BJP, Cong recalibrate poll strategy amid Pak conflict

That the Pulwama tragedy and the Indian strike on Balakot have altered the political landscape and provided the BJP a leg up ahead of the Lok Sabha polls is now obvious. But while the Congress is left having to recalibrate its strategy, this is true of the BJP as well.

The saffron party, which had gone to town with a “jaw for a tooth” stand after 2016 Uri terror attack, has been fairly measured in its response after Pulwama. Indeed, immediately after the attack on the CRPF convoy on February 14, party spokespersons were asked to avoid warmongering in their responses. ‘React, not ratchet up’ appears to be the new philosophy.

A similar strategy was advocated when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman briefed reporters after India's air strikes in Balakot. While the government projected the action as a “non-military' operation, the party spokespersons were directed not to raise the war cry. Clearly, the BJP wanted to avoid like a post-Uri warmongering scenario even while it acted on both the security and diplomatic fronts.

Similarly, the Opposition camp, after some initial murmurs, soon expressed solidarity with the government for a few days. Any questioning was limited to the intelligence inputs before the attack on CRPF jawans. After the air strikes, the top leadership of Congress wasted no time in hailing the security forces for the attack. At the all-party meeting hours after the strike, Congress spoke in one voice with the government.

This was somewhat different from the situation after Uri when some Opposition leaders including from Congress had raised questions on the surgical strikes. Congress clearly does not want to be seen ‘wanting’ in nationalism and the BJP has moved on to a less jingoist stance, maybe also due to the uncertain nature of the conflict with Pakistan and a realisation that a full-scale war – or repeat air strikes -- are infeasible.

But there’s no denying that Modi now has in his arsenal the additional plank of “zero tolerance towards terrorism” in addition to “zero tolerance towards corruption”, using which the government carried out investigations and raids against a number of Opposition leaders. This double-barrelled challenge from the BJP will force the Opposition to look for an alternative narrative in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, which is just months away; worthy issues like farm distress and job crisis seem to be drowning in the cacophony of avenge and revenge.

In an attempt to claw back some ground, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday did target the Modi government on jobs and farm distress but refrained from attacking it on issues like terror, triple talaq and foreign policy.

While the surge of emotions will subside after some time, what is clear that BJP cadres, which were somewhat subdued after Pulwama as the poll arithmetic appeared difficult, are an enthused lot on the ground. Their leader’s chest has swollen to its full ‘56 inches’, and the Opposition is scrambling for traction. Its dilemma was obvious on Wednesday when it charged the government of blatantly politicising the sacrifices of the armed forces and asked it not to use this for the Lok Sabha polls.

Pulwama clearly derailed and distracted Congress, which is battling an ambitious BSP that threatens to upset its plans to cash in on Dalit anger against the BJP, while its alliances barring Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand are yet to be formalised.