Bharat Bhushan: BJP losing the narrative in UP
NB: That citizens of UP are disgusted with the ruthless, cruel and incompetent BJP regime was to be expected. Equally expected is the desperate effort of this regime to stoke up communal animus and hatred. That senior ministers of the Indian Union should try and divide Indian citizens is truly an abomination, but this is what we have become used to. This is their one and only political strategy: government by means of hate and intimidation.
People of Uttar Pradesh and India in general should beware of this habit of the Sangh Parivar. They will use their governmental power to start trouble, because they are completely bankrupt, morally and intellectually. They worship only money and power. Indian citizens should do their best to uphold peace and harmony between people of different faiths. They should form Mohalla Aman Committees to prevent violence and commotion. We should remember the 2015 Bihar election, when mischief makers tried to stir up communal riots. Decent people of different communities successfully prevented this from happening.
Let us do our best to save our democracy by peacefully exercising our right to vote. Jai Hind. DS
In election-going Uttar Pradesh, candidates and campaigners of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are being chased away by the people and their campaign vehicles attacked. These unprecedented incidents are not limited to Western Uttar Pradesh, the area most impacted by the farmers’ agitation. In Eastern UP, Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya was heckled in his home borough of Sirathu in Kaushambi district. Women were seen slamming doors on him and he faced hostile sloganeering.
The video of a BJP
campaigner, allegedly a sitting legislator in UP, threatening the people
stoning his car with a pistol, has gone viral. Union Minister Smriti Irani was
heckled in her parliamentary constituency of Amethi, UP Sugarcane Minister,
Suresh Rana, was abused by farmers in his home constituency Shamli, legislator
Suresh Pasi from Amethi faced an irate mob, the BJP’s campaign carcade was
attacked and some windscreens broken in Baghpat, sitting BJP MLA Pooran Prakash
was chased away by the locals in Mathura’s Baldev constituency and the cars of
BJP canvassers in Meerut stoned.
Similar incidents have
been witnessed in Vrindavan, Sivalkhas (Meerut district), Khatauli, Chaprauli,
Sambhal and Bulandshahar. In the face of local anger, Devendra Singh Lodi,
sitting legislator from Syana constituency in Bulandshahar issued a video
appeal to his constituents saying, “… for all the mistakes I have
committed up to now, I seek your forgiveness by bowing my head at your
venerable feet. I promise not to commit such mistakes in the future."
Political observers
believe that instances of taking down BJP candidates in Western UP could have a
copycat effect in other parts of the state, turning into a free for all that
would damage the electoral prospects of the party.
There are signs of
panic in the party. Union Home Minister of India Amit Shah had to station
himself in Kairana constituency directing door-to-door campaigning -- a
constituency where he has made considerable effort to communalise the
out-migration of some Hindu families. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not
addressed a single rally, real or virtual, in the three weeks since he
abandoned the Firozepur rally. One reason for abandoning it, it is said was the
dismal attendance at Firozepur. The banning of road-shows and rallies by the
Election Commission of India till January 31 citing the Covid
pandemic may have given the BJP’s chief campaigner some much needed respite.
Meanwhile, youth
protests which started in Patna against alleged irregularities in the Railway
Recruitment Board – Non-Technical Popular Categories (RRB-NTPC) examination
have spilled over to UP. In Prayagraj, after protesting students tried to stop
a train, the UP police resorted to baton-charging and raided hostels and lodges
where they suspected some protesters were hiding. After political parties
backed the students “protesting unemployment”, the Union Railway Ministry has
stayed new exams of NTPC categories and Level 1 of the RRB. A committee will
hold discussions with the previous examinees and submit a report to the
ministry. Whether this will be sufficient to contain the despondency of the
student protesters, remains to be seen.
What is clear,
however, is that BJP seems to have lost the narrative in UP. While its campaigners,
including Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, are
campaigning to polarise the voters along religious lines, they have not met
with much success. Going by the viral videos posted on social media the
protests against BJP candidates in Western UP constituencies, are about lack of
“vikas” (development) and jobs. Clearly, the millions of tax-payers’ money that
the Yogi government has spent on propaganda about its developmental efforts has
benefited only the media recipients of his largesse. There seem to be few
takers for UP Minister Siddarthnath Singh’s claim that the Yogi government had
created 2.64 crore jobs in 4.5 years. Sceptics scoff that this figure even
exceeds the less than 2 crore jobs created in the entire country under Prime
Minister Modi.
India’s former Chief
Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu in a tweet presented a more realistic picture:
“In Uttar Pradesh between 2016 & 2021 working age population rose 146.9
mill(ion) to 169.2 mill(ion) & number of people with jobs fell from 56.4
mill(ion) to 55.8 mill(ion). Much of this loss had occurred before the
pandemic--a result of policy focus being on grand projects rather than human
welfare.”
Youngsters stare at a
bleak future apprehensive of going past the age of qualifying for government
jobs. They were at one point the main supporters Prime Minister Modi because of
his promise of job creation. UP voters are also angry because of price rise,
falling incomes exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the menace of stray cattle
exacerbated by the government’s restrictions on the cattle trade and the
non-payment of sugarcane dues from previous harvests. These are economic issues
are neutral across caste, community and religion.
While the main
Opposition, Samajwadi Party and Rashtirya Lok Dal, are busy converting the
election into a caste elections, the BJP is trying to draw this discontent into
a communal discourse. It has not been successful in doing so up to now in
because of the acuteness of economic woes. If there is negative voting in UP,
it is the SP-RLD alliance that would be the main gainer despite its caste-based
approach. However, the alliance, it is understood, are wary of communal
occurrences that might yet polarise the UP election, pushing livelihood issues
to the background. Even if such an incident were to take place in some other
state it might be played to the BJP’s advantage in the UP campaign. Their fears
may rest on no more than the adeptness of the BJP to play the communal card in
every election.
https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/bjp-losing-the-narrative-in-up-1075155.html
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