BJP Back to mischief: From development talk to Hindutva
A. The BJP is trying to make people agitate about something they had happily left for the Supreme Court to decide. People are being assured “temple and development can go hand in hand.”
B. Finally, the resort to Hindutva is contrary to Modi’s statesman-like call made at a rally in Lucknow asking people to rise above caste and religion.
C. This was on the day the Supreme Court ruled that politicians cannot use religion or caste to appeal for votes. And now this manifesto. What a climbdown!
Posted at: Jan 31, 2017, 1:05 AM; last updated: Jan 31, 2017, 1:05 AM (IST)
1. Back to mischief: From development talk to Hindutva
2. Three conclusions can be drawn from the BJP’s back-to-Hindutva manifesto released on Saturday. First, the party leadership seems no longer confident of facing the Uttar Pradesh electorate with a development agenda.
3. Prime Minister Modi’s development talk appears distant and unexciting when compared with that of the local boy, Akhilesh Yadav, particularly after the strengthening of his hold on the Samajwadi Party and purge of some “undesirables”.
4. His projection as a Vikas Purush coupled with the coming together of the Samajwadi Party and the Congress have apparently unnerved the BJP and forced a rethink in its election strategy.
5. The party has returned to a Hindutva-centric agenda which is evident from the references to Ram temple, triple talaq and the alleged migration from Kairana in western UP.
6. Kairana is remembered but Muzaffarnagar is not. Initially the BJP had taken a moral high ground deploring the caste play in UP while seeking votes in the name of development. The larger goal in reviving these dormant issues is to help the party shed its pro-upper-caste image and embrace lower castes through a carefully crafted narrative of polarisation.
7. For bridging the divide within it is important to identify and attack the “outsider”. The strategy worked in 2014 and a repeat performance is hoped for
8. The BJP is trying to make people agitate about something they had happily left for the Supreme Court to decide. People are being assured “temple and development can go hand in hand.”
9. Secondly, the invocation of Hindutva is an admission on the part of the BJP leadership that the two tactics used in the initial phase of electioneering — surgical strikes and demonetisation — have not played out as expected.
10. All the dust kicked up by the “surgical strike” rhetoric has settled down. It has ceased to arouse passions or patriotism.
11. The note ban too is not without its victims and critics.
12. Finally, the resort to Hindutva is contrary to Modi’s statesman-like call made at a rally in Lucknow asking people to rise above caste and religion.
13. This was on the day the Supreme Court ruled that politicians cannot use religion or caste to appeal for votes.
14. And now this manifesto. What a climbdown!
Courtesy by: The Tribune, VOICE OF THE PEOPLE, CHANDIGARH
Forwarded by:
Balbir Singh Sooch-Sikh Vichar Manch
http://www.sikhvicharmanch.com/
https://www.facebook.com/balbir.singh.355