New Delhi: As the Election Commission announced the schedule for assembly elections in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Puducherry, ThePrint’s Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta noted one of BJP’s most visible campaign strategies — co-opting regional cultural and historical icons — and how it might build on it, in episode 692 of Cut The Clutter.
The BJP created a strong combination of nationalism, religion, and an anti-corruption movement platform (the Lokpal movement) and turned it into an unbeatable proposition to the voter, Gupta noted.
Critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi say he has redefined Indian nationalism to Hindutva nationalism, while the supporters do not see any debate in it. However, a more nuanced understanding of this issue would be that Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have built a Hindutva version of cultural nationalism, he said.
“There are many other aspects of religion. To tie that into your nationalism or to tie that into your sense of identity is also a political craft”, he said.
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Adopting cultural icons
In India, there are multiple denominators of identity that also create small vote banks. This is how many community-based political parties have come into being in India, Gupta said.
The BJP has tried to reach out to the cultural icons of each of these communities and has tried to adopt them and take them away from these smaller parties. “As the campaign goes on, this will be seen happening in all four poll-bound states”, he said.
To underline this point, Gupta noted how BJP leaders met actors Prosenjit Chatterjee and Mithun Chakraborty in an attempt to reach out to West Bengal’s cultural icons. Union minister Prakash Javadekar also held a meeting of Bengali intellectuals, which was also attended by personalities from the local film industry.
In his speeches, PM Modi has also been talking about the house of iconic novelist and poet Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, which is lying in a dilapidated condition. He claimed this was due to the negligence of CM Mamata Banerjee’s government. Similarly, BJP has co-opted B.C. Roy, former Congress leader.
The party has been claiming that it will restore the glory of Bengal.
“This is the cleverness of the BJP that where they do not have their own icons, they are happy to co-opt leaders and icons from other parties, as long they are not one of the Gandhis,” said Gupta.
In other states
During the PM’s Coimbatore rally, hoardings and cutouts of AIADMK founder M.G. Ramachandran and K. Kamaraj, known as ‘pakka Congressman’, were found.
However, the BJP is reasoning that after the split in Congress in 1969, Kamaraj and Raja ji joined hands with the anti-Indira Gandhi coalition. The party also similarly reached out to E. Sreedharan in Kerala, who joined the BJP at the age of 89, said Gupta.
If we look at Uttar Pradesh, a particular community called Rajbhars forms over 18 per cent of the voters in western UP. The BJP had earlier brought them into the tent by signing up a coalition with Om Prakash Rajbhar, the head of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party. His party is now signed up with Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM. But the BJP is not letting go of the Rajbhar voters.
The PM recently laid the foundation stone of a tourist circuit around Maharaja Suheldev’s history, a museum, and promised a medical college in his name in Bahraich. Anil Rajbhar has been made a member of the Yogi Adityanath cabinet and Sakaldeep Rajbhar has been given a Rajya Sabha seat, Gupta said.
“So this tells you once again that this is a party that is thinking deep and trying to target these votes by co-opting the cultural icons of the community,” he said.
However, it is not just the BJP that does it. Other parties have tried it as well. For example, Mayawati has removed her party chief in UP and has replaced him with Bhim Rajbhar, because in a split election like Uttar Pradesh, every small percentage of votes matter, Gupta concluded.
Watch the full CTC episode here:
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Despite the caste differences, Muslims from Bengal, UP, Bjihar, MP, Kerala, Kashmir embraced Islamic supremacy and made Pakistan!!
Dr. Ambdekar had recommended total exchange of population berteen Islamic Pakistan & Hindu India!! Quasi communist, comgresss loyal to it’s Mulla roots rejected the great Dr. Amedkar!! They went on to erase and hide Hindu history, Hindu culture, religioys & national icons!!
American president swears on Bible & Germany has a Christian party in power!!
So what M. Gupta, SICK-ULAR expert, expecting India & BJP to represent & embrace: Hindu India, Christian Germany or Islamic Pakistan/Bangladesh??!!
You make it sound like it’s the BJP’s fault that it is run by smart individuals and Congress & other parties in opposition by clueless amateurs. This is like faulting a team because it wins.
C’mon, surely you can do better Mr. Gupta.