the differences between the above 2 comments. One difference is the name of the commenter.
Hiker,
You are right.. Both are written by same person signing in different names.. You are great to observe it.
Whatever be the statistical inconsistency in the actual article, the point remains that the Congress was unable to convince the “independent”/öthers” voters to vote for them. The BJP did, and won.
How it did is probably due to Congress’ bad strategy (of naming Krishna, but refusing to tell us why he was here, of being ready to jump into bed with HDDG) and the BJP’s better tactics (concentrating on the seats HDDG would lose, making sure that dissidence was cut down).
Hiker,
Comment on the comments, not on the commentator.
So, after tallying the final vote share, secularists should be relieved that Karnataka has after all remained secular. BJP has claimed victory, prehaps by adopting some devious (communal) tactics such as black magic or slight of hand.
Article says: Millions of honest Kannadigas voted for Congress.
Ahem. Any opinion on the other million which didnt vote for Congress. They must be dishonest. Wink.
The rest of the article throws an interesting thought. It seems like the only thing ManMohan Singh dreams about is the nuclear deal. There seems to be no other policies that ManMohan Singh is proud of? Sheesh, that speaks a lot of our current Government and he expects why the rest of the country doesnt understand their losing spree.
ManMohan Singh, please come out of your illusion. You see, BJP shouted “India Shining”, the average Joe on the street couldnt identify himself with the glitter of “India Shining” and they lost. You are doing the same mistake. Wake up Sir.
Also note, Bangalore = Karnataka for this nut case.
Verybleedingheart,
Statistics tell stories.
If you carefully analyze statistics through a fine tooth comb, it reveals a different picture. My intention was to correct the myth that BJP gained at the expense of JDS and Congress.
More than secularists being relieved, the right wingers needn’t go overboard in their enthusiasm for having scored a ‘convincing’ victory.
Every political party is like a brand. Just like it is very difficult to convert a person using Sunflower oil to Coconut Oil, it is quite a task to convert a voter who has been voting for a particular party for years, to vote for another.
BJP’s so-called perfectly organized election campaign and brilliant election advertisements actually did not succeed in converting the JDS voter and the Congress voter into a BJP voter.
The chief strategist, arm chair critic and television studios’ hero, Arun Jaitley should take note.
There was a time when M J Akbar was the monarch of all he surveyed (like Emperor Akbar) vis-a-vis journalism. He was arrogance personified. Yet people tolerated him, for his range and calbre were legendary and exemplary. However, now he seems to be clearly over the hill. Nobody takes him seriously. He pontificating articles are hardly read. The news of his ignominious exit from Asian Age hardly evoked any response. In fact, he left the office unwept, unsung and unhonoured.
What a fall for a man of exceptional talent.
His pontificating articles…
Alok,
Of course, Congress was not able to convince the others and independents to vote for it.
But I would like to draw your attention to the well thought-through, sharply focused and high pitched campaign of the BJP. It should have delivered a whammy of a result, a thundering knock-out blow to the Congress from which it would never have woken up.
But things didn’t quite turn out that way. Cong was defeated, but not devastated.
Probably some voters were put off by the trying-too-hard-to-please, glitzy, over the top, shrill election campaign of the BJP
Pinprick says: But things didn’t quite turn out that way. Cong was defeated, but not devastated.
OK. Perhaps Congress was defeated by 1 vote. So what. BJP still leads by 1 vote. They won. In a system based on majority wins, how does it matter if you win by 1 vote or a million.
Probably some voters were put off by “trying-to-hard-to-please”, perhaps some got bored, perhaps some danced; end of the day, who cares? A majority of people liked BJPs “trying-to-hard-to-please” policy and they voted. Are these people wrong? What a silly way to say, “The grapes are sour”
SumneNeeve,
Holy Shit. You gotta be kidding me.
The secret diaries of Manmohan Singh is a figment of imagination of Mr. M.J. Akbar.!!
So all those precious gems of thoughts that has been attributed to Manmohan Singh is actually M. J. Akbars!
Pinprick says: Cong was defeated, but not devastated.
Hahahaha. Kannadadhalli ondhu ghaadhe idhe, “Jatti biddhroono mese mannagalilvanthe”.
Why all these unneccesary fact findings. S.M Krishna himself has accepted that Congress Lost the elections because it was not able to project a CM candidate before elections. Many in Congress were not not happy with Krishna returning to active state politics. Many top leaders of congress were not united, they were many CM aspirants(karge, Dharam Singh, HK Patil, Siddaramaih). Congress did Not prepare themselves. JDS on the other had lost because all the it’s Major leaders ( Siddaramiah, Scindia, Prakash, Bacche Gowda and many more) quit JDS and joined either congress or BJP. I agree with Sumne Neeve…
In a way, it is a big defeat for BJP as it did not win all the seats that it contested in Karnataka. Also, the party is not ruling in the other southern states. So, it is a non-entity.
No,all these will come to picture in lokasabha elections and the current state government can remain in 5 years or fall immediatly after LS results is based on the LS results.
Atleast 3 independens have showed that they can jump to other side of the fence if congress decides to take chance.So as of now nothing is decided.
Congress , Communists are secular and BJP is a non-secular party?.
All political parties have played ‘religion’ card.
People need stable lifestyle which means a stable administration which is possible with only a stable government. We need leaders who take our state farward, not back ward or standstilll situation. Many of our leaders are so petty and engrossed in ‘self-development’ than development.
In our country, 60 to 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Government mustb place rural development a top priority, not juts cities.
MJ Akbar doesn’t know anything about Kannadiga or their political views…His ignorance is visible throughout the article.