In this season of elections, you have heard and read many slogans—which one will you choose?
Actually, there’s little to choose between them: All of them seek to consolidate the Hindu or the Muslim, the caste, class or creed vote behind a particular political party.
In much of the news media, and especially across television news and social media, the communal pitch makes the headlines most frequently. ‘Vote Jihad’ and ‘Dharam Yudh’ have been trending on both since 9 November, when Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister and BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis used the terms to attack AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi.
Is this the main issue facing the electorate in Maharashtra and Jharkhand or does TV news deliberately highlight it? Hard to judge.
What’s true is that you can’t get away from it. As we saw in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, communalism is the ‘toolkit’ of the poll campaigns in the Maharashtra Assembly elections and the Uttar Pradesh by-polls.
And so, on to the slogans:
First, there’s ‘Batenge toh Katenge’, and if you don’t fancy that, how about the other way around— ‘Katenge toh Batenge’? The former is Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s clarion call since the Lok Sabha results, where the BJP performed well below expectations.
The Indian Express commented on it this week: “In the wake of the Lok Sabha poll results, Adityanath appears to have increasingly hardened his Hindutva stance…The CM’s “Batenge to katenge” slogan has gained currency and has been endorsed by the RSS too.’’
The slogan generated controversy—and even TV news debates.
By the way, a variation of this is making the rounds: ‘Na Batenge na Katenge’? or, ‘Na Katenge na Batenge’. Uff, really?
Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav then coined his own motto: ‘Judenge to Jeetenge’.BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan liked it enough to use it during the Jharkhand Assembly poll campaign but with a little personal touch: ‘Judenge to Jeetenge, Bhikrenge to Barbaad ho Jayenge’.
Moving on to a different theme, how do you feel about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s favourite campaign catchphrase, ‘Ek Hain toh Safe Hain’? The BJP likes it a lot, so much so that this week, it has used the slogan in advertisements across the front page of newspapers in Maharashtra, which will vote to elect a new assembly on 20 November. The party is banking on what the slogan promotes—unity and oneness—to help see it safely home to power in the state.
Dharma yudh and vote jihad
The slogan slugfest could have remained simply a ‘poster war’, as several Hindi news channels called it, if not for the constant fuel added by politicians and parts of the news media.
Sunday saw the release of the BJP manifesto for Maharashtra—several news channels highlighted the promise of an anti-conversion law.
On Monday, terms like ‘dharam yudh’ and ‘vote jihad’ hit the headlines on Hindi news channels, after Fadnavis had this to say during a campaign speech: “I request you all that if they are coming here and sloganeering for vote jihad, then we can wage a religious war—dharma yudh.” Owaisi was all over the place condemning Fadnavis for it. It was framed as ‘Fadnavis v/s Owaisi’ (Times Now Navbharat) across channels, prime time debates on Republic TV tackling topics like ‘Hindu unity v/s divisive pitch’.
Zee News took the religious theme to another level by reporting that one Islamic cleric, Tauqeer Raza, had said Muslims would lay siege to Delhi and take to the streets, at a meeting in Jaipur on 10 November—‘Maulanas are active, hyperactive…’ said a Zee News anchor. He then proceeded to debate Raza’s comments on the show titled Tal Thok Ke.
Then there was PM Modi. In his campaign speeches, he promised, “Ek hai to safe hai” and spoke about ‘anti-nationals’, ‘tukde tukde’ gangs (remember them?), and ‘divisive forces’. NDTV 24×7 said the BJP was working toward ‘Hindu consolidation’ – “…the PM is for caste unity”.
On Tuesday afternoon, the news channels gave the microphone to Yogi Adityanath and emphasised his comments against Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, who had criticised the CM for wearing saffron robes and his politics. They headlined the most communal part of his comments— Adityanath reminding Kharge how “Hyderabad Nizam’s Razakars burned down his village in 1948, killing his mother and sister.’’ Times Now Navbharat did an entire show on Razakars on Wednesday.
And thus, it went on and on—Hindu Muslim, Muslim-Hindu.
Only religious campaign
There’s nothing new in any of this—each time an election comes around, the political playbook goes to communal issues.
There are many other subjects that come up during the campaign, many of which are captured by the news media in their ground reporting. On News18 India, people in Jalna, Maharashtra, spoke about water. On Aaj Tak’s ‘Helicopter Shot’, the public spoke of farming issues, among others.
However, the big picture is a ‘dharma yudh’. The surprise is that this openly religious campaign hasn’t been stopped by the Election Commission of India.
The author tweets @shailajabajpai. Views are personal.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)