“Unka Sankalp, Vipareet Bharat”
“Sab ka Naash, Sab ka Vinaash”

WHEN Rahul Gandhi asked searching questions about the meteoric rise of Gautam Adani after Narendra Modi took over as the prime minister of the country, possibly suggesting that Gautam Adani and Narendra Modi were two sides of the same coin, many of us thought that these were usual jibes of an Opposition leader against the prime minister and the ruling party. As has been the habit of the Modi-Shah duo, all allegations of corruption, favoritism and corporate stranglehold of the Indian democracy, were stonewalled. The Adani juggernaut moved on, rubbishing not only the Hindenburg reports but also the well researched allegations by the Congress against Madhavi Buch, the head of the Sebi.

SHOCKING REVELATION
THE shocking revelation recently made by Ajit Pawar, that Gautam Adani was present at the meeting of Amit Shah and NCP leadership after the 2019 Assembly elections in Maharashtra, to explore the formation of a BJP government, is further proof that Rahul Gandhi’s allegations all this while that there is a strong nexus between the BJP government and Gujarati corporates, is not at all an exaggeration.
The results of the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Jharkhand will clearly indicate whether it is a few mega-corporates from Gujarat which will be in the driver’s seat of Indian democracy or whether it is really WE, THE PEOPLE who will be making or marring the country’s future.
The pre-election political environment in Haryana was full of surveys and opinion polls, all predicting either a comfortable or sweeping victory for the Congress. The results of Haryana polls, however, threw up further evidence, if that was necessary, of the infinite money-power of the BJP and its limitless capacity to manipulate both the EVMs as well as the Election Commission. That the allegations regarding manipulations of EVMs was not taken seriously by the Election Commission was, according to many political analysts, a proof of the Election Commission’s pliability rather than a proof of hollowness of the allegations. The pre-election scenario in Maharashtra and Jharkhand lacks the ubiquitous noise of surveys and exit polls. If we ignore the pro-BJP predictions made by the godi media, the few YouTube channels on which the nation depends for knowing reality, predict that the Mahavikas Aghadi in Maharashtra will win with a comfortable majority.

MODI-SHAH DUO
AT the macro-level, Rahul Gandhi’s massive rallies, for highlighting the dangers the Modi-Shah duo and the BJP pose for the country, are expected to find widespread acceptance among the masses. It is estimated that about 65% of voters in Maharashtra hail from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Castes and minorities. Rahul Gandhi’s promises of Caste Census, appropriate share of jobs in Government, public sector and other big private sector organizations in proportion to the importance of each caste in the Country’s total population, lifting the reservation barrier of 50%, protecting all the fundamental and human rights guaranteed by the Constitution are factors which will ensure victory for the Mahavikas Aghadi. At the grass-root level the micro-management of Sharad Pawar’s NCP and Uddhav Thackeray’s Shivsena, the resurrection of Marathi pride in their identity and the Maharashtra versus Gujarat prejudices, the economic injustice done to Maharashtra by diverting mega projects from Maharashtra to Gujarat, the BJP’s betrayal of the Marathi people by splitting their regional parties and forming a government with the breakaway fraction of NCP and Shivsena – all these issues are expected to get Marathi voters’ massive support for the Mahavikas Aghadi.
The NDA combine, of which the BJP is the main partner and Shinde’s Shivsena and Ajit Pawar’s NCP are minor partners, is expected to find favour with voters because of the massive distribution of freebies worth about Rs2 lakh crore by the Shinde government and the huge flow of election funds from a few Gujarati corporates for NDA and the field work of the RSS “karyakartaas.” The blatant partiality of the Election Commission in favour of BJP and a possible manipulation of EVMs may also help to tilt the balance in favour of the NDA.
However, the internal squabbles within the NDA and the mutual sabotage of each other’s candidates are expected to reduce the total tally of the NDA. Sharad Pawar reportedly told Ashok Wankhede, a very famous and an articulate journalist, that certain industrialists from Gujarat sent Rs3,700 crore to BJP for distribution of voters. While Pawar claimed that the Mahavikas Aghadi is expected to win with comfortable majority, the distribution of cash to voters during the last few days before the polling dates may prove to be a big challenge for the MVA.

OLIGOPOLY INDIA
A VICTORY for Mahavikas Aghadi would mean that there is still a hope for this “Mother of Democracy” to survive. If not, the country may end up under an oligopoly supported by powerful corporates. It is high time for WE, THE PEOPLE to act and protect our Democracy by ensuring the victory of the Mahavikas Aaghadi.