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
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