Whatever may be the ruse that the BJP may employ to belittle the significance of its total rout in its traditional strongholds in the northern states of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi (it is non-existent in Mizoram), the fact of the matter is that it has shaken the Vajpayee government to its very foundations. Never in the history of independent India have the people so decisively rejected a government and its policies within so short a time span. Eight months is indeed a very small period. But the people have had enough. And they have made this abundantly clear. Now the BJP government has lost both the credibility and moral right to rule at the centre.

The reaffirmation of faith by its allies notwithstanding, the bickering within the BJP-led coalition are bound to intensify in the coming days. This is the meaning of our oft-repeated claim during the course of the campaign that the results will have a national bearing.

The question that will be answered by its allies during the coming days, despite the resolve of the coordination committee, is whether to stand and sink with this party or let itself off the hook. Increasingly they will find the BJP to be turning into a liability.

Whatever may be the explanations that the BJP doles out to cover up its rout, there is no doubt that it is a verdict against the misgovernance of the BJP-led coalition government at the Centre. It is an expression of lack of faith in the BJP-led coalition. While the entire spectrum of the BJP's leadership sought to shift on the onus to the state governments run by it, it was the BJP President who candidly admitted that it its defeat was due to the rise in prices of essential commodities.

The common perception of the BJP to be a party of traders, hoarders and black marketers turned into belief once it assumed reins at the Centre. Vegetables, pulses, edible oils -all had done the vanishing trick. Onions had come to symbolise the rise in prices. Normally sold at Rs 4-5 it was sold at Rs 60 in Delhi and there were reports of it being sold at Rs. 100 and 120 elsewhere. While cartoonists and columnists took a dig at the BJP asking it to change its election symbol from lotus to onions, it was onions that brought tears to the BJP. Bhairon Singh Shekawat tried to sprinkle salt over the wounds when he jocularly asked people to eat apples instead. This remark was to cost Shekawat and the BJP dearly.

While the BJP made a vain attempt to blame the weather gods and circumstances beyond its control for the rise in prices, the people saw through its game. They acknowledge that the unseasonal rains had caused damage. But they also knew that the government had failed to make alternative arrangements. They saw the government permitting exports, despite knowledge of a shortfall in production; not making imports when international prices were low; and finally no measures aimed at dehoarding and black-marketing were taken. The people did not buy the BJP theory. And they gave them a befitting reply, in a manner they thought fit.

Knowing it fully well that its government and its policies will come in for scrutiny during the election campaign, the BJP leadership sought to invoke a false "national pride" - jingoism. The nuclear tests at Pokhran, which reversed India's long standing nuclear policy; foreign policy of peace and non-alignment, was sought to be utilised for gaining political mileage. This had become one of the main highlights of the campaign issues of the BJP with the Prime Minister harping on this theme at every meeting he addressed. But the people saw through this game. Would not the BJP consider its rejection by the people as an outright rejection of its nuclear policy?

The BJP-led government should also realise that this defeat is a total rejection of its policies of liberalisation, which received a boost after its assumption of power at the Centre. Despite the hype of Swadeshi, the first budget of the BJP government saw huge concessions being doled out to corporate houses and multinationals. It announced disinvestment of major public sector undertakings including the Indian Airlines and entry of foreign companies in the insurance sector. Recently the government has decided to allow companies to buy back their shares. This would permit domestic and foreign promoters with a minority share holding to acquire a majority within a short span of time. Are not the election results a rejection of the BJP-led government's economic policies?

The past eight months of the BJP-led government at the Centre have seen a systematic attempt to smuggle in the RSS-Hindutva agenda in all possible spheres. The most glaring of these was effort to do it in the realm of education. At the recent education ministers' conference the BJP attempted to push through a paper prepared by a person from its front the Vidya Bharathi. This met with a stiff opposition not only from the secular parties but even some of its own allies. Faced with such opposition the government was forced to withdraw the paper.

During these eight months the people also saw the BJP shamelessly defending its communal politics. That the BJP and its allied outfits have not given up their plans for the construction of the temple at Ayodhya is evident from the revelation of pre-fabricated material being assembled at various places in UP and Rajasthan. Minorities were hounded out from Mumbai allegedly for being Bangladeshis. The Sena-BJP government in Maharashtra contemptuously rejected the findings of the Sri Krishna Commission that indicted the Hindutva forces for the large-scale massacre of the minorities during the infamous Bombay riots in January 1993. Now it is the turn of the other minority community, it seems. During the past few months, a systematic attack has been launched against the Christian community in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and other places, especially in the BJP-ruled states. Their places of worship, scriptures and other articles are being torched, priests and worshippers beaten, missionaries looted and nuns raped. An entire community was held responsible for a girl eloping with a boy in a village in BJP ruled Gujarat. Nuns were raped in Jabua of Madhya Pradesh, not far away from the capital of the country, a convent was attacked and ransacked in Jhajjar village in Haryana. There is a pattern to these attacks. The entire Christian community is agitated at this turn of events. Would not the BJP consider its outright rejection as disapproval of its chauvinistic Hindutva platform?

Last but not least it is the promise of providing a "stable" government that has received a severe beating. Its stability plank has been torn to shreds. It has proved itself to be most destabilising factor in Indian politics.

By tried to pass on the onus to its state units by stating that it was anti- incumbency factor that led to its defeat, on the one hand it is pulling up its state leadership for its ineptitude while on the other hand it is admitting that there was disillusionment with the policies pursued by its governments in the state. Given the fact that it ruled Rajasthan for 8 years and Delhi for 5, the people in these states have had much better experience of the BJP rule than in the rest of the country. Combined with this was its 8-month of misgovernance at the Centre. The BJP may well understand that this is not the rejection of its state governments alone but its rule at the Centre as well.

The high stakes that it had pitched in saw the importance that the BJP attached to these elections - the first time it had to go back to the people after it came to power at the Centre -. The BJP top brass immersed itself in campaigning with the Prime Minister leading the front. Vajpayee even addressed street corner meetings in Delhi. It displeased its allies by turning down their claims. But all these efforts proved to be of no avail. Even its gamble of changing the Delhi Chief Minister on the eve of the elections, did not yield the desired result. The people saw through their trick and delivered it a stunning blow.

However much the BJP may try to downplay the significance of this verdict of the people, its repercussions will be felt in the coming days.

The jubilation in the Congress camp is not misplaced given the fact that it has received the much-needed shot in the arm. It is not as much a reaffirmation of faith in the Congress as much as it is a rejection of the BJP - this is the verdict - and this must be clear. The Congress was rejected not so long ago for its perusal of the same economic polices and its compromise with communal forces. It continues to pledge by the same economic policies. It is the absence of an alternative as opposed to both these parties that saw the people voting for the Congress in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi. If affirmation in the Congress were the reason, the Congress should not have faced defeat in Mizoram.

Disregarding the verdict of the people the BJP government has reiterated its resolve to bring forth the Insurance Regulatory Bill in the current session of parliament. The Finance Minister has also made it clear that the outcome of the elections will have no bearing on the economic policies being pursued. Differences have emerged within the BJP itself on the Insurance Regulatory Bill with a Cabinet minister voicing her opposition in public. The BMS the trade union wing of the RSS is opposing many economic policy initiatives of the BJP led government.