PU campus tense after permission for left-leaning event denied

March 3, 2017

Tension prevailed on the Panjab University (PU) campus today as left-leaning Students For Society (SFS) activists staged a demonstration after they were denied permission by the authorities to organising a seminar.

SFS had proposed a seminar on the campus today which was to be addressed by human rights activist and journalist Seema Azad.

She, along with her husband, was arrested by the UP Police in 2010 after being charged with sedition for alleged Maoist links. They were later released on bail.

Even as Seema was not allowed for the event, police took SFS president Damanpreet Singh into preventive custody so as to maintain law and order on the campus.

However, SFS activists staged a protest outside the office of Vice Chancellor, demanding they should be allowed to hold the event which was to be addressed by Seema, party members Arshdeep Singh said, adding police should immediately release Damanpreet.

The SFS activists threatened to hold the event outside the office of the Vice Chancellor even as rival ABVP opposed.

Yesterday, activists of ABVP had staged a Tiranga Yatra on the campus against the SFS for allegedly including Naxalite extremists in the audience.

“We will not allow Seema to enter the university,” ABVP member Harmanjot Singh Gill said. “How can SFS dub Army as rapist,” he said?

SFS members said they expect support from the authorities of PU for peacefully conducting the seminar.

“When PU authorities allowed the ABVP to hold Tiranga Yatra yesterday, we expect them to cooperate with us too,” SFS member Harman said.

“It is surprising to see the name of Naxal leader Seema among the speakers in the seminar. The PU authorities have withdrawn the permission to SFS for the event,” university syndicate member Subhash Sharma said.

The stalemate over holding the seminar continued as SFS members were adamant to hold the event.

Earlier, security was beefed up at the university to avoid any untoward incident in view of the SFS proposed event.

Heavy police force has been deployed on the campus, officials said.

Earlier on February 27, the echo of the violence in Delhi’s Ramjas College was felt on campus of PU where activists of ABVP and rival Students For Society (SFS) clashed with each other.

The incident took place when the ABVP activists were staging a protest against certain ‘derogatory comments’ allegedly made by some SFS activists against the security forces.

(With inputs from PTI)

Watch documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan on ABVP’s history of violence

March 3, 2017

The activist-filmmaker was speaking at a protest in Mumbai.

Around 100 students from the Students’ Federation of India and All Indian Students’ Association protested outside Dadar Station in Mumbai against the actions of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidya Parishad at Delhi’s Ramjas College.

At the protest, documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan spoke about the history of the ABVP and offered a primer on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s student wing.

“The ABVP was born in the aftermath of Gandhi’s assassination,” Patwardhan began. “There was a ban on the RSS and to circumvent it, the organisation’s members formed other organisations, one of which was ABVP. And the work that we see today has been going on since then.”

The documentary filmmaker, who has made Ram Ke Naam, about the events surrounding the demolition of the Babri Masjid, and Jai Bhim Comrade, about the activist group Kabir Kala Manch, spoke about the harassment of Gurmehar Kaur after she protested against the group and also referred to an incident at FTII, Pune in 2013 when a group of ABVP members attacked students for not saying “Jai, Narendra Modi”.

He outlined the different between the ABVP of the past and the ABVP of today. “In those days, they would not carry out their activities openly,” Patwardhan said. “That was because people knew that the organisation was involved with Gandhi’s killing. But that has changed since they have come to power.”

This article was first published on Scroll.in

Hard Ways of Lucidity – Thinking About the Crisis in the University: Prasanta Chakravarty

March 3, 2017

As I see it, university spaces are being assaulted at least from two sides; though it seems as if the two sides are antagonistic to each other, in practice they come dangerously close to each other. How and why is this happening, and what can be done about it?

Prasanta Chakravarty, immediately after being assaulted on February 22nd. Image from the India Today Website.

The university is being seen as running on a different discourse and agenda, outside of the one that is necessary for a new cycle of nation building to take effect. This is happening because universities now have a chance to make a difference in the way our known world will be defined or undefined in future. Under these circumstances, universities can go back and celebrate themselves as safe havens. Or one may see this space as a continuum with the rest of our public life where the social must erupt from time to time.

The great project of revenge, being undertaken by the populist mass is apparent, whose emotional anger at not being able to be part of good life is vented through a great backlash against those who are able to reap the benefits of economic reform and globalization. But it is not just the revenge of the have-nots whom the far Right has been able to successfully mobilize right now. The role and the status of the mobilizers are also to be marked: these are deeply rational and smart people, ruthless technocrats who want to reap the benefits of extreme rationalization in the work space. But simultaneously these same people revel in a deeply prejudiced and regressive private sphere. This double life was always an aspect of modernity. It is only that the prejudice unleashed within the private sphere has now reached pathological proportions. This class of people, comprised of those who wish to peddle a technocratic rational economic view in our public sphere are at once worried and attracted by the great unwashed masses. The common ground is of course that the business-technocrats are culturally and socially irrational and regressive too since the education that they received had been illiberal. They hope that this cultural commonality with the masses might save the day. Many of us are not so sure that such a glaring contradiction will run its full course.

One thing is certain: that these tendencies are clear signs worldwide against the very critical nature by which reason looked at certain auretic tendencies in the last three centuries. And along with peddling these universal European norms (or even the indigenous argumentative tradition) such discourses have helped question not only our deep rooted cultural assumptions but also certain fundamental auretic tendencies: say, devotion to one’s nation, religion or community. And in personal relationships, it helped foster a discursive climate, by keeping at bay ‘loyalty’ to one’s blood or to one’s sensual/emotional faculties. At the deepest level these values stopped us just short of surrendering ourselves completely to our lovers, mothers or children—and yet we could be deeply in love in such relationships. It showed us that our deepest forms of attachment could also be critical. This porosity between reason and unreason is being now challenged. There is again a renewed bout of dissociation of sensibility.

This has happened from both sides. The passionate masses are always highly charged and prone to romanticism and to the unleashing of its fervour. The detached enlightenment scholar, lawyer, and essayist tended to curb this tendency by placing these under the rubric of the private sphere. But consequently something happened within the so-called enlightened minds too. They were left only with ideas at the great cost of the sensory and the sensual. Those who constantly argued in favour of materiality, themselves became empty and abstract creatures. So, the dissociation of sensibility has happened from the side of rationality too—since the great faculties of reason have been deployed often in order to mercilessly and righteously judge a large swathe of humanity. The gradual detachment of our best minds from the faculties of wonder and awe and the senses has much to do with this backlash that we now see. The lock-gates have been opened and the price that the great irrational forces are asking now from the critical brigade is the wholesale recantations of enlightenment values—lock, stock and barrel.

But does merely summoning the ephemera of the senses do the trick? Does a mere internalization of the ‘good irrationality’ reconnect us with the everyday and to our times? Not the least. Instead we have to rethink how to reorder the university space itself which is concrete and historical. And that can happen if we can relate our sense of wonder with a constant, practical critique of the university and its location. This is how one forces the truth of the event.

How is the nice person in each one of us reacting to all of these developments? Not acting. But reacting.

The well meaning liberal will continue to be concerned about irrationality in public life and yet be compromised in this whole warfare for two simple reasons. One, the nice, suave and tolerant person has lost complete touch with ground realities, and with the emotional quotient of people who are passionate and more directly connected to life and life’s joys and horrors. We are unable to take the side of passion and sensuality because we flinch from taking head on the many intensities of life. And hence we have no clue about ways of mounting battle against technocratic forms of irrationality in the first place. Unfortunately, the Right wing is forcing us to face that side of life with full virulence. But temperamentally liberals will be unable to do much and must capitulate after a point. We must remain plumed quetzals. Our sympathetic and grounded friends would love us for our generosity, humility and good sense. But at heart they will know how far removed we are from the real. These very laudable attributes are the greatest chinks in our armour. Hence, we have no other way but to participate in the politics of petition and consider that as solidarity.

There is another significant issue. Far too many liberals are intricately involved in the project of good life. Good life in academia, good life in literary festivals, good life in globetrotting, good life in clubs and sanatoriums, good life in echo-chambers. It is for this reason that we are seeing our public intellectuals and scholars in cahoots with the new shining malls that are also known as private places of education. Our scholars give these spaces legitimacy lest they turn irrelevant and the good life evades them. I am very much a part of such a group of people in many of these ways. Howsoever argumentatively I might teach Grundrisse or The Buddha and His Dharma, I remain beholden to Immanuel Kant’s idea of cautious Enlightenment. There is no other way out but to look at myself in the mirror. But I sometimes wonder whether others, those who risk life and career, seek paltry things from life when they at once confront the ugly and the joyous? Do others lionize suffering and struggle for the heck of highlighting such aspects? My being brought up in a certain way, the books I read, the films I watch, the friends I meet and the places I travel are very much part of the world view that I have just described. I am totally and completely cut off from my country and countrymen. But that cannot give rise to any politics of melancholy and mourning. Self reflection must lead to new action, fresh resolve. Silently and over a period of time.

It is impossible to blame ourselves for what has befallen us. Factionalism is a scourge. And yet far too many of us are undecided about taking a position. So we waver and try to balance within the livery of neutrality. We must continue to talk about a coming coalition in order to take the might of the worldwide resurgence of the Right. It is a popular movement and as such is deeply powerful. It might not vanish overnight.

But solidarity: this word is voided of all meaning if it comes to stand for periodic empathy for a likeminded soul who is the latest victim in the populist-technocratic deluge in which the world is inundated at this point of time. Many things are to be thought afresh, thought beyond events and petitions. Disciplines, wholesale, must create new ways of imagining themselves. For the available tools of thought and passion are being repeatedly found wanting and moribund. The critics of critique are not sitting silently either. So, we must start afresh. Universities are not isolated havens. They never were. And they ought not to be just silos. We want our students to be deeply passionate about life and yet be considered and matter of fact enough so that they are able to tackle the many hits that life is bound to buffet them with. Skirting issues is never an option.

It is a slow and painstaking process by which sanity can be again made lucid and insanity again turned poetic instead of being fanatical.

[ Prasanta is back home from hospital, recovering, singing about what it means to dance on a snake’s head. This video is taken from his Facebook page]

Prasanta Chakravarty edits humanitiesunderground.org and teaches in the English Department of Delhi University. He was seriously injured by ABVP activists who attacked the students and teachers protesting on 22nd February, 2017 against the ABVP’s disruption of a seminar organized by the Literary Society of Ramjas College, Delhi University on the 21st of February.

Courtesy: kafila.online

Equality and tradition clash as Naga women in India’s northeast fight for political representation

March 3, 2017

A woman from Khonoma village, Nagaland. Can women from ‘Naga’ tribes access to equal political rights ? Adnan Abidi/Reuters

Around the world, tradition often opposes equality. But when it comes to the question of gender equality, such situations can become volatile. That’s what happened in India’s Nagaland this February, when protests relating to women’s political participation killed two people. The conflict has also led the government of this eastern federal state to play a game of political musical chairs.

Nagaland is one of the eight North-Eastern States of India. Planemab/Wikimedia, CC BY

Nagaland, one of the eight northeastern Indian states, is mainly composed by ‘Naga tribes’ – a term coined by British anthropologists but which refers to various indigenous populations – who inhabited a large territory there before India’s independence. There are at present 17 Naga tribes in Nagaland, with distinct languages and customs.

The political violence erupted prior to municipal elections, when women’s organisations, under the leadership of the Naga Mother’s Association (NMA), demanded the application of Indian law 243(T) of India’s Constitution, which states that 33% of seats should be reserved for women within local political bodies.

Their demand was vehemently rejected, and male politicians invoked “tribal traditions” as their main argument. The conflict spurred deadly street protests in which mobs attacked offices, and shops were destroyed in the main cities.

Safe and bright but not equal

This situation contradicts a popular perception of gender equality in the Naga society. Naga women are often depicted as educated, hardworking and independent, and are admired for their enterprising spirit.

Nagaland and Naga society have also been praised for ensuring women’s safety. As India has been singled out for a huge number of reported rapes and crimes against women, such crimes occur at low rates in Nagaland.

But safety does not translate to equality. Naga society is also deeply patriarchal, and it is believed that women must be respected and their security cannot be compromised – especially by men.

But the traditional law of the Naga society clearly distinguishes gender roles and gendered responsibilities. For instance, women are in charge of domestic issues, such as family and its related issues, while man deals with society, including village administration and councils.

A woman prepares feed for her pigs in Nagaland, 2009. CC BY-SA

Women have therefore been excluded from the political realm. They are not allowed in the traditional village councils that oversee village management, and from “village development boards”, smaller local institutions that regulate economic projects.

Most villages in Nagaland have reserved 25% of village development boards seats for women, but that quota exists on paper only. In reality, traditional norms prevail. In its history, Nagaland has had only one woman representative as Member of Legislative Assembly (State Assembly) – in the 1970s.

A historical fight to be included in politics

Men have dominated the political space since the beginning of the 20th century, when the troubled history between Nagaland and India began.

Local consciousness of a distinct social identity emerged as part of a patriarchal discourse after the ‘Naga Club’ was formed in 1918. Young boys from different Naga tribes met in different educational institutions and hostels, and they together constructed a common “Naga” identity.

Women were largely absent during the rise of Naga nationalist movements, as, per the traditional fabrics of Naga society, any issues of social or political importance are the domain of men.

Zeliang Naga, rehearsing in traditional warrior dresses for a touristic festival. Vikramjit Kakati/Wikimedia, CC BY-NC

In response, organisations such as the NMA have arisen. Women were the first victims of the violent crisis (1952-1970) that emerged from the conflict between the Nagaland insurgency and India.

Indeed, the NMA also played a major role in the negotiations – the latest leading to a 2015 ceasefire – but were conveniently excluded from the negotiating table with the Indian States. It, apparently, was a “dialogue of men”.

The activism of groups such as the NMA has encouraged women to join pressure groups to defend their rights. However, the glass ceiling limiting their participation in politics and ability to own land remained untouched.

Women saw some hope in 2006, as the Nagaland Municipal (First Amendment) Act granted “33% reservations to Naga women in local bodies”, according to the Eastern Mirror. Since then, the NMA and others have been fighting to implement the law. Their efforts paid off when, last year, the Indian Supreme Court granted their petition.

The February 2017 elections could have changed history for Naga women.

An infringement on tribal customary law

Instead, confronted with violent civil unrest, the present Naga’s People Front (NPF) government had to defer the elections. The strong opposition came from traditional tribal bodies, including the Naga Hoho groups (an apex body of 16 Naga tribal groups) and a higher authority, the Naga Council Dimapur (which is accepted as a indigenous and customary body, representing all the Naga tribes).

These groups assert that granting women seats in local bodies would not only dilute the traditions of Naga society but also be “unconstitutional”. They refer to the Article 371(A) of India’s Constitution which says that “no Act of Parliament” should apply to the State of Nagaland when regarding religious, political, social or law practices of the Nagas.

The argument of infringement by the Centre Government in Delhi on tribal customary law is not new, and it is particularly sensitive in Nagaland, which became the 16th state of the Indian Union on December, 1 1963, after years of defiance and conflict with the Indian Republic.

Behind the gender issue, the bigger picture

It also resonates with the physical presence of the Indian army for years and the use of special powers to armed forces on Naga land. The people of Nagaland have no choice but to accept it due to geostrategic location of the state in relation to countries such as Myanmar.

Oren Mozhui, a pop-singer from Nagaland has released a single in tribute to ‘Naga heroes’

Tribal political bodies perceive both the February elections, which were pushed by a government allied to the central government, and the municipal institution itself as possible interference with tribal customary law. That is why, under pressure, over 150 candidates out of 535 have withdrawn their nominations.

The events surrounding have snowballed to create a volatile situation where traditions, modernity and gender equality are at the crossroads. Some fear the electoral situation will lead to more impositions by India’s central government, which the Naga see as arrogant and dangerous.

Already, under pressure from local groups, several Naga women groups have severed ties with their lead women’s organisation pushing for the 33% quota, the Naga Mothers Association. Whether the authorities go ahead with the gender reservation or not, Naga women may now find themselves in a lose-lose situation.

Lianboi Vaiphei, Assistant Professor, University of Delhi

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Video: Indian-origin girl racially abused on train in New York

March 3, 2017

Ekta Desai, who stays in New York, posted a video on her Facebook profile that shows a man hurling racial slurs at her and another Asian woman on a train.

An Indian-origin girl was racially abused by a stranger in a New York train while she was on way to work. A video of the incident is now going viral on social media.

Ekta Desai, who stays in New York, posted a video on her Facebook profile that shows a man hurling racial slurs at her and another Asian woman on a train.

The video is now going viral on the social media.

"So this is something that happened while I was on my way from work today!! This man was on the same PATH train as me along with 100 other passengers, I had my headphones on and was like any other day. Next thing I know he is yelling on my face (Did not bother to listen/react). Knowing it's pointless I step away, next target alongside an Asian lady!" Desai wrote.

"Asian piece of s*** to I will F*** you all right here to get your F***ing ^$$es back to your country etc etc etc" (putting it in the best words here) he went on relentlessly!" Desai said in Facebook post.

When Desai threatened to inform the police, the man repeatedly shouted at her to stop shooting his video and was quoted as saying that he did not touch anybody.

"I did not touch anybody. I just expressed what I feel. Freedom of speech," the man was heard saying in the video.

"Not sure the cops found him or even took any action, though they showed up 15 mins after all this drama and he walked away with his friends!" she added.

The video was posted on Facebook on February 22 and within six days it got more than 49,000 views. It is being widely discussed after Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla was shot dead in Kansas in an apparent hate crime.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday denounced the killing of Kuchibhotla saying the country "stands united in condemning hate and evil".

Courtesy: The News Minute

Curfew in Lakhimpur after violence over objectionable video

March 3, 2017

Curfew has been imposed in Lakhimpur city following clashes over an objectionable video which was allegedly circulated by two students.

The curfew was imposed last night. Tension had gripped the city after the video which allegedly hurt religious sentiments went viral on social media.

The city police arrested the two students who had allegedly circulated the video.

However, protests began last evening and the markets were also closed. There were reports of clashes and firing following which the distict magistrate announced the imposition of curfew till further orders.

“To maintain peace and law and order, curfew restrictions in the city area have been imposed and people have been asked to stay home,” District Magistrate (Kheri) Akashdeep told reporters today.

Stressing that the situation was under control, he asked people to avoid spreading rumours.

The district magistrate and Superintendent of Police Manoj Kumar Jha visited the city and asked people to keep calm.

Akashdeep said a person has been reported to have been injured in a clash, however, he is reported to be out of danger.

Meanwhile, heavy police force have been deployed in the city. The IG and the DIG arrived at Kheri late last night and reviewed the situation.

Watch here for our latest video update by Rifat Jawaid, editor in chief, Janta ka Reporter.

(With inputs from PTI)

Courtesy: Janta Ka Reporter

A Fan’s Open Letter to Sehwag

March 3, 2017

Veeru, what suits the ABVP, does that suit you?

Sehwag Trolling Gurmehar Kaur

When I think of my growing up years, one memory that flashes in my mind is that of watching you rule the cricket ground. My generation did not get to see Bradman. Neither did we see Sobers or Gavaskar. We missed out on witnessing India become the world champion in ‘83. But we’ve seen Sachin. We’ve seen our very own Dada. And we’ve seen you. We’ve seen how greatest of the bowlers used to become clueless about where to bowl the next ball, when you were at the crease. At a casual stroke of your bat, even the deadliest yorker used to fly into the stands. These are the images my entire generation grew up watching.

During your playing days, your critics often said that Virender Sehwag epitomizes thoughtless aggression. But we, the Sehwag fans, used to fight back. After all, who scored the first triple century for India? It is neither Gavaskar nor Sachin. It is not even Mr. Dependable, Rahul Dravid. It was you. That too, not once but twice. Even a third time almost came: you fell short by just seven runs.

But a few days back, when you posted your picture holding a poster that read, “I didn’t score two triple centuries, my bat did,” even a staunch Sehwag fan like me thought it was really a poor shot-selection from my favorite batsman.

Clearly, your dig was aimed at. Gurmehar Kaur, a young student of the Delhi University, who had earlier posted a similar placard that read “Pakistan did not kill my dad. War killed him.” Now, one cannot expect this statement to go down well with everyone, particularly with the BJP-RSS clan, who are known to feed on the cuts earned from the coffins of martyred soldiers in Kargill. As one would expect, they immediately resorted to attacking the young lady. But Veeru, what suits the ABVP, does not suit you. Do you realize that with this one tweet, you have unwittingly joined the troll-army of those self-proclaimed patriots, who have stooped to the level of giving rape threats to the young lady?

Gurmehar had lost her father at Kargil War, when she was a baby. While we were celebrating our victory that came at the border, she witnessed her father’s body being carried in a coffin. Like your triple centuries, the war victory also made us proud. But the loss of her father taught Gurmehar the real cost of war. So today as we escalate our state sponsored, media pampered jingoistic nationalism, perhaps Gurmehar remembers her father.

Veeru, you may know that during the World War I, conscription i.e. compulsory war service was introduced in Britain. Thousands of college and university students had to give up their books, bid farewell to their loved ones, and go to war. Perhaps to not return ever again. That day, inside the army trenches, with their fingers on the rifle-triggers, poets like Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon were born. They wrote poetry about the loss of lives, and wastage of human resources caused by futile wars. History remembers them as War Poets. Their dispatches from the battlefield taught the following generations the hollowness in the celebration of warfare. Only the people fighting real battles understand its real cost. The young men at the battlefield that day realized that from either sides of the battle-line, the barrel of every gun targets a regular human being, who had also wanted to live and celebrate life. Just the way the pitch at the Multan Cricket Stadium had taught you that Shoaib Akhtar and Saqlain Mushtaq are your opponents, not enemies.

Veeru, you’ve also fought for your country like a soldier. But your battle was different from the one that took away Gurmehar’s father. Do you remember the day when you first got the call to fight? Celebrations must have swept your family. Perhaps happiness and pride for her son did not let your mother sleep that night. But do you realize when the battlefield calls out for Gurmehar’s father, and thousands others like him, their families also spend sleepless nights. Out of anxiety. When victory came from your bat, you were awarded man-of-the-match. But what if you lost? Honestly, did that make much difference?

Even when you lost, match-fee of a few lakh rupees used to reach your bank account. On scoring a century, thousands of autograph books chased you. But even when you were bowled out for a duck, fans used to cheer for you in the next match. At this point, does the other war look similar to the ones you fought?

Gurmehar’s father – his team, our team, won in Kargil. Still he could not return to his family. In whichever side of the border the victory comes, after the last cannon is fired, mothers will lose their children, wives will lose their husbands and the Gurmehars’ will lose their fathers in every battle-field.

How many of these martyrs do their countrymen remember? Veerupaji, we love cricket. We remember your triple centuries. But you seem to love war. So tell me honestly, did you even know the name of Martyr Captain Mandeep Singh, who died defending our border at Kargil, till her daughter took a stand against ABVP? And why blame only you? Did any of us remember? We didn’t. We don’t. Only the Gurmehars cannot forget their fathers.

Veeru, was it really necessary to mock the lady instead of sharing her grief? Couldn’t you even try to understand why she hates war? Do you realize how much strength and courage does it take for a 20-year old to point out what killed her father instead of dwelling on who killed him?

At Melbourne, while batting at 195, you once attempted a six; the ball went for a catch. But it wasn’t world-records or double centuries, rather this daring attitude that made you our hero.

However in the game of life, trying to hit a six at every ball is not a good idea! Many of your tweets stand out for their wit. Your strokes are as fluent in Twitter, as they used to be on the field. But this one shot really disappointed many of us. A young student is fighting her own battle with her head held high. If you can’t support her, don’t. But do you really need to taunt her so crudely? Break her heart? This certainly doesn’t suit our Sultan of Multan.

Please, take back that tweet. Gurmehar, along with many like her across the globe, are fighting to end every war in this planet. Stand by them. Every time seeing you walk into the crease gave us hope. This time please bat for humanity.

Courtesy: Newsclick.in

Facing a Sullen Electorate, Modi’s BJP Splashes Money and Muscle, in Purvanchal

March 3, 2017

Varanasi, Kashi, spiritual fountainhead as also a hub of business and trade will vote on March 8. Jittery with a sullen electorate Modi has despatched 75 percent of the Government of India's cabinet ministers to somehow snatch victory from the jaws of possible defeat. There are eight assembly seats with Modi's Parliamentary constituency, three urban and five rural.

Image: India Today

In 2014, this city that also symbolises India's unique synthesis of different faiths had gifted Modi a historic win with a landslide margin. Today with eight assembly seats within the vast parliamentary segment, Modi's party the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) faces the possibility of a rout. At best, due to the division in the 'secular' vote, the BJP may sneak in winning two of the eight seats. But in no part of this city that is the hub of trade, commerce and business apart from being a spiritual centre to millions, do voters have any good things to say for Modi or the BJP.

There is more than a niggling feeling of betrayal as the city, whose MP is the Prime Minister of 2017 India, grapples with potholed roads, chaotic traffic, collapsing sewerage and mountains of garbage. Given to irrational hyperbole, Modi had sworn to transform Varanasi into Japan’s ancient city of Kyoto. Today high pollution and dust and a crippled informal cash economy thanks to the disastrous move towards demonetisation, threaten to seriously dent Modi's electoral appeal, come counting day.
It is among the BJP's own supporters, the trading and business classes that there is a seething undercurrent of restlessness and anger. One way or another, this segment will make it's displeasure felt. Traders feel doubly cheated after 30,000odd traders received income-tax notices regarding their bank deposits since November 8. A leading trader who has never hitherto strayed away from the saffron fold maintains that rage has grown and firmed into a consensus that the BJP must be punished for turning on its core constituency in such a savage manner.

A close look at the three urban dominated seats within Varanasi is telling. All three have a significant and pre-ponderance of Muslim Votes. In 2012, the prestigious city's Cantonent seat saw a tussle between two heavyweights from the powerful Kayastha caste, Jyotsana Srivastava (BJP) who polled 57,918 votes and Anil Srivastava (INC) who polled 45066 votes with the former winning with a 12,852 vote margin. SP's Ashfaq Ahmad (alias Dablu) was the spoiler leeching away 37,922 votes and Chandra Kumar Mishra (alias Guddu Maharaj) of the BSP also getting 22162 votes. Clearly it was only the 'secular spoilers' that ensured a BJP win here.

In 2017, again Anil Srivastava fights to wrench victory. BJP has chosen to give the ticket to Jyotsana Sivastava's son, even as in nearby Dakshini (Varanasi south) many times elected Shyam Dada Choudhary was not only humiliated by the Modi-Shah combine but his son was not accomodated either. Anil Srivastava of the Congress faces yet again a 'secular spolier' in the face of Rizwan Ahmad of the BSP, otherwise a newcomer. It is only if Muslims drift towards him that Srivastava's win could prove tricky.

Coming to Varanasi south, a grand, Bihar like alliance that contained division of Muslim votes would have surely meant a BJP defeat. Here too Modi-Shah's preferred candidate, a Brahmin, Neelkanth Tiwari is weak with dubious links. The SP-Congress alliance has fielded a former MP, Rajesh Mishra who is facing a stiff challenge from a robust newcomer from the BSP, Rakesh Tripathi. Tripathi brings a solid Dalit-Dhobhi-Malha vote base to the table and working as he has been for the past six months has also been able to garner much of the anger against the BJP. (In 2012, BJP's veteran Shyamdev Roy Chaudhari (Dada) had polled 57,868 votes while Dayashankar (Dayalu) Mishra had won 44046 when he contested the seat for the INC. Two Muslim candidates, Athar Jamal Lari for the QED (Quami Ekta Dal) and Mohammad Istaqbal for the SP had won 20,454 and 14642 votes respectively.

That leaves, Uttari, ie the Varanasi North seat. Here is 2012 Ravindra Jaiswal had beaten BSP's Sujit Kumar Maurya by a narrow margin of 2336 votes. Then too, two Muslim candidates, Abdul Samad (SP) had drawn 37,434 votes whle another Rabia Kalam from the INC had polled 31,029 votes. Today, Maurya is in the reckoning again, likely to win if he can attract even a miniscule percentage of the Muslim vote. The other contender is Samad Ansari, who threatens again to split the vote.

As far as the five rural seats within Varanasi are concerned, Ajgara,Shivpur, Rohaniya, Sevapuri and Pindra, there are fairly high chances that none of these five will go to the BJP. In three at least, Ajgara and Shivpur the BSP candidate is strong while in Pindra Ajay Rai of the Congress is on a winning wicket.

A total of 14.05 crores of voters will have cast their vote and this crucial election will determine or assess how much the popularity of Narendra Modi, India's prime minister still holds. An autocratic and shrill campaigner, Modi is used to his larger than life image being sustained by frenzied crowds. These have been missing during the UP election campaign that began in the western end of the state and moved to the east where the last two phases are now due.

Six months after Modi swept to power in Delhi in May 2014, he and his party faced the first humiliating defeat during the state assembly elections to the state capital, New Delhi in February 2015. Of the 70 seats to the assembly, the BJP won only three, with the new and radical Aam Aadmi Party sweeping to power humiliating the older Indian political party, the Indian National Congress. Then again in November 2015, Bihar, another politically crucial state defeated Modi's designs of complete and autocratic control of both houses of the Indian Parliament by unequivocally voting for a Grand Alliance against the BJP.

As the penultimate rounds of the state's elections draw near, money and muscle power are being used by the BJP to turn the tide in his favour. Local newspapers have sarcastically commented on the fact that 75 per cent of the Government of India's cabinet is presently camping in the holy city of Varanasi to somehow ensure that Modi is not humiliated in his own backyard.

Poor performance and pathetic levels of accountability have marked Modi's band of parliamentarians voted to power in 2014. Despite winning the UP 2014 elections on the 'development plank', BJP's members of parliament failed to spend the mandatory government funds —a whopping Rs 333.6 crores earmarked to better facilities, education, health etc in their own constituencies. Modi's party had won 73 o the 80 seats to the Lower House of the Indian Parliament, the Lok Sabha. Within this overall failure to deliver, the party and it's representatives were especially tardy in those 33 Lok Sabha seats that have both Dalits and Muslims in sizeable number. (While Rs 71 crore remained unspent in 17 Dalit-dominated constituencies, over Rs 64 crore could not be spent in 16 other constituencies where Muslims account for more than 20 percent of the population).

Brazen about this non-performance, the BJP is still ahead, beating all political parties in splashing ads on TV, radio and print; spends over Rs 150 cr in Goa, Punjab, and UP. Quoting data from AdEx India, a division of TAM Media Research, The Economic Times reports that the BJP’s share in the overall ad insertions across the three mediums was as high as 59% in the three states between November last year till February 4, 2017. The saffron party has reportedly spent more than Rs 150 crore on advertising during state elections. Interestingly, the next three parties — Samajwadi Party (SP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Congress — put together did not spend half of BJP’s advertising share. SP’s share was at 13%, BSP’s at 12%, and Congress’ entire political campaign saw ad insertions of close to 4%.A total of 27,133 ads were aired on TV channels, while 11,722 ad spots were played on radio and 2,797 ads inserted in the print media in the month of January this year.

Before that, November saw some action with 5,754 ads insertion across TV channels, 3,212 across radio and 1,092 across print. In December, political advertising also dipped after demonetisation.

When it comes to individual states, BJP’s advertising share in Uttar Pradesh was at 69%, followed by SP’s 17%, BSP’s 12% while Lokdal and Congress at 1% each.

Will money and muscle penetrate through the fog of despair and disappointment that dominates the voter's mood in Varanasi? A week from today we will have the answers.

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