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Earlier, we had seen it in state elections. Then, we saw it in Bangladesh. Now, Indian electorate has most decisively proved that good governance does matter in a democracy. Those parties, leaders, alliances that govern wellor at least try to do thatget peoples mandate. The decisive victory of the United Progressive Alliance has surprised most political pundits. There has been lots of analyses on what made it possible. I am surely not an expert on that. But one thing is for sure, the regional equations notwithstanding, people have by and large voted for leaders who ensured and talked development. Take for example, the victory of Naveen Pattnaiks Biju Janata Dal in Orissa. The traditional wisdom said a last minute break-up between BJP and BJD would help Congress and here was an almost Congress wave that was sweeping the entire country. But Pattnaik proved everyone wrong and recorded a landslide victory. It was purely based on his track record of governance.

Well, when it comes to track record of actual governance, the NDA was comparable, if not better than the UPA. Where they lost out last time and this time are in not making those the political issues rather picking up some jingoistic slogans which did not mean anything to anyone. Last time, it was India Shining, which clearly did not mean anything to a lot of people. This time, strangely, it was completely negative, attacking the prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh personally, as well making issues out of trivial matters such as hanging of Afzal Guru. Now, how does it matter to a common citizen whether a convicted criminal gets hanged today or after a few months? Yes, they have in the past won elections on such issues. But times have changed. Indian citizens are now much more sensitized about their duties and responsibilities. And attack on someone like Dr Singh made them feel that BJP has nothing better to talk about.

Shyamanuja Das

In reality, however, it had. BJPs manifesto talked of the same development issues as Congress. But their leaders never talked about them to the public, thinking emotional issues would appeal more to the voters.

Take BJPs IT Agenda, which was part of its manifesto. It is one of the best thought-out ICT gameplan that we have seen globally. It had some of the best vision statements, some of the most realistic ways to achieve those visions and its quota of elements that would have appealed to the common people.

Let me outline a few of them. The manufacturing agenda that they had was one of the most integrated and thought-out plans. While its populist face was a Rs 10,000 laptop, if done properly, that could ensure a huge manufacturing industry taking shape in India. And this is something which we have been discussing for years. Same with the rural job creation. While it might have been a little too ambitious, it was fairly realistic and all the challenges and obstacles were thought through.

But after a high profile press conference that featured all senior party leaders including president Rajnath Singh and prime ministerial candidate LK Advani, no leader ever mentioned that in any public meetings, or television debates.

Now, this reads too much like an analysis of why BJP lost. But that is not my objective here. I am more interested in what happens to those ideas and plans?

Dr Manmohan Singh is not a traditional politician. He would do well to borrow some of the ideaseven if they rebrand it, which the BJP had also done in some cases in their IT Vision. This time, he has a much clearer mandate and it would not be too difficult to implement policies.

The author is Editor of Dataquest. shyamanujad@cybermedia.co.in

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