Friday, July 6, 2018

Shushma Swaraj is so right

Shushma Swaraj is so right. The fact that she was shamelessly trolled by her own party folks speaks volumes. The stance she took was right, as she was well within her rights to do so. The officer Vikash Mishra, just another BABU (Bureaucrats) who true his fraternity thinks high of himself went too far by going above and beyond his duty of issuing passport to pass judgement about an inter-community marriage. He forgot his duty by giving sermons to a Hindu-Muslim couple on something which is not any of his business.

But this is UP - a communally sensitive, surcharged, caste ridden volatile state with myriad fissures within its social fabric. What happened on the aftermath of the Passport officer's transfer out of Lucknow is purely political posturing, the symptom of a dreaded incurable disease these days fanning itself to an epidemic propertion. 

BJP thinks this belligerence will bring votes to its kitty. Not so fast. Now let's do some math and pragmatic analysis of the caste and communally polarized UP politics. It should be noted that even at

the zenith of Modi wave during 2014 elections 60% from the state didn't vote for BJP and not all of those 60% are Muslims. There is a sizable chunk of Hindus in UP who still don't vote for BJP as the party is considered as an upper caste party, viewed with suspicion by their lower caste counterparts.

How much the vocal and pugnacious Mishra Jees, Tripathy Jees, Pandey Jees may barge into limelight as protagonists of Hindutva, they are not numerous enough to carry BJP over the electoral fence. (It may be noted, a section of Brahmins still vote for the Congress party). So, when the rest 60 - 70% of voters align together BJP finds in tough and not surprisingly ends on the losing side as vindicated by recent byelections in the state.

It is somehow akin to the British who perfected the art of "Divide and Conquer" by taking advantage of various chasm of the contemporary society. A united front of more than 50% of Indian population could have made it difficult for the English to rule. But the Firangis managed to keep the subject divided to their advantage. If BJP can keep opponents at bay by diving them, a la British they can keep ruling for a prolonged period.

Under these circumstances by giving the bellicose Right wingers a free hand, BJP is clearly playing with fire. These firebrand Hanumans with a slight flame on their tail if let scott free can burn down BJP's own Lanka. The silence of most of the party's top brass is not only not golden, it speaks volumes.

It is quite apparent that BJP has been hijacked by the hardliners who instead of helping the party might hurt it on the long run - backfiring on the party big time. Don't be surprised if BJP's biggest shock comes from the electorally crucial state of UP in 2019.



No comments:

Post a Comment