Modi Critic Yashwant Sinha Named Opposition Candidate for Presidential Election

Sinha, who belonged to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had left BJP in 2018 when Modi did not make him a minister in his government. 

By Rakesh Raman

The opposition political parties in India have handpicked a former India minister Yashwant Sinha, 85, to be their candidate in the upcoming Presidential election.

A fierce critic of prime minister (PM) Narendra Modi and his government, Sinha enters the fray to defeat Modi’s candidate in the election. His name was announced by Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who said the common candidate will help stop the Modi government from doing further damage to Indian democracy.

Sinha, who belonged to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had left BJP in 2018 when Modi did not make him a minister in his government. Sinha waited for 4 long years to get a job in the Modi government which was formed in 2014. 

But when Modi ignored him completely, he announced his resignation from the party while cursing Modi for his failures as the PM of India. “Democracy is in danger under Modi,” Sinha said and started living like a retired and rejected man.

As BJP abandoned Sinha, he kept trying desperately to gain a foothold in the Indian political arena. In January 2018, he launched a new political outfit “National Forum” to expose the failures of the Modi government. It was construed as a political coup to dethrone Modi.

Distressed politicians from BJP (mainly an actor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha) as well as a few disgruntled people from opposition parties had expressed willingness to join the National Forum.

Although it was positioned as a non-political group, it was supposed to lead a campaign against the Modi government with the aim to defeat Modi and his party BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

But the National Forum proved to be a stillborn project and became dormant before even making its presence felt in the Indian political circles. Obviously, Sinha was dejected.

Then Sinha even tried to get close to inconsequential outfits such as Arvind Kejriwal’s Delhi-based Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which has become a new symbol of lawlessness and corruption in Indian politics.

When Sinha failed on all fronts, he decided to run sheepishly from BJP and tried his luck with different parties. Finally, he joined a local party All India Trinamool Congress in 2021 and left it today, June 21, for being the joint opposition candidate against BJP in Presidential election 2022.

As Sinha is an unskilled man like other politicians of India, he will not be able to independently lead any reform movement in the country. But can he defeat his bête noire Modi or his candidate? No way. 

Modi is an expert liar – a quality that is required to win elections in India. The victory in an Indian election is based on a politician’s capacity to tell lies and hoodwink the voters, most of whom are uneducated.

Thus, with a plethora of lies in his speeches Modi won the Lok Sabha election in 2014 and became the PM. He repeated his lies and deceit to win the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

Modi tells lies so comfortably that most uneducated and distressed people trust him because they see a ray of hope in his falsehood. While voters who vote in Indian elections are mostly poor, uneducated, and ignorant who can easily be cheated by corrupt politicians with their false promises, politicians like Modi can never get defeated.

So, by getting about 30% of votes by hook or by crook from totally illiterate and poor people, a political party can win any Indian election and incompetent politicians like Modi can become autocratic rulers of the entire country.

Modi’s strength in the Lok Sabha will help BJP win the Presidential election. Sinha and other politicians in opposition parties are living in a fool’s paradise if they think that they can defeat Modi or his candidate in the Presidential election, which is scheduled to take place on July 18.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. 

He has also launched the “Power Play: Lok Sabha Election 2024 in India” editorial section to cover the news, events, and other developments related to the 2024 election.