DELHI: 16 May 2014
The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), is appalled and dismayed at the outcome of the 16th Lok Sabha election results which have thrown up the Hindutva forces to hold the reins of power on its own strength. However, SDPI has accepted the people’s verdict without any rancor while hoping that the ruling clan will observe “Rajdharam” in governance by taking all Indians irrespective of their religion, caste, creed and gender together with in the inclusive development of the country.
SDPI national president A. Sayeed in a statement said that the unprecedented triumph of the BJP and its cohorts at the hustings is due to the mismanagement and poor leadership of the outgoing Congress-led UPA Government which had become epitome of corruption and inflation. Their approach towards the election created a feeling that an easy walk over is granted to BJP. To say that existence of a Modi wave swept BJP to power is not at all correct as in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu the party came a cropper.
Sayeed pointed out that the post election system, seats share can be misleading. Even in this so-called wave, BJP’s vote share is restricted to 31.6 per cent and Congress is still holding to 19.6 per cent. That means only one out of three Indians has turned into full blown masculine Hindutva. The BJP has a Lok Sabha majority but not the country’s majority will. That means while they have all the rights to run a government, it also means that they have to take along with them 2 out of 3 Indians who did not vote for them.
While the statement said that in Uttar Pradesh the BJP has garnered 42 per cent votes and 71 seats out of 80 that were at stake. Poor Mayawati’s BSP has got 20 per cent votes and no seats! Between SP & BSP they get as many votes as BJP but they together get only 7 seats while BJP gets ten times more at 71.
Sayeed called upon civil society institutions to be ever more vigilant and to come together in the cause of protecting the nation’s pluralist character and ethos. The statement stated that Modi has been a deeply divisive figure in the nation’s polity and can easily polarize the citizenry into religious and regional identities.
Sayeed concurred with BJP patriarch L K Advani’s suggestion that an assessment of how much Narendra Modi’s leadership had contributed to the win. Advani has opined that there should be a detailed analysis on this. It needs to be assessed as to how much contribution has been made by Narendra Modi’s leadership, RSS and BJP towards the party’s victory as the party has won in areas where it had never won before. He hoped that Modi will prove himself as the Prime Minister of the whole country, and try to restore the confidence of the weaker sections of Indian society, especially Muslims