Power at Any Cost: How Appeasement Sank the BJP in 2029

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Power at Any Cost: How Appeasement Sank the BJP in 2029

The BJP did not lose the 2029 Lok Sabha election because the opposition became formidable. It lost because it forgot why it was elected in the first place. What collapsed was not governance alone, but credibility.

Narendra Modi’s later tenure marked a decisive break from conviction politics. The hunger to retain power replaced ideological discipline. The BJP, once a party of clarity and reform, slipped into the same vote-bank arithmetic it had long condemned—and voters punished the hypocrisy.

The handling of OBC policy through institutions like the UGC was not social justice; it was political signalling. Instead of investing in foundational education, skill creation, and competitive excellence, the government chose shortcuts that weakened meritocratic institutions and antagonized aspirational youth. Empowerment was promised; optics were delivered.

This was not reform. It was dilution.

Even more damaging was the persistence of minority-specific grants without political honesty. The BJP extended benefits to Muslim communities while knowing—fully well—that electoral support would not follow. Welfare became a one-way transaction: state resources out, political return zero. Meanwhile, the party’s own supporters watched in disbelief as the BJP adopted the very appeasement model it had built its identity opposing.

The result was not outrage, but something far worse: indifference. Booth-level enthusiasm collapsed. Volunteer energy dried up. Loyal voters stopped defending the party—and many stopped voting altogether.

This is how governments fall—not with noise, but with silence.

The BJP’s fatal mistake was strategic arrogance. It assumed welfare could override identity politics. It assumed optics could replace ideology. It assumed power could sustain itself without belief.

Indian voters do not reward confusion. They reward courage. When a party tries to please everyone, it inevitably loses its own base. The BJP learned this lesson the hard way.

The 2029 verdict was not anti-Modi hysteria or opposition brilliance. It was a referendum on ideological surrender. Power was pursued without purpose, governance without spine.

History is ruthless to parties that abandon their core.
Appeasement weakens authority.
Ambiguity erodes trust.
And power without principle always expires.

The BJP didn’t lose an election in 2029.
It lost itself long before the votes were counted.

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