Bharat Bhushan - Sushant Singh Rajput: Catch-all issue for BJP-JDU poll campaign in Bihar

By Dilip -

The controversial death of a Bollywood actor could make him the face of elections to the Bihar state assembly in October–November this year. Another actor, Kangana Ranaut, is fast evolving into the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) star campaigner as well. Deceased actor Sushant Singh Rajput has been transformed into an icon of “Bihari pride” while Ranaut’s strident defence of Rajput as a ‘victim’ of corrupt Bollywood, is symbolically enhanced by referencing her role as a nationalist icon, the swashbuckling “Jhansi Ki Rani”. A recent demonstration in Patna staged a public recuperation of the legendary queen when a woman riding a white stallion proceeded to trample on photographs of Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Thackeray is being blamed by Ranaut for the Mumbai police dismissing Rajput’s death as suicide.

Why has this soap opera become necessary on the eve of the Bihar elections?

It may be because of the ruling dispensation’s fears of anti-incumbency and the greater role of social media for campaigning during the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the continuing importance of caste in Bihar’s politics – the BJP-JDU alliance may have acquired a catch-all issue for its election campaign.

It seems that the 15-year tenure of Nitish Kumar and 6 years of BJP rule at the Centre is not good enough to showcase for the Bihar polls. The alliance government’s record of handling the Covid-19 pandemic has been dismal. It remained surprisingly indifferent to the woes of returning migrant workers. Kumar’s government has also been unable to cope with devastation caused by floods in 16 out of 38 districts affecting 7.7 million people. He has largely remained confined to his residence during the pandemic. There is no option for once again projecting Nitish Kumar as “Sushashan Babu” (Mr. Good Governance). Nor can previous governments be blamed after his three terms as chief minister… read more:

https://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/sushant-singh-rajput-catch-all-issue-for-bjp-jdu-poll-campaign-in-bihar-120091400083_1.html

Shalini Langer: Give me Rhea’s fortitude any day // Tavleen Singh: Rhea and her family have been sacrificed at the altar of lynch mob journalism

 Hannah Ellis-Petersen: Actor's death fuels media frenzy in India

Rhea Chakraborty on 'media trial' after Bollywood star's death. By Geeta Pandey

Salute the spirit of resistance to tyranny - 'We can only help ourselves': women in Belarus take protests into their own hands

Popular uprising against Thailand's God-like monarchy

Sankarshan Thakur - Compliant and complicit: Indians are living the funereal carnival of their own dispossession


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