Patna's Gandhi Maidan has a significance in India's political history. It was here where JP Narayan had given call for the Total Revolution in 1974 to oust Indira Gandhi from power at the Centre. It was an iconic moment as the powerful prime minister was eventually driven out from power three years after JP's call. The Gandhi Maidan had remained a symbol of power of India's democracy ever since.
In the recent years, a number of current Opposition leaders have assembled at the same venue to repeat JP's feat of the 70s. This time, it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has been the target of the common ire. The anti-Modi forces have reiterated the need to oust Modi just like Mrs Gandhi was in 1977. But in most cases, these calls have failed to deliver.
The excitement of the Opposition against Modi had peaked in November 2015 when the prime minister's saffron party was drubbed by the unique alliance of Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad in the prestigious Bihar elections that year.
Top leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal had come together to celebrate Nitish Kumar's swearing-in as the CM as well as Modi's defeat. In fact, even before the elections, another mega rally was held in the same venue in August for the anti-Modi brigade to give a clarion call. At that rally, Congress president Sonia Gandhi had lashed out at the Modi government accusing it of doing nothing other than "show-bazi".
None of the attempts to produce JP effect have worked today
However, these repeated attempts to produce another JP effect have meant little in reality. The Nitish-Lalu camaraderie didn't last even two years as the 'frustrated' chief minister decided to quit the company of the RJD and Congress and return to the NDA which he had left with a lot of noise in June 2013.
A month after the drama, Lalu Prasad spearheaded another mega rally at the same historic ground where the likes of Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Sharad Yadav and others came together and the call this time was to uproot not one but two enemies – Modi and Nitish.
Modi will never commit a folly like Indira Gandhi to lose his popular base
The latest rally is also unlikely to succeed because of two reasons. First, Modi is a leader smart enough to understand the folly Mrs Gandhi had committed 42 years ago by imposing an Emergency. The act had alienated her from the very people who had loved and supported her for her leadership and paved the way for her downfall in 1977. Modi is a leader who has his legs firmly rooted in a sophisticated populism and he is not a fool to ruin that to squander the advantages he is set to enjoy for a long time to come.
The Opposition today represents negativity for most Indians
The other reason is the completely discredited Opposition. The leaders who are screaming their hearts out against Modi are nowhere near JP and rather have a very low image in the eyes of the common people of today's changed India. For the voters, they either represent corruption or worthlessness and are unable to take India to greater heights. Also, Modi has added an advantage to his politics by adding to it a form of populist yet realist economy. His opponents have only slammed Modi's economic politics at their own peril.
Just reviving the memory of JP will not fetch today's Opposition leaders any favourable result because the circumstances and equations have changed today. What the Patna rallies will do most is to make the analysts and observers use superlatives to describe Lalu Prasad's political durability despite all odds. But that is all about it. As far as ousting Modi and Nitish are concerned, it is still akin to scaling Mount Everest with limited oxygen.
