BJP Vs Congress: Development Vs Nyay?

By: Damini Mehta

Over the course of the last few years, there has been an interesting shift in the poll narrative from issues such as roti, kapda, makaan to larger concerns such as corruption, development and nationalism. The rise of the BJP since 2014 witnessed a new trend in revival of religion as a key determinant in politics.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi landed in Manipur on 14th January 2023 along with other Congress leaders to start the second leg of his Padyatra challenging the BJP on the Anyay or injustice meted out on the citizens of the country. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is preparing for the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, culminating its decades long struggle to bring Ram home. The elections to the Lok Sabha are less than three months away and political parties have already moved into poll mode to gain early advantage. The incumbent BJP with its development and nationalism pitch appears to be reviving the Hindutva strategy through the Ram Temple consecration. Construction of the Ram Temple at the former Babri Masjid site was a long standing poll promise of the BJP and it was finally able to fulfill it as the Supreme Court cleared decks for the construction of the temple. The BJP clearly appears to be making all efforts to garner political gains from the development from across the country. Both the BJP and its parent organization, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) have deployed its cadres and members across the country to spread the word about the temple consecration and take celebration to the grassroots in not only rural but urban areas as well. 

On the other hand, the Indian National Congress, the principal opposition party to the BJP, appears to be back in action with its Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. The Yatra is an extension of the Bharat Jodo Yatra undertaken by party leader Rahul Gandhi on foot from Tamil Nadu to Kashmir in late 2022 and early 2023. The Yatra was touted as the reason for the party’s win in Karnataka and later on Telangana. However, according to poll analysts, the Yatra’s benefits were limited to boosting Gandhi’s image and failed to provide the kind of push required and also possible to revive Congress organization and momentum across states and regions. Setting the reservations apart and attempting to bank on the success of the previous Yatra, Gandhi is going on foot again, with his band of Congress leaders ready to attack the incumbent BJP by walking through the breadth of the country from Manipur to Mumbai. The ongoing Yatra also comes in the backdrop of the party’s losses in the three Hindi speaking states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chattisgarh in late 2023. 

Over the course of the last few years, there has been an interesting shift in the poll narrative from issues such as roti, kapda, makaan to larger concerns such as corruption, development and nationalism. The rise of the BJP since 2014 witnessed a new trend in revival of religion as a key determinant in politics. More recently, the party has been fighting elections on its development claim of the BJP government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Several state elections are also fought on the double engine pitch of either retaining or bringing the double engine sarkar in both the state and the center. A look at how the country has performed in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate in the last few years reveals that in the first National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government from 2014 to 2019, the country recorded a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.4%. This dropped to a CAGR of just 4.1% in the second BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government from 2019-20 to 2023-24. A clear reason behind this declined growth in the second term can be the COVID-19 outlier years of 2020-21 when the economy recorded a negative growth of 5.8%. The average year-on-year GDP change during the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule from 2004 to 2014 was nearly 15%. This declined to 10.18% during the NDA years from 2014 to 2020. 

There are several other indicators to assess the performance of a government such as employment rate, price rise, improvement in infrastructure, and other social indicators such as health, education and decrease in poverty. Comparing two government periods simply on the basis of GDP growth rate might not be the right measure. However, given GDP gives a broader picture of how an economy has performed, the difference in growth rate during NDA and UPA periods and between NDA 1 and NDA 2 periods do point us towards the decline in the growth of national income over the last few years. As the country leaps into full poll mode in a few weeks it will be interesting to see which issues take precedence in the battle for the Lok Sabha as the incumbent BJP seeks as third term in power under PM Modi and opposition parties fight to present a cohesive front to stop the BJP.