BJP has almost sealed victory in Karnataka state assembly election, giving a thumping beating to the Congress party. With the vitory in Karnataka the right wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has found a foothold in South India. Vidya Bhushan Rawat analyses the reasons for the BJP victory and what lies ahead for India
As a nation these are defining moments. There is no doubt of fact that money, mafia and media is playing its own role. The Sensex is already celebrating. People celebrated yesterday with Petrol hike but then that has never been the issue when people are happy with Gaay, Gobar, Ganga. It look that Indian voters are more keen on Jinnah, Pakistan and Janakpur. Why should any government perform when the people are not keen on performance.
And it would be good we stop glorifying Lingayats are ‘progressive’ community just because some of them wanted to have a ‘separate’ religion. Just as I posted a few days back, based on a senior friend’s articulation that with Siddharammaiah at helm the two upper caste communities might join hand to defeat him. Perhaps Voklingas and Lingayats joined hand to defeat him. That apart, Modi and Amit Shah will continue to speak the language they have been speaking. India is thoroughly communalized and a few of those who have been speaking against this will only be further marginalised and isolated.
We will have more Jinnah and Pakistan for 2019. Be prepared, Jinnah and Pakistan will be more active in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. There is no point discussing all this and dont feel that UP and Bihar have gone out of their hand. You have built no counter narratives. The Whatsapp university of Sangh Parivar is much more powerful than any other narrative. The future India will come from it. India slowly inching towards becoming Hindustan.
Let Kanndigas celebrate their victory over Pakistan. It was good that Nawaz Sharief spoke after the election otherwise, it would have been a clean sweep. But who knows, Mia Saheb will come handy for Modi ji in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Forget about farmers death or economy, just keep on chanting the mantras. Mangalore will replace Bangalore in the most ‘famous’ city of India.
Democracy ultimately provide way to totalitarian regimes. India was looking towards Karnataka and it has really returned the gift. It reflected how as a democracy we have not yet matured and caste, divisions at different level will play a big game. At the end of day politicians are too short sighted and the end result is that we will see more rhetoric and promotions through media than work at the ground.
Congress attempted to counter the RSS propaganda through a wonderful social media team but it is equally important for the party to be seen as the party of the marginalised. The counter political propaganda based on ‘developmental’ work will not suffice as RSS is raising cultural questions and they need to be countered. Not merely by trying to better Hindu but attempt should be made to look as a modern democratic party. Congress must persist with it. Secondly, it is important for the party to weave local alliances, involved the social movements locally and develop a long term strategy for the same.
Congress need to be more aggressive but it is unable to counter RSS’s cultural propaganda. It need strong local leaders but it is also a fact that Congress in Karnataka depended too much on Siddharammaiah and once in power political class become too arrogant. I never believe in Devegowda but it is a fact that Siddharammaiah’s attempt to divide Lingayat vote actually boomeranged as the whisper campaign might have made this believe that it is an attempt to divide the Hindus. Both Lingayat and Vokalingas joined hand to defeat the Congress. Ofcourse, the Pakistan, Muslim and other cards too were played. Somewhere, the Congress failed to counter these.
Congress still need to seal long term strategic alliance with BSP beyond Uttar Pradesh because the party had pan India influence even if they are unable to win. Secondly, I have said it many times, at the campaign level too, parties need to jointly campaign. Bring some leaders from North to South who matter or South to north but as long as Congress keep on believing in return of ‘faithful’ brahmins, it wont succeed. It has not made any sincere effort to reach other communities and develop their leaders locally.
Yes, Rahul Gandhi did very hard work and is honest politician but he need a solid team too. That apart, he need to have a team to counter RSS propaganda on the ground. Rahul himself no need to speak on those things regularly but yes he must make efforts to reach out to social movement and smaller political parties. That will help. Make Congress a platform as it was during the independent movement of diverse communities and minorities too.
And finally, it is time to speak up against EVM and Electoral System. We have persistently suggested that the First Past the Post system is detrimental to the health of the country as it create a villain and use the division of votes to come to power. Money power is easily used. Congress and BJP have identical vote share yet vast difference in seat won. Similar thing happened in Tripura where CPM and BJP have almost identical vote share but huge gap in the seat won. We know well that Congress used to benefit from this system in the past but now situation has alarmingly gone worst as more money power is visible and media virtually purchased, it need to be a long term strategy for the civil society and political parties to raise this issue and campaign for it. India need a Proportionate Electorate System to provide representation to its diverse communities and regions.
Remember all the politicians and political parties, nothing can stop BJP and its ascendancy as a dictatorial regime unless you have developed strong cultural arm of your organisations with strong counter cultural narrative to what the Sangh Parivar has been injecting to our masses. The battle is big but be prepared. the biggest victim of the entire Hindu Rashtra would be the marginalised though some of their leaders would be shining in the entire Sangh scheme of things but then we need to congratulate them for being ‘committed’ to their ideology which those fighting against them have not shown at any level. Karnataka result is a warning that alliance building among political parties must happen at cultural level too, at the ideological front too as short sighted alliance for political compulsion are bound to fail. Will our political parties show some magnanimity and assure that they can fight 2019 against the onslaught and politics of hatred unleashed by brahmanical corporate Hindutva?.
Vidya Bhushan Rawat is a social and human rights activist. He blogs at www.manukhsi.blogspot.com twitter @freetohumanity Email: [email protected]
