Conspiracy theories, if nothing, are entertaining. But are they also informative in some cases? Why do many smart people also believe in conspiracy theories? Those with the faculty of critical thinking are often good at identifying patterns and inconsistencies. This makes them more likely to question the official narrative of events. Also, the intelligent like to defy authority and feel unique. To obsess over the conspiratorial is to hurtle down the river of insanity. But connecting invisible dots on the shifting sandbanks of politics can give one a glimpse of the course that the river will take.
The election that could hasten the massive directional shift for Bharat is here. And naturally, the scene is humming with rumours, speculations and conspiracy theories before the 2024 Lok Sabha polling. Let us examine the top seven collective conjectures and see if there is a pattern.
Conspiracy 1: Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest
The Congress camp is agog with speculation that PM Narendra Modi, shepherding enforcement agencies like the ED and CBI, has timed the arrest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal just before the elections to take Congress’s chief campaigner Rahul Gandhi completely out of the news cycle. Some Congressis even suggest that nations like the US and Germany, with whom India shares very close ties, have been prodded to comment about Kejriwal’s arrest so the impact is greater and it severely cuts into Congress’s visibility.
Kejriwal’s AAP is admittedly much less of a national threat to the BJP than the Congress.
Conspiracy 2: Lalu’s gift to Modi
RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav recently mocked Modi for not having a family. The BJP pounced on the opportunity in a flash, as if it had been privy to a prophecy of windfall. ‘Modi ka Parivar’ started trending, posters and videos zipped out of thin air. It was a redux of the ‘chaiwallah’ moment of 2014.
Mani Shankar Aiyar, the unfriendly neighbourhood blabbermouth of Indian politics, is quite capable of such self-goals. But Lalu? Even a weak and ageing fox does not drop its wiliness so casually. Could it be that by handing Modi that massive advance, Lalu brought peace on his scam-ravaged family? Also, does a stronger BJP in Bihar cut the habitual turncoat Nitish Kumar out of the Bihar equation?
Conspiracy 3: Mamata pushing a Trojan Horse
Both national and Bengal media have been intensely speculating why CM Mamata Banerjee’s all-powerful but corruption-tainted nephew Abhishek Banerjee has not yet been arrested by the central agencies. Is it because Modi is soft on the TMC?
Or is Mamata planning to push her nephew to the BJP at some point? Gossip flies way faster than proven facts. The rumour is that Abhishek has offered to cross over to the BJP with 100-110 TMC MLAs and form a new government in West Bengal in order to stay out of jail. But the BJP’s top leadership has turned the proposal down. This idea apparently has Mamata’s blessing. It is supposed to be her Trojan Horse for the BJP.
Conspiracy 4: Sanatan’s southern intrigue
In the cesspit of Dravidian politics, Tamil Nadu, attacking Sanatan Dharma or Hinduness is nothing novel. But why would CM MK Stalin, his son Udhayanidhi, and his DMK colleagues like A Raja repeatedly spit venom at Sanatan Dharma knowing that each such utterance is alienating Hindu voters from their INDI Alliance partners?
Is it to create political space for an emerging BJP in the state and choke a much-weakened AIADMK after Jayalalitha’s demise? Is it again a gift to the BJP in national elections as drug and corruption cases loom? Or is it overconfidence that such attacks will never dent the DMK’s vote bank and that Hindutva backlash will never be strong enough to make the BJP a serious challenger?
Conspiracy 5: RaGa playing for Soros, China
Rahul Gandhi’s mingling with the George Soros ecosystem, rumours of meeting the shadowy billionaire who wants to upstage the people’s mandate for Narendra Modi, speaking in Soros’s tongue about Indian democracy…all whole list of things places the Congress boss under the strobe light of speculation.
His clandestine meetings with Chinese officials and speaking China’s language on Ladakh incursions further thickened that talk. Is he desperate to overthrow Modi with the help of foreign, anti-India forces?
Conspiracy 6: Little Congresses will break out
It started with Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma predicting a humiliating defeat of the Congress followed by its state units declaring independence from the mother party. Karnataka and Telangana Congress units could go rogue, was the conjecture.
When Telangana CM Revanth Reddy showed warmth and admiration for Narendra Modi from a public platform recently, the rumours got a fresh swill.
Conspiracy 7: Modi 3.0 will see big changes to Constitution
Both the Left and the Right of Indian politics are in rare unanimity on one subject. They both believe that PM Modi wants ‘abki baar 400 par’ — a jaw-dropping majority — to bring deep changes to the Constitution. Any constitutional amendment of fundamental rights currently enlisted in Articles 12-35, for instance, will require that kind of a majority.
The Left speculates about it in dismay; the Right with delight. What do such rumours and conjectures reveal?
Every conspiracy theory listed here may be wildly off the mark, but they show that in the nation’s popular imagination and the Opposition psyche, Modi is now all-powerful and bigger than life. It is as if he can manipulate even the most powerful individuals or groups, and manipulate his enemies to achieve impossible outcomes. This kind of speculation would be impossible around any other PM except, to some extent, Indira Gandhi.
It shows a fragmented Opposition resigned to the hope of a miracle. And an electorate more excited about the margin than the mandate.
Abhijit Majumder is a senior journalist. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
Comments
0 comment