Opposing for the wrong reasons

The nation has voted and so has Tamil Nadu. It is democratic right of the people to chose as they want. Also to be remembered is that because people have elected someone, the process hasn’t dry cleaned them. It is in this context that someone needs to view the decision of TN & Kerala voters in rejecting Modi and the rest of the nation overwhelmingly electing him for another term.

In most states Modi’d BJP has received over 50% of votes polled, clearly a vast majority trusts him. There are a few states (TN, Kerala and AP) where BJP hasn’t polled 10% of the voted. Does it mean that those who voted Modi are right and those who didn’t are wrong? Does it mean that those who rejected Modi are the intelligent one’s and the rest are idiots?

Here is my brief analysis and draw lessons.

1.     BJP as a right wing nationalist party: the masses don't care

I don’t believe that the masses in our country recognize being a Hindu and proudly wearing that identity as a right wing demonstration (the JNU intelligentsia may consider it right wing). For ages we have had Dravidian identity politics, no one calls it right wing. For ages we have had fairly vitriolic Muslim only parties and that isn’t considered right wing.

Our society has accepted that we can ask for votes based on religion and caste and there is no guilt about. Hindu politicians in the so called secular front had no problems wearing multiple religious identities and seeking vote. However, when BJP is openly seeking Hindu votes we are ofcourse shocked! This was a taboo step! You can ask all Yadav’s to vote for you, you can ask all Thevars to vote for you, you can ask all Kurmi’s to vote for you but you can’t ask all Hindus to vote for you!

I don’t think this resonates or makes sense to the common man. To him being Hindu and wearing that identity is not right wing.

2.     Don’t go overboard with social justice theme

Most of the country accepts the need for social justice. However, I think where the vast majority disagree is replacing past injustice with new injustice. The narrative I hear is please create opportunities for the disadvantaged, but make this a new pool of opportunity; don’t take away mine and give it to them.

All the parties based on social justice are guilty of one mistake, become the new oppressors (think BSP and SP In UP, RJD in Bihar). Such actions polarize the communities and when these social justice parties also speak for muslim’s, it is causing religious polarization and consolidation of the Hindu vote.

3.     Secularism is abused by parties

I was amused by the article in the western press that BJP is endangering secular fabric of India and quote the beef ban. I am only forced to wonder what does secular mean to these societies. Many of these societies have banned abortion on religious grounds. Church is a major influencer in US election. Hijab has been a contentious issue in many countries.

If we want to be secular, government must stay away from every religion. Leave religion to religious leaders and don’t interfere in any practice. Treat everyone using the same laws. This would mean that government give up control of temples or creating separate laws for a particular religion.

The common man unfortunately agrees with a Hindu party that they are wrongly called non secular, while the party openly having an alliance with muslim league is secular. The common man isn’t going to have an intellectual debate with you on this.

4.     Economic policies of the major parties are identical

The truth is that both Congress and BJP have an almost identical economic policy. Both have supported capitalist (and are equally guilty of crony capitalism). Both parties have very little divergence on economic philosophies. The economic roadmap is not very divergent. You could say the same of TRS, TDP, BJD etc.

Unfortunately, there are many parties with no clear economic agenda (TMC, SP, BSP, RJD etc) and are suffering

And the people of this country know it.

5.     Congress and some of the other parties have a history of corruption

The congress party has been ruling the country for the major portion of it’s existence as an independent nation. There are regional parties (DMK & AIADMK, Shiv Sena, NCP, TDP, etc. ) which have been in existence for a few decades. While as a whole the political community is perceived to be corrupt, Congress, NCP and Dravidian parties are very specifically perceived by public as systemizing corruption.

The parties may deny it, but the public realise that the wealth of Congress, NCP, DMK & AIADMK families have not been their ancestral inheritance and have a corruption taint to it. Public is more likely forgiving some of these corruptions as long as i) development happens ii) national security is not imperiled iii) you start accusing others.

So when Rahul Gandhi calls Chowkidhar Chor hai, he has no credibility and no one believes him. When DMK accuses other parties of corruption there is absolutely no reaction from public. On the other hand when Kejriwal makes corruption an election issue, people listen and will indeed vote for him.

6.     Black money is something the nation detest, but so do we detest paying taxes

Very clearly this nation hates black money and would love to get rid of it. However, there is a caveat, we want the black money of others to be confiscated! That explains the reason for demonetization failure and the public know it. They also realize that it is going to take a few generations for eliminating black money.

As a nation we hate to pay taxes and we will do anything to avoid taxes. That explains why this nation is so inconvenienced by GST. It hurts most of the nation and we will cry. However, we also know that death and taxes are two certainties of life on earth and we will live with the reality.

So when the opposition criticize GST, we agree with the pain but we will not condemn Modi. We know that the taxes can’t be rolled back and should not be either. We are willing to give Modi a chance to improve GST regime.

Similarly, we know that it is not easy to destroy black money and forgive the demonetization exercise. We are willing to give more time to Modi to fight corruption and black money.

Sorry folks, everyone knew that 15 lakhs will not come into your bank account and you know that Modi made a dumb promise. People have not factored in the 15 lakhs in their budgets.

7.     Tamil Nadu is being misguided by local politicians

BJP has no worthwhile presence in TN and the so called local leaders are jokers with no standing whatsoever. On the other hand the existing political outfits saw the writing on the wall and have been engaged on a concerted attempt to discredit Modi and BJP for the last 5 years. Both AIADMK (despite perceived closeness to BJP) and DMK have been publicly discrediting BJP through a process of misinformation and plain lies.

Take NEET for example. The entire state opposition has managed to paint this is a anti Tamil initiative of BJP, managing to hide the fact that NEET was mooted during UPA regime. The parties led the students on a garden path by giving a misleading promise of getting exemption from NEET.

Similarly, regarding Sterlite, it was converted to a BJP supported North Indian corporate vs Tamils, again creating hate against BJP. Sterlite in Tuticorin has existed long before BJP became a significant force in Indian politics and the Congress has much stronger ties with Ambani’s and Adani’s for significantly long time.

If the propaganda is to be believed BJP is behind Hindi imposition in Tamil Nadu. Indeed, BJP leadership is from Hindi heartland but Modi and Shah themselves are Gujju’s and they will not dare impose Hindi in Gujarat. However, a modern reality of a shrinking world (we talk these days of globalization) and India is that we are a connected country and TN needs to do business with Hindi speaking North. Spread of Hindi across the nation can’t be stopped and Tamils need to learn the language are feel out of place in the national growth. Again a great exercise at polarization.

Sadly, one of the biggest false propaganda is on religion, where the Hindu consolidation has been projected as a dangerous phenomenon and bough into by many. This has been led by Dravidian forces that call themselves atheist, while pandering to casteist, muslim and Christian groups. It is even more sad that Christians hiding in Hindu names leading this charade.

BJP in Tamil Nadu has failed to counter this false narrative and to project the economic failures of the local parties that for decades have destroyed the state through freebie culture. The educated masses who have dared open the mouth have been variously trolled, abused and threatened.

Today, we have a situation wherein the state will go unrepresented in the central government. The next state election will produce a DMK government; AIADMK will break ties with BJP to present a more favorable face to the public. The next government will continue the destruction of the state due to its confrontational attitude and non-cooperation with BJP government in its schemes. I fear the Tamils will feel alienated from the rest of the country and we will see the true right wing Dravidian movement.