Karnataka Lost, New Target Tamil Nadu...And How !

 BY R.K.MISRA

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, goes an old saying. This, however, is about those who remember the past and are  still determined to repeat it.

Bhartiya Janata Party seems to have opted against learning from the kick in Karnataka and decided to persist with a  majoritarian menu to salivate Hindutva-prone tastebuds in the ensuing elections to five states due this year. Ahead of the big fight  Lok Sabha elections of 2024, polls will be held in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram.

 Coming events tend to cast their shadows  ahead, but past events also leave their impress behind. While BJP politics under Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be  a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma for most, those who have been following him from his RSS days find it relatively easy to decipher. The bulk of his decision making is an extension of this period including his record 12 year plus stint as chief minister of Gujarat. The state still remains his laboratory for national political experiments.

Take the case of the sudden spurt in interest of both the Centre and the Gujarat government in celebrating the ancient bond  between Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. A ten- day Saurashtra Sangamam programme was held in April wherein over 3000 people of Gujarati origin were  brought to Somnath by a special train and were taken around the state. Part of the ‘Ek Bharat, Shrestha Bharat’ initiative of the union ministry of culture and education in concert with the Gujarat government ,It was inaugurated in the presence of Union Defence minister Rajnath Singh at Somnath. Prime Minister Modi also remained a looming presence ,dwelling on the importance of the ties.

The historical narrative woven into the event was that when Mohammed Ghazni raided the Kathiawar neighbourhood and looted the Somnath temple,  people had fled including to South India. They first settled down around Madurai  and took to weaving ,gradually fanning out all over Tamil Nadu over four centuries. It is claimed  that there are at least 12 lakh  people of Saurashtra origins who have made it their home. This, apparently, is an effort to link them to their roots.

Earlier, in 2022  a month long Kashi Tamil Sangamam was organized by the Union  ministry to similarly ‘rediscover and reaffirm’ the age old links between Tamil Nadu and Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of the PM. Interestingly the  historic Sengol(Tamil for sceptre) recently installed besides the Speaker’s seat in the new Parliament building inaugurated by the PM was reportedly presented by a group of Adheenam  priests from Chennai ahead of the event says a published report. The same Sengol had been handed over to India’s first Prime Minister more than 75 years ago on the eve of the country’s Independence by the deputy chief priest of a Shaivite mutt located in present day Tamil Nadu.

Besides the fact that the symbol of India’s secular democracy, it’s new Parliament building has a religious mooring-symbol, the sequence of events narrated here clearly points to Modi having  set his long and short term sights on this southern state. Elections in Tamil Nadu fall due in 2026,three years from now but the state accounts for 39 seats in the Lok Sabha elections due next year. Instant proof came from Home Minister Amit Shah at a public meeting in Vellore on June 11 where he sought 25 Lok Sabha seats in the NDA kitty from Tamil Nadu as ‘return’ for installing the  Sengol in Parliament .

For a party perennially in election mode and in unending search of potent props, a steady stream of religious leaders are vending their wares around. The latest among them to organize a string  of high profile  mass congregations in Gujarat  is Bagehswar Dham’s Dhirendra Shastri from Madhya Pradesh. The controversial self-styled Godman had a string of ‘divine durbars’ in Rajkot, Surat though rains interrupted his plans in Ahmedabad. Published reports of his discourses saw  frequent forays into non-religious territories and the more than normal efforts to collect  people for the gatherings indicated political intent. In Surat he was quoted as saying that he could turn Pakistan into a Hindu nation. ”The day the people of Gujarat become united like this, not only India but we will also make Pakistan a Hindu nation, were his exact words..

Former Gujarat chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela was openly critical of  Shastri accusing him of being a marketing tool for the BJP and indulging in politics under the guise of religion. The MP government had last month granted Y-category security to the Godman and had urged other states he was visiting to do likewise.

Films have also now been sucked into the vortex of poll-propaganda usage and interested groups had organized free shows of the controversial film “Kerala Files’ in Gujarat. In fact  several BJP legislators in Gujarat had demanded tax-exemption in the  state for the controversial film ‘Kerala Files’. The film was exempted from taxes in BJP-ruled states like Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh but not in non-BJP ones. Polarisation, political or otherwise, inevitably leads to fish-finger like fragmentation.

On May 27, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) supported Gujarat Janjati Suraksha Manch moved to stir the pot with a rally in Ahmedabad, seeking delisting of tribals-who have converted to another religion or do not believe in idol worship-from the reserved scheduled tribe category.

Interestingly, among the speakers was a sitting judicial officer from Madhya Pradesh. The Judicial Officer, speaking at the event  said ”tribals who have converted to Islam or Christianity are depriving the children of other tribals from accessing benefits of reservation. “Either you can be a Christian or muslim or you can be a scheduled tribe”. Is it so?  

This was published in the editions dated June 13,2023.

http://epaper.lokmat.com/lokmattimes/main-editions/Nagpur%20Main/2023-06-13/6

http://odishapostepaper.com/edition/4534/orissapost/page/9