Syed Khalique Ahmed
NEW DELHI—RSS mouthpiece Organiser has commented that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s charisma and Hindutva are not enough to win state elections without a strong regional leadership.
The weekly newspaper that is held in high esteem among Hindutva audience, has made the criticism in its May 28 editorial titled “Karnataka Results: Opportune time for introspection”.
The editorial is an in-depth analysis of the results of the Karnataka assembly polls in which BJP suffered a severe drubbing at the hands of the Congress despite PM Modi campaigning extensively for the party and its candidates.
Written by weekly’s editor Prafulla Ketkar, the editorial discusses the reasons for BJP’s electoral loss in Karnataka and the factors that brought Congress to power in this South Indian state on its own strength.
The editorial points out that “Prime Minister Modi’s charisma and Hindutva as an ideological glue would not be sufficient” to win a state election “without a strong leadership and effective delivery at the regional level.”
“The positive factors, ideology and leadership, are genuine assets for the BJP when the State-level governance is operational,” the editorial adds further.
The magazine has also carried a three-page article discussing in details the reasons as to “Why BJP Lost Karnataka Elections?”
The editorial as well as the article is a must read for all those who want to know the latest political churning going on within the larger political Hindutva family and why BJP, post-Karnataka elections, is resorting to much harder Hindutva agenda which is visible through continuous anti-Muslim rallies and hate speeches in Maharashtra and some other states ahead of the 2024 general elections which BJP wants to win at all costs to complete the implementation of its political and ideological agenda that began after it acquired power at the Centre in May 2014.
PM Modi had to defend corruption charges
The editorial says that it is “for the first time since Prime Minister Modi took the reins at the Centre, the BJP had to defend the corruption charges in an assembly election.” The Karnataka BJP government was described as 40 percent commission government by Congress that became viral on social media bringing a bad name to the state government.
The editorial points out that BJP failed to garner support of the voters by highlighting the achievements of the central government schemes (because the state government had no development project of its own to show to the people) while Congress focused its election campaign at the local level that mobilized the voters in favour of the opposition party.
Expresses concern over caste mobilisation, religious identities in elections
It expresses concern over “blatant caste-based mobilization” and using “linguistic and religious identities” in Karnataka elections to garner votes. However, Ketkar has not clarified whether it is Congress and Janata Dal-Secular that indulged into caste mobilization and used religious and linguistic identities for elections, or it is BJP that resorted to such tactics. Media had extensively reported about leaders of all political parties – including top BJP leaders – visiting mutts and religious leaders in an apparent bid to seek their support for their respective parties.
Muslims, Christians support to Congress is dangerous
Ketkar says that the demand of Muslim leaders before the Congress leadership in exchange for political support in elections and the way the Church came out to ensure victory for the Congress are rather “scary” or frightening. However, the editorial is silent about BJP leaders seeking votes on religious issues like Ram Mandir and other emotional and communal issues. Is this not scary or dangerous as it pits one community against the other and poisons the peaceful atmosphere making life difficult for the minorities? One must admit that this very political strategy, which is the USP (unique selling point) of BJP ever since it came into existence, has won political power for it through communal polarization. But the Karnataka elections have proved that communal polarization is a double-edged sword. While it helped BJP rise the political ladder till now, Karnataka results have shown that this strategy is now having negative effect on the party as the people of Karnataka rejected BJP because it failed to carry out development in the state. And editorial itself admits it. People seem to have now understood the BJP’s political game of communal polarization and therefore, dumped it because it failed on development front.
Don’t allow external powers to meddle in elections & internal affairs
The editorial concludes by saying that “neither the political parties nor the voters or social groups should be allowed to use the election process or outcomes to target national unity and integrity and give the meddling licence to the external powers in our internal affairs.” However, Ketkar has not made it clear if the “external powers” meddled into the Karnataka elections. And if yes, then which “external force” meddled into it. He should have identified the external forces who have meddled into elections or any other internal affair because it is a very serious allegation. He has also not explained how the result of Karnataka elections would harm national unity and integrity. Does he mean that Muslims and Christians who politically supported Congress party to ensure victory for the Opposition are external powers? Are they not Indian citizens? Does he mean to disenfranchise Muslims and Christians? Ketkar must explain it for his own audience as well as for the benefit of others because the innuendo or the oblique reference to “external powers” used in the article is very alarming.
Why BJP lost Karnataka elections?
In a comprehensive analysis, the article titled “Why BJP lost Karnataka elections” points out that BJP’s inability to hand over the state leadership to a leader with mass contact and lack of the Karnataka BJP government to undertake any major development project are factors responsible for people to reject BJP in elections. It says that party’s choice of giving state leadership to Bommai who is not a mass leader, in place of Yediyurappa, a crowd puller, was a wrong decision and it greatly affected the elections results for the party.
Against it, Congress developed a strong local leadership to challenge BJP and raised local issues like Nandini vs Amul and “40 percent commission” issue against the state BJP government that influenced the voters. The article candidly admits that as neither Yediyurappa nor Bommai started any major development project or schemes during their stint, BJP state and central leaders had the only option of highlighting the implementation of central government schemes and were silent about state government achievements. And hence, they failed to influence voters in favour of the party.
“BJP Karnataka not only failed in development but also failed in taking a firm stand on contentious issues such as hijab, azaan (Muslim call to prayers) and killing of BJP leaders. This not only depressed the cadres but did not inspire confidence in Hindu voters in general,” says the article. Does this mean that BJP government should have curtailed the cultural and religious freedom of Muslims in a more severe manner by resorting to unconstitutional means? Hijab and Azaan are not disputable subjects but an integral part of the Muslim culture and religion the world over. The author’s indirect advice that the state BJP government should have dealt more firmly on these issues is highly disappointing and threatening.
