The I.N.D.I.A alliance are holding their meetings periodically but they are unable to catch the bull by its horns and hence coming up with 'wrong issues' time and again.
In Bengaluru meeting, they replaced the name UPA by I.N.D.I.A. The result was unexpected.
The BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi now have set their agenda on Bharat. This may not be anything dramatic; but Modi's core support base is already excited that they would 'get back' the name Bharat. That 'name' has a historical, traditional and more importantly evocative religious connotation.
It all sounds and appears good that 26 parties are together. But each constituent has own way to look at things.
At least three leaders Nitish Kumar Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee clearly harbour PM aspirations.
Of them, Trinamool Congress and AAP have a rancorous relationship with the Congress. This is an important factor to take on the BJP. In states like West Bengal for Mamata Banerjee-led party has serious issues with the Congress party and its mass leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. In Punjab, Delhi and Gujarat, the AAP's strengths and growth journey are directly proportional to the decline of the Congress.
Lately, came up another crucial factor. The 'anti-Sanatan Dharma statement from DMK leader and Chief Minister M K Stalin's son. Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin said Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism's basis is like "dengue and malaria" and said that it should be 'eradicated' and not just be opposed. Such a statement has given a handy issue to the BJP and has left parties such as AAP nervous.
Even a well known minority(Muslim) pamper and appeaser the Trinamool Congress is not quite comfortable. The Congress party too would Hindu votes and knows it well that how much 'anti-Hindu' politics it had pursued in the past. Both AAp and the Congress do play up 'soft Hindutva' cards from time to time and at times have been able to hoodwink (read convince) the Hindu voters too.
But it is presumed a large number of Hindu voters by now understand the Congress party and also leaders like Mamata Banerjee (TMC chief) very well.
Rahul Gandhi's 'Shiv bhakti' and Mamata Banerjee's 'shandailya gotra' have not been able to win over or mislead the Common voters yet. And amid these pressing and challenging situations, came Junior Stalin's remarks. The DMK wants to 'galvanise' its traditional support base at a time when a BJP yatra in Tamil Nadu is reported to be quite a success.
But at the national level, the statement from Udhayanidhi Stalin has harmed the I.N.D.I.A combine. His dad M K Stalin has tried to do some small correction as part of damage control exercise. The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi telling his Cabinet colleagues days ago to defend Sanatana Dharma is a clear pointer that he is trying to derive political mileage out of the row".
M K Stalin also suggested that the Sanatana Dharma debate must be avoided. But this is a good issue for the BJP and hence it would make use of.
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| Kharge and DMK chief M K Stalin |
There is another eternally ambitious man in the opposition camp and he is the Maratha strongman, Sharad Pawar. Both age and health have not able to force him to even think of a retired life especially from electoral politics. So much irritating could be his grip over the party affairs and complicated more with his 'love for daughter Supriya Sule' that his nephew Ajit Pawar and a die-hard Sharad Pawar admirer Praful Patel have abandoned his camp.
In their own respective calculations, AAP and Shiv Sena (UBT) are now worried lot.
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi called Udhayanidhi "ignorant". "Anyone making derogatory comments against it (Sanatana Dharma) is ignorant of what it stands for".
Sanjay Raut, another leader of the Uddhav Thackeray-led party, said it was not right to attract the anger of the entire country.
"I am from Sanatana Dharma. I condemn and oppose such statements," AAP leader and MP Raghav Chadha said, adding, remarks by "small leaders" couldn't be seen as the official stand of the Opposition bloc INDIA.
Sena (UBT) chief Udhav Thackeray could be sitting in the Congress-led or Trinamool inspired camp. But he knows the value of Hindutva power base and the legacy associated with it. His hobnobbing with NCP stalwart Sharad Pawar and Sickular elements have forced an overwhelming section of his party led by Eknath Shinde join hands with the BJP.
Come what may, the I.N.D.I.A combine does not enjoy any chance of a great/grand show in Maharashtra.
Lotus blooms in an exhibition in Beijing, 2019
The socio-political ramifications are to be grasped in their entirety.
A silent social transformation is underway in contemporary India for last nine years if not more.
It may not be wrong to say that everything that is not popular among Hindus is scorned and opposed tooth and nail.
Citizens have come to associate themselves and others more and more with religion and language. Some Congress leaders in north east India, why so much talk about religiosity.
Why not, say Hindu voters and BJP leaders. After all, the Hindutva and Hindu rituals and cultures have got global respectability in last few years. And there is a clear Hindu assertion.
Prime Minister Modi and his party and administration have 'legitimized' the Hindu-Hindi-Hindustan political metaphor to such an extent that even a seasoned politician like Himanta Biswa Sarma, an ex Congressman, after becoming BJP chief minister of Assam, has turned more Hindu than those originally from the pro-Hindu BJP.
I know of Christian tribal leaders from the northeastern states joining the BJP and suddenly turning vegetarians, or at least giving up beef and pork eating — of course citing health grounds or the age factor.
In Kerala, even some communists are turning pro-Hindu in their lone stronghold of Kerala. There is no denying that Modi has changed the political discourse in India by successfully polarizing the electorate on the basis of religion.
Every political discussion is now viewed from the prism of the Hindu religion and he is so far immensely successful in that so far. Hindus have a common refrain, why not and if not now then when -- Modi is India's Prime Minister and there is already a Hindu 'temple going' Hindu PM in Britain.
Stop for a while, even in the US, an Indian origin young ambitious individual has surfaced by the name of Vivek Ramaswamy. He does represent a neo-confidence of the fast growing NRI power.
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